The secret of good coffee

Some basic rules:

• Use good coffee, for example from any local roaster(in this case Berlin).
• Use the right coffee for your purpuse, e.g. use espresso roast for espresso and the likes (caffe latte, latte macchiato,etc.).
• Use good water. If your tap water is too hard or tastes bad, filter it or get good water from a store.
• Use your coffee only once (that is not as a matter of course).
• Store only the beans, ground coffee will loose his aroma very fast
• Store the beans in a closed,non-transparent metal box. Do not put them in a freezer, the moisture when warming up again harms the beans

Espresso

Espresso or caffe espresso is a concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing very hot, but not boiling, water under high pressure through coffee that has been ground to a consistency that is between extremely fine and powder. (from Wikipedia)

This strong (meaning high concentration, much coffee in less water) coffee is not only consumed as it is but serves also as the basis for many coffee variants such as caffe latte, latte macchiato, cappucino.

Consider:

• Store only coffee beans, grind them yourself before preparing the coffee.
• You need an espresso machine for espresso, either a big "industry strengh"-one you can see at your local italian restaurant, or just a small one for manual operation for about 50 bucks. Both work if the steam pressure is high enough.
• Clean your espresso machine on a regular basis. Lime will impair the taste of the coffee.
• Use a fine freeness. Best compare to a sample from a coffee store (e.g. 19 grams Berlin)
• For a double espresso you need about 14 gramm of coffee and only 60 mililiters of water. Do not use more water, the coffee gets only bitterer and contains more caffeine but not more aroma.

"Normal" coffee

Notice: Do not use paper filters. Paper filters do not only filter out the ground coffee but also the oils and greases. They make up an important part of a good coffee (the so called "crema" consists of these oils).

Again, buy and store the whole beans and grind the coffee yourself.
For preparation use either a french press or a coarse metal filter (I for myself use one for tea).

Preparation rules:

• Grind to a very coarse degree only. Use a burr mill (blog article):
• Do not user boiling water, it kills the taste. Use a temperature of about 92-94 degress celsius.
• Use about 14 grams of coffee for 250 mililiter of water (or 54 gramms for 1 liter).
• Brew for 3-4 minutes, then filter or press down (french press).

If the coffee tastes to bitter (has to much acid) buy another kind of coffee, perhaps from another region. The coffees from different areas differ greatly in taste.

"Mokka" pot

Preparation rules:

• 25 grams beans for a 6-portion mokka pot
• Grind very fine. (e.g. a "2", like Espresso)
• fill the bottom chamber of the pot with water, just under the pressure valve
• put the basket in, fill with coffee (loosely, to NOT press the coffee) and put a round aeropress paper filter on top
• put on the stove with medium heat (too hot and the coffee will burn), turn the heat off when the coffee rises
• stir the coffee before pouring

Links

• 19 gram Berlin(for drinking and buying coffee)
• Gotshot Berlin(for drinking coffee and barista trainings)
• Starbucks(better than Tchibo Coffee in any case)
• tazpresso(a great espresso, bio and fair trade)
• Rheinische Affaire(also a great espresso, bio and fair trade)
• Mokambo(a really tasteful italian espresso)