How To Brew Perfect Drip Coffee

Most coffee machines are actually drip coffee makers, but the coffee they make is by necessity an average cup of coffee – although the Technivorm Moccamaster tries awfully hard to avoid the problems. The issues is that drip coffee making – dripping hot water through grounds and a filter – is  a method that requires proper preparation to begin with and then even under ideal circumstances gets worse over time. The last cup through the filter is noticeably inferior to the first cup. And the ideal drip coffee is that first cup.

This is why the really high end coffee shops make every single cup of plain coffee one at a time by hand – and they use the drip method because it is by far the most straightofrward and uses the

most basic equipment of the three or four really top plain coffee making techniques.

There are several variables in making a good cup of drip coffee. They are: the amount of coffee, the amount of water, the temperature of the water, the material the filter is made of and the material the drip cone is made of. These are listed in basically

their order of importance. There difference between a cup of coffee filtered through a kitchen paper towel and a strainer is not all that much when compared to an unbleached spacialty paper in a ceramic cone, as long as the other variables remain the same.

The first step is that to deliver a good cup of coffee you need to really KNOW how strong the drinker wants

their coffee. Most specialty coffee places make it super strong because that is the way most serious coffee drinkers want it. But not all – so be prepared to back off on the coffee amounts if your coffee drinker wants it that way.

So, how much coffee and what kind? Both imnportant points. Places like Blue Bottle Coffee tend to use about 2oz of coffee for an 8 to 10 ounce cup – that’s a LOT of coffee. But that is in fact about right. I personally make 14 oz cups and use about 2oz of coffee for that, but I do happen to like the coffee backed off from the really full on brew just a little. I also add milk (not cream) which most coffee drinkers regard as a crime – either nothing at all or cream are the popular choices. How about the grind? The official answer is medium – you don’t want coffee solids getting through the filter. If you use a reusable gold filter (not quite as good tasting coffee but much better for the environment if you use it for a long time) then you want a slightly coarser grind because the gold has larger holes.

Next: water – the real answer here is just a little more than the size of the cup you want (some will get retained by the coffee grounds). But the temperature is key. It should be about 5 degrees short of boiling. Most people do this by boiling and then waiting a couple of minutes to let it cool a bit. One of the reasons the Technivorm mentioned above is one of the best automatic coffee makers is that it makes sure the water dripped is in this temperature range by heating the pipes that deliver it to be dripped. Most coffeemakers work by heating the water to steam and as it rises through a pipe it recondenses and is ke

pt hot by the additional steam rising up. In practice this delivers a less-hot-than-optimal drip water, partly because it comes through slowly. Anyway. What I do is boilt the water (using an electric kettle – faster and more economical than a gas kettle. When it boils I grind the coffee and set up the drip. Then I splash a little hot water (very little) onto the filter (a wet filter helps the drip flow more evenly). Then I put in the coffee and carefully fill the drip, pouring the water thoroughly over all the coffee, rather than just down the middle, so that it all brews evenly. Then I stir the full drip cone gently with a spoon to make sure that the coffee all gets mixed propery with the water.

Wait for it all to drip and you are done with a cup that is ready to drink right away – not too hot. If you follow this process and treat your cup of coffee with love and care you will always make a superb cup of coffee.

As to filter material – there are really only two choices: paper and gold. Paper filters are by far the most common, work really well and are actually pretty environmentally friendly, especially if you take the used filter with the grounds in it and compost it. But gold filters ARE reusable. However to make up the difference you will have to make an awful lot of cups of coffee with that gold filter!

Next, filter cone material: the choices here are plastic (everywhere), glass (hard to find and easily breakable) and ceramic (even harder to find but probably the best choice). The Chemex drip system is essentially a drip cone and receptacle in one and uses a glass drip cone. To give you some idea, it is very highly rated by coffee nerds like me. I have to admit that I still use a plastic filter (years old) and yes, I do sometimes use a paper towel as the filter when I run out…

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3. Brewing a perfect cup of coffee – Basic Coffee Machine Method
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