The Perfect Cup of Coffee

This blog title would be wholly misleading unless I wrote something on coffee.

Sundays are typically my favorite day of the week for several reasons. It is the Lord's day, so it's good to begin with the Holy Mass and then catch up on some much needed prayer and spiritual reading. Also, because it is the Lord's day, I get to take a break from work (and who says that God is not good?). There's always some kind of good intellectual reading I can do, which has been good ever since I've graduated because I enjoy intellectual stimulation. I'm also able to indulge in my love for classical music while I read. 

But although each of these things are important to a peaceful Sunday, I might venture to say that aside from Mass and prayer/rest, the most important part of the day is the first cup of coffee. Coffee can mean alot of things to different people, but for me, it's very special and probably something I will address in another blog post. For now, I would like to share my experience and thoughts on how to make a perfect cup of coffee.

First thing I should say about coffee is that I am describing homemade coffee. Those who know me (and those who don't find out anyway) know that I am not a big coffeehouse guy. And the more commercial the coffeehouse is (i.e. Starbucks; I'm just going to make no bones about it here), the more I dislike it. I don't believe that all coffeehouse coffee is rubbish, but in my opinion, nothing beats a good homemade pot of coffee. So I'm not referring to your cafe dolce latte with double shots of espresso, low fat cream, and a little cherry on top; I'm talking about coffee as the every-man's beverage.

What's Bad for Coffee

Among the things that are bad for coffee include exposure to extreme temperatures (hot or cold), moisture, air (particularly the oxygen in the air), and light. As a result, the key to brewing the perfect cup of coffee is to avoid these things. Don't store your coffee in the freezer or in a sauna. Also, don't remove it from its original darkened, opaque container only to put it in a clear glass jar, simply because it brings culture to your kitchen (I guess you could do that, just don't think you're ever going to serve it to guests). 

Beans vs. Grounds

There are pros and cons to both. My preference has practically always been beans, whenever I can get them. The primary reason is because coffee stays fresher, longer as a bean as opposed to a being in ground form. This is because as a bean, the coffee has less exposed surface area than grounds do. If a coffee bean has approximately 1 cm squared surface area and a ground coffee bean, depending on the fineness of the grind, has a surface area of 157 cm squared, that's an increased surface area of nearly 15,000%(!) So why do we care about surface area? An increased surface area means that the points of contact for the elements listed in the previous section also increases (more surface area means more contact with oxygen, for example). Also, depending on how long you grind your beans for, you get to control how fine the ground is, per your preferences. 

However, the cons to using beans include waking roommates up when you grind your coffee (because it is noisy). In addition, you have to get a grinder, which can be relatively cheap, but it's just another "thing" you need to have for this, so it might not be convenient. As far as price difference goes, I'm not 100% sure what the comparison is. I get the feeling (step back) that you get more grounds for your money than you get beans. But that might just be me.

Brand

The best kind of coffee is foreign coffee. I've had Brazilian coffee, Venezuelan coffee, and Hawaiian coffee. My favorite was definitely Brazilian because of the fine ground and the sweet taste (yes, fresh coffee actually tastes a little sweet; it's stale/burnt coffee that tastes bitter). With that being said, truly foreign coffee is incredibly difficult to get/is very expensive. If you do get it, I recommend getting it as whole beans and save it for special occasions such as Christmas or Easter morning or whenever you have company over. As previously stated, the beans will stay fresh longer and that's what you need for good coffee that you'll only have on occasion.

Aside from the rare treat of foreign coffee, my favorite coffee brand is Stewarts. Based in Chicago, they take beans from around the world and create blends of grounds/beans for a smooth and wholesome cup of coffee. This coffee is not bitter in the slightest, which is one of my favorite qualities about it. I've only ever seen grounds in stores, but I know they sell whole beans from their website, so unless you want to order online, you're kinda stuck with grounds. My second favorite thing about Stewarts is that it is one of the only cups of coffee I've had that taste great when it's cold. To me, that's the ultimate test of a good coffee. With most coffees, alot of the flavor is passed over when you're trying to keep a hot cup from scalding the inside of your mouth. But when the cup cools, it tastes awful. Stewarts, however, actually tastes pleasant and still very smooth when cold, allowing you to finish that cup instead of throwing it out and refilling your cup with more hot coffee. 

For St. Louise-ans, I recommend Thomas. It shares all the major good qualities of Stewarts (namely the smoothness and the retainment of taste when room-temp) and it's a local business in St. Louis. Also, it does come locally in bean form. The only draw-back to these two brands is that they are fairly expensive. If you're short on cash, the standard Maxwell House or Folgers will do the trick for reasons explained in the next paragraph.

Water

If I'm honest, your pot of coffee is really only as good as your water you make it with. All talk about brands aside (that comes down to personal preference, anyway), it's objectively true that you're not going to have a good pot of coffee if you're using bad water. Luckily for me, St. Louis has the best-tasting tap water of any major city in the country. However, I know for alot of places (especially South Bend, IN), the local water is terrible. Icky water is bad for two reasons. First, it makes your coffee taste bad. Second, depending on what's in your water, it can destroy your coffee maker by causing buildups in the piping. As the coffee maker pumps the water from the reservoir into the filtering basket, it heats it up and some of the water evaporates, becoming steam. The minerals dissolved in the water, however, do not all evaporate and instead build up in the plumbing of the coffee maker. Unfortunately, the only way to get rid of this build up is to either run vinegar through your coffee maker (a smelly and time-consuming process) or throw the coffee maker out entirely and purchase a new one.

If you have poor water quality, you can either purchase bottled water in gallon jugs or use a water purifier. Having used both, I believe that a water purifier is more convenient and possibly cheaper in the long run. Instead of storing gallon-sized jugs around your house or dorm room, you just store small filters for the water-purifier. Or if you'd like to get a water purifier for your sink tap (a bit more expensive), that works also.

Brewing

From my experience, it doesn't really matter what quality of maker you use. I've only ever gotten the $20, simple-function coffee makers, so I may be wrong. But those have always suited my needs just fine. Other than that, there's really not much to say about brewing. Just make sure you don't leave the maker on for too long, otherwise it'll burn the coffee, especially when there's not much left in the pot. If you're concerned about burnage, after the coffee is finished brewing, you can position the coffee pot slightly askew to limit the amount of contact between the pot and the heating element (see pictured). This'll keep the coffee warm, but eliminate burning.

Conclusion

Anyone can have a good homemade cup of coffee and for an economical price too. Don't pay an arm and a leg and your first-born child for a caffe latte dulco macchiato over-priceo sugarwater-o americano at Starbucks (and please don't pay a dime for their "freshly-brewed coffee"). Make it yourself!