Three Tips to Improve Your Home Coffee Drinking Experience and Enjoyment

I have been a coffee expert for about five years now.  Needless to say, I know a thing or two about making really good coffee.  It’s a passion of mine, and something I have dedicated countless hours perfecting.

I’ll be the first to admit that most of the really knowledgeable coffee gurus can be a little condescending, maybe even downright snobby.  Don’t blame them though – they’re just so adjusted to being around specialty coffee nerds they forget there are people out there with normal lives.

The point is this: there are a few of us out there who not only have gobs of knowledge on how to perfect your coffee at home, but don’t mind sharing it with you so that you can enjoy that quality in your home.

In my many years of experience I have learned a lot, but it boils down to these simple tips.  Follow these guidelines and you can drink cafe and espresso bar quality in the comfort of your own home.

What Are You Grinding With?

This is the most important point.  If you buy ground coffee or grind you freshly roasted whole beans with a blade grinder, you are sacrificing a lot of flavor for very little convenience.

Invest in a manual conical burr grinder.  You can get one for under $50.  That’s what I use in my home espresso lab, and it never fails me.  It’s dishwasher safe too.  Using one of these grinders will improve the quality of your coffee more drastically than anything else you can do.

Before you go shopping for new brew methods, before you find the perfect bean, buy a grinder with conical burrs.  You won’t regret it.

Find Your Perfect Brew Method

Personally, I like pour over coffee more than anything else.  It takes two minutes to learn how to do it, and another two minutes to actually brew the coffee.  If you order one, it will come with instructions – but trust me when I say that you don’t need them.  You a filter in the pour over, you grind coffee and put it in the filter, you pour hot water over the coffee and voila! you’re in business.

If pour over coffee isn’t your ‘cup of tea’ then think about a press pot.  We use a Bodum Chambord – and it makes a great pot of coffee that can be served to a few friends as well as yourself.  It’s a full immersion brewing method (much better than a drip pot), and it’s simple to use.

Combine either of these methods with your conical burr grinder and you’ll be on your way to massive success.

Get to Know a Roaster

This is the step most people will resist – and that’s fine, if you skip this it is better than skipping the grinder or the brew method.

But remember, it could change the way your coffee tastes substantially.  Local roasters are surprisingly friendly people, they’re around coffee all day so they might be a little shy, but say hi and get to know them.  Not only will they inadvertently give you a free coffee education – they’ll deliver coffee to your house as soon as it is roasted.

Sounds crazy, but roasters love delivering coffee to customer’s homes.  Because it is a way that they can assure their hard work will be appreciated.  If that same coffee sits on a shelf for ten days – all their hard work goes to waste.

They’d rather deliver it to you fresh.

It’s That Simple

What did I tell you?  You want good coffee at home, it’s that simple.  It isn’t rocket science, it won’t cost you a fortune, and as you try it out you’ll find it’s incredible enjoyable.

I love sharing tips and tricks to make better coffee with people, because most people have no idea how simple it really is.

My name is Peter and I blog at www.vvlgar.com.  Come check us out sometime.