Are You Killing Your Coffee Beans?

Are you the type of person who likes to buy different kinds of coffee beans and try each one randomly because it sounds fun and you also want to know about their different tastes? If the answer is yes, you may have at least once made a cup of coffee that tastes awful, and you need to throw it away immediately. If that is the case, you may at least once have killed your fresh coffee beans.

Buying a cup of coffee from a coffee shop is easy because you depend solely on an experienced barista. However, brewing or making your own coffee at home may be more complicated than it seems. You may need to worry about choosing the right coffee beans, the accurate water ratio, the suitable coffee maker, and more. With this complexity, many would have experienced wasting good coffee beans. However, this article gives you a glimpse of several things to consider to make a good cup of coffee by utilizing your coffee beans. Also, understand the common mistakes most people make when brewing their coffee.

Contents

Common Mistakes

If you worry that you are the only one making mistakes with your coffee beans, that is okay, as many people have made similar mistakes. Here are the common faults people make.

Choosing the Wrong Coffee Beans

The first and most important part of having a delicious cup of coffee is using the right coffee beans. Many people are stingy with their coffee choices and would go for something relatively cheap with low quality, often sour, burnt, or nearly expired. Hence, to avoid these problems, you should buy whole coffee beans. To ensure the freshness of your coffee beans, you should take whole coffee beans and grind them into coarse grounds before brewing them. Additionally, you should only use beans from three to four weeks as beans longer than four weeks have their flavors reduced. To avoid issues relating to coffee beans, you should purchase smaller packs each time. Additionally, you may want to avoid beans at stores, as most are near expiration dates.

Wrong Coffee Beans Storing

Most people underestimate the places they store their coffee beans, thinking they don’t affect the quality of the beans. However, coffee beans are a natural product that needs to be kept at specific places with standard temperatures to ensure freshness.

Places you should avoid include bright or lighter areas filled with sunlight. Sunlight or any UV rays would affect the quality of coffee beans. Hence, it is recommended to store beans in dark places or areas. Additionally, you should not keep the beans in a free space full of oxygen as it would affect their freshness; a tight container would be suitable for storing. Furthermore, coffee beans do not fit right in heated or high-temperature areas; for instance, putting them next to a microwave or oven. Also, you should not put it in the fridge or freezer; room temperature would work fine.

Wrong Water Ratio

Another general mistake of bad coffee and a waste of perfect coffee beans are having an incorrect water ratio. It is common for people who are too bothered to care about measuring the water, so they just put several spoons of coffee beans and pour in water without any scale, which results in a bland or weird taste. To avoid this issue, you should invest in scaling measurements such as scaled cups or jars near you in the kitchen to have a coffee with accurate measurements and standards.

Some people are aware of having the right equipment and measurement scales but miscalculate or do not follow standardized measurements, which still leads to a different taste that is less delicious than standard coffee. Hence, having the right measurement equipment and following the proper instructions is better.

Unclean Coffee Gear

Coffee gear is a crucial piece of equipment for making delicious coffee. Thus, if your coffee gear is unclean, it will also affect the freshness and cleanliness of your coffee. For instance, several coffee machines, such as auto-drip machines, are filled with spaces and areas that are harder to clean and are likely to be filled with mold. The molds attached to your coffee gear reduce the flavor of your coffee and even adversely affect your immune system. Additionally, dirty coffee gears also lead to calcium build-up that results in the reduced flavor and sweetness of the coffee. Hence, you must clean your coffee gear or machine frequently to avoid unwanted harm.

Using Incorrect Water

As the main component of delegate coffee is water, it is a must that water should be in the proper format. One common mistake for coffee brewers is immediately using boiling water in the coffee ground. The freshly boiled water has a high temperature that will extract the coffee flavors too quickly, resulting in a bitter taste. In contrast, cold water would not work as it can not remove the coffee flavors altogether, leading to a sour taste. Therefore, after the water is boiled, you should wait roughly 2 minutes to let it cool down before pouring it into the coffee grounds.

Another mistake is the use of tap water. Tap water contains various minerals that harm the extraction process and affect the coffee’s flavor and taste. Water used for coffee should have a pH level of 6.5 to 7.5 to have a perfectly balanced coffee. You should use purified water or make sure to use a water filter if you can not find alternatives to hard water.

Keeping Coffee Grinds Overnight

If you think you can save up some time in the morning by grinding your coffee beans beforehand and storing them overnight, you are making a mistake. If you put the coffee grinds overnight, they will be exposed to oxygen even if you put them in a container. The oxygen and the atmosphere affect the flavor of the coffee. Therefore, if you want to save time, make sure to get the equipment out in place and ready to go in the morning. Thus, you would spend less time finding each piece of equipment or ingredient.

Incorrect Grinding

Coffee grinding is another common issue for coffee makers, especially those new to making coffee at home. Coffee is delicious if the beans are grind in the correct coarse, medium, and fine ground sizes. Different brews require different ground sizes to deliver the right taste. For instance, coarse ground coffee is huge in which you can see the particles, which are best for making cold brew coffee. Medium coarse-size coffee is tinier and is similar to dirt, mainly used for pour-over coffee. Finally, fine coarse-ground coffee is the smallest, smooth, and chunks are not visible.

Wrong Pressure

Pressure is used in various steps in making the right cup of coffee. One of the many steps is tamping. You must exert enough force from 19 to 20 kg to tamp correctly. With this pressure, you are ensured to have an even density of coffee grounds, perfect for a consistent extraction for a delicious espresso. Therefore, make sure to tap the portafilter before tamping to avoid misuse of force, resulting in an unflavored coffee.

Wrong Brewing Method

The brewing method is vital to make an extraordinary coffee experience. Different types of coffee require different coffee beans and brewing methods. Some brewing methods are suitable for a particular coffee bean because they produce a more robust flavor, while others deliver Midler or smoother taste. Hence, it is recommended that you understand the type of your coffee and choose the suitable brewing method and coffee machine. For example, French presses are used to make medium and dark roast coffee because they allow the coffee to extract flavors steadily, resulting in rich and mild acid content.

Inconsistent Coffee Extraction

Uneven coffee extraction is another common issue coffee drinkers make. Coffee extraction is necessary for good coffee because it produces flavor and taste. Having uneven extraction would lead to an odd flavor. One of the reasons for the inconsistency is incorrect brewing duration. Some people are in a rush, so they brew the coffee in a short time, which leaves coffee beans not fully extracting their flavor. In contrast, if the coffee beans are removed too long, they taste bitter.

Reheating the Coffee

Some people, mostly older people, are stingy about coffee waste and think it is wasteful to throw cold coffee away and decide to reheat it. However, it is incorrect, as reheating the coffee will affect the chemical content and destroy the original flavor, resulting in a weird-tasting brew.

Conclusion

To have a cup of coffee is easy, but to have a cup of delicious coffee might be more complicated than it may seem. This difficulty also leads to common mistakes ranging from misplacement of coffee beans, misuse of brewing methods, incorrect water temperature, inconsistent pressure, and more. However, these misconceptions can be solved easily by understanding the coffee bean types, sizes, and brewing methods mentioned above. Stop wasting your good coffee beans, and start to correct your mistakes now.

References

Check out: 3 Common Barista Mistakes – What you shouldn’t do making coffee. By Artisti Coffee Roasters.