You started with great, freshly roasted specialty coffee. You ground it with a burr grinder to just the right grind. You heated your filtered water to just the right temperature. Your equipment is squeaky clean. You carefully poured it over the bed of ground coffee for just the right dwell time…

Ahhhh. The perfect cup! But now that you’ve poured it into your favorite mug, what do you do with the rest of it?

Get it off that hotplate! Adding heat to freshly brewed coffee will “cook” your carefully prepared pot and destroy the delicate aromatics in no time flat. So what to do instead? Preheat a thermal carafe (if you automatic drip maker doesn’t have one already) with some hot water, pour that water out, then pour your coffee in.

A freshly brewed coffee is meant to be enjoyed immediately. A thermal carafe will help preserve the flavor for at least 30 minutes, but much longer than that you will notice a flavor shift. Just because it’s hot doesn’t mean it’s fresh!

So what are the alternatives? Consider brewing by-the-cup. Brewing just what you’ll enjoy at one sitting will ensure you’re getting the most from your coffee. There are any number of by-the-cup options: the Aeropress, the Abid Clever Dripper, the Hario V60 cone, not to mention the countless of other pourover cones by Beehouse, Bonmac, Melitta and others. All of them have slightly different techniques, some of which we cover in our Brewing Guide. A quick Google search will also turn up many YouTube videos with great guidance.

A final thought on brewing: Understanding the “how” and “why” of brewing will arm you with what you need to make delicious coffee. And here’s the beauty part: the knowledge is cumulative. Even applying one element to your routine will make your coffee that much tastier. Just remember though: garbage in—garbage out. The coffee and the water you use is key…otherwise it’s just lipstick on a pig.

Time for a new term to add to your coffee brewing lexicon: dwell time.

Dwell time is the amount of time ground coffee is in contact with water. This is when the magic happens. When hot water is added to freshly ground coffee, a creamy foam is created known as bloom. Bloom occurs when gasses are released and the coffee oils are emulsified through agitation—by either how the water is poured into the bed of grounds or by stirring.

Dwell time is different depending on brewing method. For drip-type methods and full immersion brewing (e.g., French press or Clever Dripper), 4 minutes is common. Espresso, on the other hand, is brewed under enormous pressure (9 bars) and is fully extracted in 25-30 seconds.

Now if you’re thinking, “I like really strong coffee, so I’ll let it brew for longer than 4 minutes”, you’ll be unpleasantly surprised. Over-extracted coffee can be bitter. Under-extracted coffee on the other hand can be just dull and under developed.

While not rocket science, brewing a good cup of coffee is a careful balance of quality, freshly roasted coffee, the correct water temperature, the appropriate grind size, clean equipment, and appropriate dwell time. Check out our brewing guide under the “Learn About Coffee” tab at the top for details on our favorite brewing methods.

We’re almost finished, but there’s one more item to consider: keeping it hot…

Of all the variables in coffee brewing, the coffee to water ratio suffers the most from “alchemy”. There’s plenty of blame to go around—pick up several coffee packages and you’ll find a number of suggestions: 1 tablespoon ground coffee per cup, 2 tablespoons per serving, 2 tablespoon for each 6 ounces…but what I think is the worst disservice is what usually comes after: “use more or less to taste”.

While there is some wiggle room, you ultimately want to have brewed coffee with about 20% dissolved soluble solids. And the rule of thumb is 2 tablespoons of coffee for every 6 ounces of water. Who drinks only 6 oz. of coffee? Not many people I know, so yes, you will need to measure how much water your brewer is using at least the first time, NOT by the graduation markings on the carafe (they’re all a little different)!

Want to go the next step: use a gram scale. I know, it seems a little geeky and you might think “I’m not messing around with that first thing in the morning”, but once you try it, it’ll become second nature and is actually easier than measuring by scoops. Using a gram scale, we suggest 60 g of coffee for every litre of water for most drip brewing methods.

But what if you don’t like your coffee that strong? The best way to adjust is to brew less coffee at the prescribed strength, then add hot water to your cup afterwards to dilute to taste. What’s the difference? Using more water through the same amount of coffee will over extract your coffee and leave you with a thin, bitter cup.

And what if you just can’t get coffee that’s strong enough for your taste? There is a certain amount of “updosing” you can do (using more coffee), but too much will leave the coffee under extracted and won’t give you the balance that’s ultimately desired. Maybe consider a different brewing method, like a moka pot or Aeropress where you end up with a concentrated coffee solution that can be diluted to taste, or consider an espresso machine.

Up next: timing is everything…

Hot coffee. It’s pretty much what you expect when you order coffee, unless it’s specifically iced. But what you may not know is that there is a pretty narrow temperature band in which coffee will have its optimum extraction: right around 200 F. More specifically, 195 F to 205 F. Hotter than that and you’ll end up with a bitter cup; cooler than that and the cup tends to be sour.

If you’re brewing coffee using a manual method and don’t have a thermometer, bring your water to a rolling boil, remove from the heat and let it sit for about a minute—it will be roughly the correct temperature. But just like getting a gram scale, once you have a simple probe thermometer (which you can find almost anywhere kitchen gadgets are sold for under $10), you’ll find it a no-brainer to just pop it in to check.

Now the bad news: that fancy-smancy Keurig brewer, or automatic drip brewer with all the lights, timers, grinders, bells and whistles won’t be able to brew hot enough. In fact, there are only a handful of automatic coffee makers that brew at the correct temperature.

Why is this? Most manufacturers seem to focus on the bells and whistles of “convenience” rather than the heating element (which is most costly). Let’s face it: a slick user interface is sexier than a 1500w heating element you can’t see.

The good news: if great tasting coffee is what you’re after, save your money (or put it where it matters: a good burr grinder) and try a manual brewing method. You’ll have control over all aspects of your brewing and the end result will be a testament to that.