The Easiest Best Way to Make Coffee
How to Create Consistently Delicious Coffee Every Day
Your Guide: Shaun Gilley | Updated 12/01/2020
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Coffee affectionadoes can be willing to go to great lengths to make a great cup of coffee. And I get it. Nothing like reclining from the table after dinner at a white tablecloth restaurant and sipping a smooth, s-p-e-c-t-a-c-u-l-a-r cup of coffee after a sweet dessert. I can feel it now.… But it’s actually possible to consistently deliver a great cup of coffee at home without a lot of effort…
The Only Two Ways to Make Coffee
There are really only two ways to make coffee. Coffee is made from the combination of coffee beans and water. So, the two ways to make coffee are 1) immerse the coffee in the water and leave it there while it brews, then take the beans out, or 2) pass water through the coffee (or sometimes steam) and the water is flavored through this process.
All brewing methods are based on these 2 fundamental methods. The most common methods typically seen for pass-through brewing are drip coffee and espresso (pass-thru of steam and water). For immersion, typical processes are french press and cold-brew.
Key Coffee Brewing Factors
The brewing of coffee is affected by many factors. The key coffee factors are: soil and climate the beans are grown in, type of bean (such as arabica or robusta), the roast of the beans, the grind of the beans, the freshness of the beans both from time of picking and time from roasting.
Additional factors include the time of contact between water and beans, the temperature of the water, the presence of pressure and the quality of the water. Water quality is influenced by factors including mineral content, impurities content (such as chlorine), ph and alkalinity.
When it comes to the best way to make coffee, you are balancing all of these key factors plus other unknowns. You can see that to determine a perfect combination of all of the factors is almost impossible. Way too many variables to explore. Just too many combinations. However… the coffee industry group, Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), has actually dared to embrace the impossible. They created an optimized brewing standard called the “Golden Cup”.
The “Golden Cup” – the Best Way to Make Coffee
The Golden Cup is meant to balance the key factors related to brewing. The SCAA certifies home brewing coffee machines that meet certain requirements, such as proper water temperature, brewing time, and other specifications of the SCAA Golden Cup standard.
The SCAA standard for Golden Cup has been refined and developed over 50 years. Coffee industry professionals and legitimate researchers have pondered over and played with the key variables again and again to find a pathway to the process for the best way to make coffee.
So you see, the best way to make coffee is also the easiest way to make coffee – you simply buy a home coffee maker which meets the Golden Cup standard set down by the SCAA. It will make sure the contact temperature is 200 ± 5 degrees Fahrenheit, the coffee-to-water ratio is 55 g/L ± 10% and all the other technical details that go into the best way to make coffee.
Finally… the Best Way To Make Coffee
We recently reviewed and recommended the Ninja Specialty Coffee Maker which is SCAA certified, but there are also more great coffee makers on the SCAA list. Below is a partial list of recommended SCAA certified home coffee makers.