the perfect brew

[ace85driver]

Hello,

I'm brand spakin new and very glad I found this site. I love the taste, feel, smell, and body of rich coffee. I have been all over the world and the first thing I think of when stepping off an aircraft is having the local blend. I'm disappointed with American coffee and have yet to tast a blend that even come close to a random cup of joe I could buy in SA, but that's a whole other story.
The reason for my post is I am having a problem brewing a good cup of coffee. I have a conventional coffee maker, Faberware FSCM100 (nothing special.) I can't seem to get a good brew, it just doens't taste strong enough no matter how many spoons of coffee I add. The machine is clean but it does use one of those re-useable strainers. I like my coffee dark/rich but I can't seem to recreate a semi-Caribou dark roast at home.........any suggestions?

 

[ace85driver]

affirmative. I am grinding my own beans.

 

[cawi]

roast your own!

Try roasting your own coffee. You will have much more control of the taste, quality and freshness of your coffee bean.Just as grinding your own beans brings out more flavor, so does roasting. If you are looking for the perfect cup, start roasting your own!

 

[mrgnomer]

Have you tried a french press brewer? They're not expensive and it'll allow you to have direct control over all the variables that produce a great cup of coffee.

Most drip machines don't get hot enough nor saturate coffee grounds thoroughly for a good extraction.

With a good quality burr grinder, fresh beans and direct control of the brewing process you can make coffee the way you like it. With a french press, the ideal brew temp is just below the boiling point of water. Let your water come to a boil in the kettle, remove the kettle from heat source, count about 25sec and the water temp will have fallen by then an ideal range to pour over grounds.

With the french press, grind a little coarser than drip if you don't want a lot of sludge and if you're making a good quantity of coffee.

Measure out for your taste and pour water at brewing temp over the grounds. Stir the slurry (use a plastic spoon if you're container is made of glass) to encourage even saturation of the grounds. Place filter assembly into container but don't press down. Allow the coffee to steep for a period of time, 3 minutes is to most peoples taste and at the end of 3 minutes plunge the filter slowly down. Pour and enjoy.

You can brew very strong and add heated water later to dilute for taste. This will not affect the quality of the coffee.

With fresh beans and a good even grind the french press brew makes a great coffee.

The longer you steep or the finer the grinds the stronger the taste. Watch out with grinding too fine when making a large quantity of coffee- you could clog up the filter and be unable to press the filter down at all or with great effort past a certain point.

I do believe the key to good coffee is fresh grounds, proper brewing temp, even grind and a good steep. This should produce a very good tasting, evenly extracted coffee.