5 Keys to Making Excellent Coffee (with product suggestions to make it easy)

Introduction

Want to make better coffee at home? In this blog post, I will share the simplest tips for the BEST results when making your coffee at home. I will also share my personal favorite equipment for getting started on any budget!

1. The Quality of Your Coffee

Do you actually know what kind of coffee your drinking? Maybe you know its arabica coffee. You probably know the roast level. You might even have some origin information, but that's probably it. I recommend buying coffee where you know where it's from. This is possible through direct trade coffee. At Devoted Coffee Company, I exclusively buy coffee that is sourced directly from the farm and farmer that grew it. This is direct trade coffee. It ensures they get paid a livable wage and allows there to be an easy way to communicate with the grower. This means that if a coffee is good, we can communicate that directly with the farmer. Or, if a certain crop is not as good that year, we can tell them and help them improve next year's crop. If that relationship doesn't exist than the coffee will never be able to improve. This is why specialty coffee focuses so much on building relationships with farmers.

It starts with high quality green coffee directly from the farm, but then you need an expert roaster to bring out the best flavors in that coffee. I, of course, would recommend some of my own coffee here, but here are some other great specialty coffee roasters in the USA:

• Valor Coffee

• Alma Coffee

• Onyx Coffee Labs

• Sey Coffee

There is also a great subscription-based service called Trade Coffee that will help you find great specialty coffee roasters and ship fresh coffee to your door.

2. (Burr) Coffee Grinder

If you are drinking pre-ground coffee you are MISSING OUT on SO MUCH flavor. Coffee (believe it or not) is a fresh food product and as such it loses its flavor after being ground. Not to get too technical here, but there are volatile aromatic compounds (also called volatile organic compounds or VOCs) that start to evaporate and leave as the ground coffee is exposed to oxygen. These VOCs are literally the flavor essence of your coffee. If you want to retain the flavor, you need to grind just before you brew. Here is a quick breakdown of how VOCs disappear:

• First 48 hours: Rapid initial loss of some volatiles, especially in light roasts.

• Days 5–21: Peak aromatic concentration; ideal for brewing.

• Weeks 3–6: Noticeable oxidation and aroma decline.

• Beyond week 6: Significant loss of desirable volatiles, leading to stale taste

For this reason, a grinder is essential for making delicious coffee. There are two types. One is very affordable (usually less than $20) and the other is still affordable but can also get very expensive. The two types are: (1) Blade grinder and (2) Burr grinder. As with all things you get what you pay for. A blade grinder has usually two blades, although it's sometimes four, and it spins crushing the beans with pure force and friction. This leads to uneven sizes in the ground coffee and that affects the extraction of your coffee. If you want consistent grind size, which affects extraction and taste you should look to a burr grinder. Burr grinders have burrs that align together and these actually cut the beans at the precise size that you selected. Burr grinders are the kind of grinders you will see in cafes and anywhere. They are consistent and objectively better, which has been proven by hundreds of taste tests that you can find online. Burr grinders have a huge range in price. They can be for someone just starting out in coffee or you can find big, fancy burr grinders in cafes. They can be manual (hand grinders) or automatic. If you don't mind grinding by hand, I recommend a hand grinder. You can get a lot nicer set of burrs that do a better job of cutting (better cutting = better taste), because the manufacturer doesn't have to pay for parts like a motor. If you need to grind a lot of coffee, or don't want to grind by hand, I'd recommend an automatic burr grinder. Here are some good options at different price points.

• Value hand grinder: https://amzn.to/49uDAjY

• Budget hand grinder: https://amzn.to/4fkvCxA

• Standard hand grinder: https://amzn.to/4tCTfF8

• Premium hand grinder: https://amzn.to/43beBOY

• Value automatic burr grinder: https://amzn.to/4npAYto

• Budget automatic burr grinder: (There is a grinder that is coming out to market soon that will probably take this spot, I'll update this post when it comes out.)

• Standard automatic burr grinder: https://amzn.to/4dojetV

• Premium automatic burr grinder: The EG-1 – Weber Workshops (This is not necessarily a real recommendation. I just wanted to make you guys aware of the top of the line stuff. This grinder is intended for HOME use by the way. Isn't that crazy? You will see them in some very nice Specialty shops, but they are only ever used for very nice single origin coffees.)

3. Digital Scale

Measuring coffee and water by weight ensures accuracy and repeatability. Volume measurements like tablespoons vary too much. 20 grams of a coffee that is roasted lightly can be as much as 20 to 30% more dense. Meaning that if you used a tablespoon of a dark roast coffee, it would be very different than a tablespoon of a lighter roasted coffee. Not only are there differences in between roasts levels, but remember, coffee comes from a fruit. Just like apples are not all the same size neither are coffee cherries, so even if the roast is the same, the "beans" within that same roast can vary in weight, density, and volume. This is why it's always best to measure your coffee. Plus, if you really loved your coffee one morning you know exactly how much water and coffee you used, you can easily reproduce that excellent cup for maximum enjoyment.

• Look for a scale with 0.1-gram precision. (It gets more precise than this, but anything more precise isn't necessary).

• A timer function helps track brew time.

• Waterproof and rechargeable are nice options, too.

(I was going to do different price points for this one, but honestly any cheap kitchen scale that can measure to .1 of a gram will do. Don't spend too much here when first starting out. A scale is a scale, and putting more money towards a grinder would give you much more bang for your buck.) If you would still like a recommendation anyways, Here's a cheap and good recommendation: https://amzn.to/4d9q0Vt

4. Quality Coffee Maker

Obviously, I can't not mention the actual device you are using to brew. The device you use matters a lot. People don't realize this, but most cheap coffee makers, hardly ever get the water hot enough for a good extraction. Then, they use the hot plate to burn the coffee and make it gross and bitter. A good cup starts with all of the above things I mentioned, but this device can ruin all that hard work, if it's not up to par. The best bang for your buck (and the cool hipster option) is the Hario V60. For less than $20 for the pour-over brewing device and some filters, you can make some excellent coffee. If you don't want to manual brew when you want coffee there are some options out there, however there really isn't a budget option in the automatic range. I wish I could recommend a value or budget option here, but I genuinely don't think the results are worth your money. A manual V60 will give much better results for less, so it's tough to recommend a budget automatic brewer that will perform worse. Here are the ones I would recommend though:

• Value/Budget: Hario V60 (size 02) https://amzn.to/4dssSf3 Filters for V60: https://amzn.to/492hgxX

• Standard: Bonavita Enthusiast Coffee Maker: https://amzn.to/49jInF5

• Premium: Fellow Aiden (This machine is really expensive, but you should look into it if you are willing to spend this much, because it's incredible and makes making really good coffee, really easy.) https://amzn.to/4uMZUO4

  
  

5. Electric Water Kettle

Assuming you deciding to go with a V60, you will need a kettle. My opinion of kettles is about the same as my opinion on scales. You need one, but it doesn't need to be fancy. Some water kettles will be able to heat to automated temperatures. That's great, but not necessary. Many coffee connaisseurs (myself included) mess around with different temperatures as a variable in coffee making, but it has a relatively minimal effect compared to the other factors I talk about in this post. I would recommend a gooseneck kettle because it pours more slowly and can be more easily controlled and that's nice when pouring a V60. Here are my recommendations for different budgets:

• Value: https://amzn.to/4wLgtfh

• Budget: https://amzn.to/4fkcQq4

• Standard: https://amzn.to/42xHXac

• Premium: https://amzn.to/4dmUl1Q (Again, I don't think there is a reason to spend this much, but this is considered "the standard" in Specialty coffee (particularly, the at-home enthusiasts).

And that's it! With just this information and equipment, you can be making better coffee than 90% of the places you would have gotten it out. Yes, it's a bit of an upfront cost, but there is something to be said about the process of doing. I enjoy making a good cup of coffee, and I really love when I have to really take my time and enjoy the process. It's quite relaxing, and then I get to enjoy an excellent cup of coffee. Plus, I get to make the coffee that I specifically order and not have to drink whatever coffee that the place I am buying from got their coffee. If you would like to learn more about why it's important to me where my coffee comes from click here to read my article on specialty coffee.

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