Well, he designed wonderful flying disc, which broke many distance records and he started producing them under the name Aerobie. It’s a great thing to have loads of fun with outdoors. What this have in common with coffee? Well Alan Adler made another ground breaking invention 20 years later. And it is a plastic coffee maker which can also be easily used outdoors. And coffee lovers around the world get absolutely mad about it. Here’s why.

Aeropress is a plastic plunging tube with a cap where you can place filter. It’s simplicity combined with countless possibilities of brewing is the key of its success. You can brew the coffee for a minute and then press it slowly through the filter. You can brew it for 4 minutes and press it fast. You can have almost infinite control over it. It is made of plastic so it won’t smash in your backpack when going for a hike. It doesn’t take much space either. You can clean it pretty well without using water. It really makes pretty darn good cuppa joe.

It has three parts only. Tube with plunger and a cap with holes in it. You put paper filter into the cap, screw it to the tube, add coffee, pour some water and press it through the filter with plunger. That’s it really. Simple, right? Let’s go deeper then. Usually in filter coffee methods time of extraction of coffee depends on grind size of coffee. Not here. You can Keep grounds in a brew for as long as you like really, then press it when you want to. Therefore, you can have long extraction of coarse coffee or very quick fine coffee. You can press it slowly or really fast too. Thanks to these two factors you can also play a lot with ratio of coffee to water too. These are most important aspects of making coffee. Ratio, contact time and temperature. Aeropress gives all possibilities of brewing. You can try to mimic espresso brew or get delicate sweet brew too.

Pimp up your coffee

I love to pack my Aeropress with me whenever I go hiking or meeting friends in a park. Water in thermo flask, ground coffee (or I take my hand grinder if I am in a mood for some biceps workout). Cup or serving jug and I am ready to rock. Jealous people walking by, dreaming of their own freshly brewed coffee in a park is a bonus.

Diversity of this device, it’s portability and brew quality made this one of the most popular brew methods of all the time. There are also World Aeropress Championships every year. I had a pleasure to won Irish edition of this contest in 2015 and I went to Seattle representing country on international stage! Rules are also super simple and everyone can start! In a group of three people, you got 8 minutes to prepare your best brew. Then panel of judges in a blind tasting picks their favourite coffee. In finals are same rules but there is one on one match! Oh, everyone have to use same beans. Just a little catch. That also gives a good idea of how amazing this thing is. You can get totally different outcome if using different recipe!

How to do it?

What was my winning recipe?

It’s a secret!

Well, alright, here you go!

• Measure 18g of coarse ground coffee – it should be roughly three tablespoons. I would recommend MEastelo medium roast for this. You can order it ground coarse in our shop!
• Heat the water – I used water at precisely 88 degrees. It would be about 5 minutes after boiling with a lid of kettle open.
• Place paper filter in a filter cap and pour some water over it to prewet it. White paper filter might have that paper bleach aftertaste. They also might be bit dusty. It’s a good practice to prewet it.
• Set your Aeropress in inverted position. Place plunger in a tube but just at the beginning of it, so you have open chamber where we could put coffee. Place it on a table on the plunger. Classic position would be if you would place cap with filter on the tube and put it on the vessel, then just add plunger at the end of the process.
• Get the coffee in the Aeropress and reset your timer! 
• Pour some water over the coffee. Don’t feel it to the top yet. Just enough to cover all the grounds. Start your timer. 
• Let it “bloom” for about 30 seconds. “Blooming” is a process of degassing coffee, it will reduce sour notes in your brew.
• Fill it up to the top, stir it three times and put the cap with a filter on. 
• When timer show 1 minute turn Aeropress around and place it on a vessel, it can be a mug or a jug. Press slowly. Ideally just with a weight of your arms. You want to press all liquid through when timer show 2 minutes point. Don’t press it to the very end. When you will hear hiss of air it’s enough. You really don’t want to squeeze all water from the grounds, it would make it very bitter.
• Enjoy your Best Meastelo Coffee, brewed like a champ!

This is the 2015 Irish Aeropress Championships winning recipe but go for it and change it!

Get more coffee in it. Get hotter coffee. Don’t “bloom” it. Or “bloom” it for a minute! Or even go crazy and stir it five times!

Only one tip, try not exceeding 4 minutes of a brew, this really makes coffee harsh.

We have Aeropress for sale in our shop too. It comes with a carrying sack, stirring paddle and 350 filters! Yeah, 350. It should last for a month or two, right?

You can find our coffee in couple of places in Dublin, including Golt Food stores on Tallaght or Finglas. Just ask for Meastelo!

Stay safe!

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There is few methods of having your morning caffeine cold, but today I’d like to tell you about probably easiest one and definitely most interesting method to make yourself iced coffee at home. Overnight.

Cold brew is a very popular drink in US, in Ireland every year it has more new dedicated drinkers. Why it is so different? Well, first of all we do not need hot water to brew it. Simplest cold brew is just a ground coffee immersed in ice cold water and left overnight in a fridge. So instead of heat we use time to get rich flavour.  Also because of that, final product is way less acidic than traditionally brewed coffee, so it is healthier for people with digestive problems and for all those who not really appreciate sourness in their coffee. This method also won’t extract bitterness into the drink. So after all we get pretty intense, however naturally sweet cold coffee we don’t need to dilute with ice, as we’d have to with for example iced americano. Therefore there is no need to sweeten up cold brew as much as regular coffee which makes it healthier.

As we won’t use hot water for it it is more than likely cold brew will contain more antioxidants than a normal one and even more, it definitely contain more caffeine (due to longer brewing time) so it helps you burn fat, just have a glass of it after workout!

And let’s not forget… it looks like whiskey!

So how to do it?

You can use your good old coffee press most of us have at home. Use your favourite Meastelo coffee. Just ask for French Press ground coffee (it will be just perfect) or if you use your own grinder, try to match coarse sea salt size. As always most important are proportions! Golden ratio is 60g of coffee per liter of water. Downsize it when needed, so if you have only half liter press use 30g of coffee. That would be roughly 4 table spoons. Place coffee in your press, cover it with cold water. Don’t place plunger just yet! We will need it for the morning! Cover vessel with a cling film and leave in a fridge overnight! That’s it! Well, almost. In the morning you just need to place plunger in a place and very slowly filter grounds from the drink. It should be as easy as coffee should already fall down to the bottom. Try not to disturb them. Decant the drink to another vessel and it’s ready to go. You can store cold brew in your fridge for minimum a week!

Enjoy it on the rocks, on its own or with a dash of milk. Add some sirup, or maybe some vanilla ice cream? You are the creator and cold brew tastes great in every way.

Just be careful. It taste so fresh and funky but it is still coffee and it still contains caffeine. Remember about it! Drink responsibly.

Enjoy!

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Coffee seeds are generally planted in large beds in shaded nurseries. After sprouting, the seedlings are removed from the seed bed and planted in individual pots in carefully formulated soil. They are watered frequently and shaded from bright sunlight until they are strong and rich enough to be permanently planted. Planting often takes place during the wet season, so that the soil around the young trees remains moist while the roots become firmly established. The coffee tree to make the harvesting easier is often cut out to the height of 2 meters.

Depending on the variety, fruits appear after 3 to 4 years after planting new coffee trees. The fruit, called the coffee cherry, turns bright, deep red when it’s ripe and ready to be harvested. The fruit is approximately 15mm diameter. The seed is closed in a thick skin. In most countries, the coffee crop is picked by hand, which is a labour-intensive and difficult process, although in places like Brazil, where the landscape is relatively flat and the coffee fields are wide and open, the process was mechanized. Whether picked by hand or by machine, all coffee is harvested in one of the two ways:

• stripping – choosing optimal time for harvesting when most fruits are ripe and the entire crop is harvested at one time. This can either be done by machine or by hand. In either case, all of the cherries are stripped off of the branch at one time. One person is able to collect 50-100 kg of fruits daily which results in 10-20 kg of coffee beans.
• picking – more selective, intensive and more expensive method. Several times a year only the ripe cherries are harvested by hand taking into account quality of beans. Pickers rotate among the trees every 8 – 10 days, choosing only the cherries which are at the peak of their ripeness. It is used mainly to harvest the finer arabica beans.

In most coffee-growing countries, there is one major harvest a year; however in countries like Colombia, where there are two flowerings per year, so there is a main and a secondary crop. A good picker can harvest 45 to 90kg of coffee cherry per day, which will produce 9 to 18kf of coffee beans. At the end of a day of picking, each worker’s harvest is carefully weighed and each picker is paid on the merit of his or her work. The day’s harvest is then combined and transported to the processing plant.

Once the coffee has been picked, processing must begin as quickly as possible to prevent spoilage. Depending on location and local resources, coffee is processed in one of the two ways:

Dry method

This is the oldest method of processing coffee and it’s still used in many countries e.g. in India where water resources are limited. The freshly picked cherries are simply spread out on huge mats to dry in the sun for several weeks for each batch of coffee. In order to prevent the cherries from spoiling, they are raked and turned throughout the day, then covered at night or when it rains, to prevent them from getting wet. It is important to maintain a suitable humidity through the whole process. Too dry seeds will burst while squeezing and too wet will spoil the whole harvest and lead to rotting. So, when the moisture content of the cherries drops to 11 percent, the dried cherries are moved to warehouses where they are kept.

In this method coffee loses its aroma, and sweet combinations go from the pulp to the bean. As a result we receive a product which in comparison to the wet method has milder, less aromatic flavour.

Wet method

In countries where rainfalls are more frequent and there are no possibilities to dry in the sun, wet method processing is often used. The pulp is removed from the coffee cherry after the harvest and the bean is dried with only the parchment skin left on it. First, within 12-24 hours the freshly harvested cherries are passed through a pulping machine which separates the skin and pulp from the bean. The pulp is washed away with water, usually to be dried and used as mulch. The beans are separated by weight as they are conveyed through water channels. The lighter beans float to the top, while the heavier, ripe beans sink to the bottom.

Next they are passed through a series of rotating drums which separate them by size. After separation, the beans are transported to a large, water-filled fermentation tanks. Depending on a combination of factors — such as the condition of the beans, the climate and the altitude — they will remain in these tanks for 12 to 48 hour to remove the slick layer of mucilage (called the parenchyma or aril ). While soaking in the tanks, naturally occurring enzymes will dissolve this layer. After completing the fermentation process beans are rough in touch. Finally they are rinsed going through additional water channels. Clean beans are ready for drying.

If the wet method has been used, the pulped and fermented beans have to be dried to reach roughly 11 percent moisture to properly prepare them for storage. These beans, still encased inside the parchment envelope (the endocarp), can be sun dried by spreading them on drying tables, mats or floors, where they are turned regularly, or they can be machine dried in large tumblers. After drying, they are stored in sisal or jute bags until they are ready for export.

Applied mostly to high quality varieties of Arabica. In general, wet treatment is applied to cherries picked manually, dry treatment to cherries picked other ways. Wet method enriches flavour and alleviates bitterness.

Before exportating, parchment coffee is processed in the following manner:

• hulling

Special hulling machines remove the parchment layer (endocarp) from wet processed coffee. Hulling dry processed coffee refers to removing the entire dried husk — the exocarp, mesocarp and endocarp — of the dried cherries.

• polishing

Grading and sorting

Before exporting, the coffee beans are precisely sorted by size and weight. They also need to be closely evaluated for color flaws or other imperfections. Typically, the bean size is classified according to a scale of 10 to 20. The number represents the size of a round hole’s diameter in terms of 1/64’s of an inch. A number 10 bean would be the approximate size of a hole in a diameter of 10/64 of an inch and a number 15 bean, 15/64 of an inch. The coffee can also be sorted pneumatically by using an air jet to take apart heavier beans from lighter. Next stage is removal of defective beans. This process can be accomplished by a specially designed machines. However, in many countries, it is done by hand while the beans move along a conveyor belt. Beans of unsatisfactory size, color, or for any other reason unacceptable e.g. over-fermented beans, with inspect damage or unhulled, are taken out. In order to provide only the finest quality coffee beans for export, in many countries, this process is done both by machine and hand.

The milled beans, now referred to as ‘green coffee,’ are ready to be loaded onto the ships for transport to the importing country. Green coffee is shipped in either jute or sisal bags which are loaded into shipping containers, or it is bulk shipped inside plastic-lined containers. Approximately seven million tons of green coffee is produced worldwide each year.

At every stage of its production, coffee is repeatedly tested in order to check quality and taste. This process is referred to as ‘cupping’ and usually takes place in a room specifically designed to facilitate the process. Firstly, the taster, so-called cupper, carefully evaluates the beans for their overall visual quality. The beans are then roasted in a small laboratory roaster, immediately ground and infused in boiling water, the temperature of which is carefully controlled. The cupper “noses” the brew to experience its aroma, an integral step in the evaluation of the coffee’s quality. After that coffee rests for several minutes and then the cupper “breaks the crust” by pushing aside the grounds at the top of the cup. Again the coffee is nosed before the tasting begins. To taste the coffee, the cupper “slurps” a spoonful with a quick inhalation. The objective is to spray the coffee evenly over the cupper’s taste buds, and then “weigh” it before spitting it out. Samples from a variety of batches and different beans are tasted daily. Coffees are analyzed this way both for their inherent characteristics and flaws as well as for the purpose of blending different beans or determining the proper roast. An expert cupper has ability of tasting hundreds of samples of coffee a day and still being able to find the subtle differences between them.

Roasting the coffee

This process produces the flavour and aroma of the coffee. Moreover, thanks to roasting coffee gets a suitable crunchiness and colour. Roasting transforms green coffee into the aromatic brown beans that we know, either whole or already grounded according to our preferences. Most roasting machines maintain a temperature of about 288 degrees Celsius. The beans are kept moving throughout the entire process to keep them from burning. When they reach an internal temperature of about 204 degrees, they begin to turn brown and the coffee oil, also known as “coffee essence”, locked inside the beans begins to emerge.

This process, called pyrolysis is at the heart of roasting. When the beans are removed from the roaster, they are immediately cooled either by air or water. Sometimes beans a polished as it is of a common opinion that polished beans are better. Roasting is generally performed in the importing countries because freshly roasted beans must reach the consumer as quickly as possible not to lose its aroma.

Grinding coffee

The objective of a proper grind is to get the most flavor in a cup of coffee. The quality and taste of the coffee depends on the method by which the coffee is brewed. Generally, the finer the grind the more quickly the coffee should be prepared. That is why coffee ground for use in an espresso machine is much finer than coffee which is brewed in a drip system.

Brewing coffee

Before you brew your coffee, take a moment to look carefully at the beans. Smell their aroma. Think of the many processes these beans have gone through since the day they were hand-picked and sorted in country of their origin. Consider the long way they have traveled to your kitchen. Prepare your coffee thoughtfully and enjoy it with pleasure. Many people were dedicated to bring it to your cup!

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Today coffee is grown in a multitude of countries around the world. Whether it is Asia or Africa, Central or South America, the islands of the Caribbean or Pacific, all can trace their heritage to the trees in the ancient coffee forests on the Ethiopian plateau.

Coffe in the Arabian Pennisula

The Arabs were the first who began cultivating and trading coffee. By the fifteenth century, coffee was grown in the Yemeni district of Arabia and by the sixteenth century it was known in Persia, Egypt, Syria and Turkey. Coffee was not only drunk at homes but also in many public coffee houses — called qahveh khaneh — which began to appear in cities across the Middle East. The popularity of the coffee houses was unequaled and people frequented them for all kinds of social activities. Not only did they drank coffee and engaged in conversations, but they also listened to music, watched performers, played chess and kept current on the news of the day. In fact, these coffee houses, quickly became such an important center of information that people often referred to them as ‘Schools of the Wise’.

With thousands of pilgrims visiting the holy city of Mecca each year from all over the world, word of the ‘wine of Arabs’ as the drink was often called, was beginning to spread far beyond Arabia. In order to maintain its complete monopoly, the Arabians continued to closely guard their coffee production.

Coffe in Europe

European traveled to the Middle East and brought back stories of the unusual dark black beverage. By the 17th century, coffee made its way to Europe and was becoming popular across the continent. Opponents were often overly cautious, calling the beverage “bitter invention of Satan”. With the coming of coffee to Venice in 1615, the local clergy condemned it. The controversy was so immense that Pope Clement VIII was asked to intervene. Before making a decision however, he decided to taste the beverage for himself. He found the drink so satisfying that he gave it his Papal approval.

Despite the controversies, in the major cities of England, Austria, France, Germany and Holland, coffee houses were quickly becoming centers of social activity and communication. In England “penny universities” sprung up, so called because for the price of a penny one could purchase a cup of coffee and engage in stimulating conversation. By the mid-17th century, there were over 300 coffee houses in London, many of which attracted patrons with common interests, such as merchants, shippers, brokers and artists. Many businesses grew out of these specialized coffee houses. Lloyd’s of London, for example, came into existence at the Edward Lloyd’s Coffee House. In the mid-1600’s, coffee was brought to New Amsterdam, a location later renamed to New York by the British.

Even though coffee houses rapidly began to appear in the New World, tea continued to be the favored drink. However, in 1773 the colonists revolted against very heavy import tax. The revolt, known as the Boston Tea Party, ultimately changed the American drinking preference to coffee.

Coffe around the world

As demand for the beverage continued to spread, there was a tense competition to cultivate coffee outside Arabia. Though the Arabs tried hard to maintain their monopoly, the Dutch finally succeeded, in the latter half of the 17th century, to obtain some seedlings. Their first attempts to plant them in India failed but they were successful with their efforts in Batavia, on the Java island. The plants thrived and soon the Dutch had a growing coffee trading industry. They soon expanded the cultivation of coffee trees to the islands of Sumatra and Celebes.

However the Dutch did a curious thing. In 1714, the Mayor of Amsterdam presented a gift of a young coffee plant to King Louis XIV of France. The King ordered it to be planted in the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris. In 1723, young naval officer, Gabriel de Clieu obtained a seedling from the King’s plant. Despite an arduous voyage — complete with horrendous weather, a saboteur who tried to destroy the seedling and a pirate attack — he managed to transport it safely to Martinique. Once planted, the seedling thrived and is credited for the spread of over 18 million coffee trees on the island in the next 50 years. It was also the place from where the coffee trees in the Caribbean, South and Central America regions originated.

It is said that coffee came to Brazil in the hands of Francisco de Mello Palheta. He was sent by the Portuguese to French Guiana for the purpose of obtaining coffee seedlings. But the French were not willing to share and Palheta was unsuccessful. However, he was said to be so handsomely engaging that the French Governor’s wife was captivated. As a going-away gift, she presented him with a large bouquet of flowers. Buried inside, he found enough coffee seeds to begin what is today a billion-dollar industry.

In only 100 years, coffee established itself as a commodity crop throughout the world. Missionaries and travelers, traders and colonists continued to carry coffee seeds to new lands and coffee trees were planted worldwide. Plantations were established in magnificent tropical forests and on rugged mountain highlands. Some crops flourished, while others were short-lived. New nations were established on the coffee economies. Fortunes were made and lost. And by the end of the 18th century, coffee had become one of the world’s most profitable export crops.

The botanical classification of coffee

Coffee traces its biological heritage to a genus of plants known as Coffea. Within the genus there are over 500 genera and 6,000 species of tropical trees and shrubs. The genus was first described in the 18th century by the Swedish botanist, Carolus Linneaus, who also described Coffea arabica in his Species Plantarum in 1753. Botanists have disagreed ever since on the exact classification. Coffee plants can range from small shrubs to tall trees, with leaves from 1 to 40 centimeters in size, and from purple or yellow, to the predominant dark green, in color. It has been estimated that there are anywhere from 25 to 100 species of coffee plants. In the commercial coffee industry, there are two important coffee species — arabica and canephora, commonly known as robusta.

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Storage is integral part of maintaining your coffee’s freshness and flavour. It is important to keep it away from excessive air, moisture, heat, and light – in that order – to preserve its fresh-roasted flavour as long as possible. Coffee beans are decorative and beautiful to look at but you will compromise the taste of your coffee if you store your beans in ornamental, glass canisters on your kitchen counter top. Doing so will cause them to stale and quickly lose its fresh flavour.

STORING YOUR COFFEE FOR A DAILY USE

It is important to remember to refrigerate or freeze your daily supply of coffee because contact with moisture will cause loss of its aroma and essence. Thus, it is advisable to store coffee in air-tight glass or ceramic containers and keep it in a convenient, but dark and cool location. Bear in mind that a cabinet near the oven is often too warm, as is a cabinet on an outside wall of your kitchen if it receives heat from a strong afternoon or summer sun. Coffee containers in which you purchase your coffee are generally not appropriate for long-term storage. Appropriate coffee storage bins or vessels with an airtight seal would be a good investment.

RIGHT PURCHASE

It is wise to purchase coffee in amounts depending on how quickly it will be used. Coffee begins to lose its freshness and aroma almost immediately after roasting so it is much better to buy it in smaller quantities. That is why better option is to buy freshly roasted coffee more frequently and buy only the quantity you will be able to use within 1 or 2 weeks. Another important factor to remember is that exposure to air affects your coffee negatively so it is a good idea to divide your coffee supply into several smaller portions, keeping the larger, unused portion in an air-tight container.

STORING LARGER QUANTITIES OF COFFEE

If you’ve purchased a larger quantity of coffee that you are not able to use quickly, small portions, wrapped in airtight bags, can be stored for up to a month in the freezer. However, if you have removed them from the freezer, you cannot put them back. Instead, move them to an air-tight container and store in a cool, dry place.

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What should you know about roasting coffee?

Light roast

Coffee has a cinnamon hue and sour flavour, it’s light and mild, its flavour quickly disappears from the palate. Roasting process is stopped at around 205 Celsius degrees so a part of sugars is not caramelised. African coffees are suitable to be roasted this way (Ethiopian Sidamo), so they would preserve their complex, fruity and vinegar aroma.

Medium roast

Most popular roast, stopped at 215 Celsius degrees giving less acidity but strongly developed aroma with impression of full flavour. Part of sugars is already caramelised, the flavour sustains on the palate for quite some time. Most coffees show their best qualities roasted this way (Brazilian Santos, Indian Malabar).

Dark roast

Moment of roasting is stopped between 225-235 Celsius degrees. Coffee is moist, oily and has a dark brown colour. At this stage acidity disappears, aroma is full, thick and smoky. Coffee has often gentle chocolate aroma, most caramelized sugars introduce sweet flavour.

Something for inquisitive…

It’s good to know that coffee roasted in production process generally lack in aroma high qualities. If you are a true coffee enthusiast, you should reach for coffee ground in a traditional method, called the master method. This method is supervised by a master, who observes the colour of the roasted beans. Roasting small amount of beans in temperature 230 Celsius degrees for at least 15 minutes extracts all the flavour and it’s intended to high quality coffee.

Industrial process of roasting coffee takes tons of coffee at once – most popular are chamber roast, assembly roast and continuous roast. Coffee is roasted in high temperature and quite shortly – in many cases no longer than 2 minutes. Industrial methods of roasting are simply insufficient to extract deep flavours and are never used with high quality beans.

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How to prepare a coffee?

Turkish coffee

It is the oldest way of brewing coffee, however not the same as we typically make at home.

Preparation: to a brass pot with a long handle (ibrik) add fine coffee, sugar and cold water. Heat it up until it boils. Then take it off the fire and drip cold water over it so coffee grounds start to sink. Repeat it three times. Now you can pour coffee to small cups and enjoy its strong aroma.

Proportions: two tea spoons per cup and tea spoon of sugar if desired.

Coffee from the pot

It is also one of the oldest brewing method, known to our grandmothers.

Preparation: grind beans to medium coarse and put to a preheated pot. Add 1/3 of boiling water. Heat it so coffee grounds float. Now you can add the rest of boiling water and take it of the stove. Let it rest for a while.

Cafetiere

Coffee brewed this way, without oxygen, keeps its original flavour, aroma and is very strong. It’s an alternative for those who value deep aroma and don’t own coffee machine.

Preparation: Fill the bottom part with water, place filter with fine coffee and replace lid. Steam from heated water is thrust through filter and coffee grounds and liquefies in the upper part of cafetiere. The whole process takes about 5 minutes.

Coffee machine

Automatic machine to make coffee called coffee maker, is the most convenient way to make coffee. The whole idea is narrowed down to placing filter, adding water and coffee. Brewing time and water temperature is determined by machine. After few minutes you will have a clear liquid with little amount of coffee grounds. Modern coffee machines are equipped with electronic panels which allow you to brew a tasty, aromatic coffee just by pressing one button.

Remember to clean your machine after 40-50 brewings, otherwise coffee dregs will affect the taste and coffee will become unpalatable.

How to properly grind coffee?

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How to properly grind coffee?

1. The best way is to grind coffee before brewing – this will keep its precious aroma, and the quality of what we make in our cup will be at a much higher level.
2. If you are using a simple home devices such as cafetiere, French press or coffee maker you should get yourself a coffee grinder.
3. If you don’t have a grinder (you can buy it at a local store with household appliances) you can always grind your coffee in our coffee roaster room or better shops. There are manual and electric grinders to choose from.
4. Think about how you want your coffee and adjust the grind level.
5. In order not to overheat the beans, tap repeatedly the button of your grinder.
6. Always grind only as much coffee as you need to brew. The reason is: during grinding, coffee beans unleash elusive aromatic oils that give flavour and aroma to the coffee. These oils rapidly deteriorate. Now, You can imagine how big is the difference between the coffee you buy at the shop (coffee which was open for some time) and freshly ground.

Coffee grind levels

Coarse

This is a good way for those who like to use coffee makers and French press. These devices use different filters (for example, paper filter in coffee maker, plunger in French press) that help to separate coffee grounds from water.

If grinding is proper, our device will make us a coffee without clogging pores of the filter. On the other hand if coffee is too fine it can affect effectiveness and functionality of our device and as a result… our coffee will be badly brewed.

Caution! Not only fine coffee adds bitter taste but also it can clog and break our device.

Medium coarse

This grinding level is good if our device use pressure in the process of making coffee, e.g. in cafetiere, water is thrust through a plunger with coffee under a slight pressure. This way we receive a more aromatic coffee with more intensive flavour.

Fine

Device appropriate for this kind of grinding is coffee machine. To receive a desired amount of coffee and intensity you should pay attention to your grinder if it’s properly adjusted. Coffee machines are very popular these days. In brewing process, everything what is best in a finely ground coffee is extracted with a use of small amount of hot water.

Turkish coffee enthusiasts should remember to grind beans to very fine, like a powder. It turns out that coffee made in a Turkish way is not a popular ‘typical coffee’.

What else do you need to know?

Firstly: It is very important the way you store your coffee. The container must be sealed and kept in a cold place.

Secondly: Use clean, cold water, if you use tap water let it run for a few seconds. Remember not to boil water for too long and more importantly do not pour boiling water directly on coffee beans.

Thirdly: Drink only freshly brewed coffee.

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