Boyd Coffee’s ROBERTO FRANCISCO shares his expertise in brewing the perfect cup of coffee.
While many factors play a role, freshness is key. Nothing beats fresh coffee, prepared at home or at your favorite cafe.
What then are the other factors? The correct amount of coffee to use (7 to 8 grams); the correct amount of water per cup (7 ounces); the correct water temperature 92 deg; and probably the second most important factor is, the correct grind of the coffee to be used.
Different brewing systems require different granule sizes of coffee because of the contact and brewing time. Shorter contact time of coffee and water requires a finer granule. A guide would be: Espresso (20 to 25 sec) -vety fine; Drip coffee and coffee press (2 to 4 min) -drip grind; and Percolator (5 min or more) -coarse grind. Therefore, using the wrong grind on the wrong brewer will yield either an under-extracted brew or an over-extracted brew tasting like wet cardboard or burnt rubber.
“Great coffee” will depend on one’s taste expectation based on experience. Simply put, if you are used to dark roasted coffee, a medium roasted coffee would seem weak. Inversely if you are used to medium roast coffee, dark roast coffee would appear burnt and smoky, and utterly bitter. More so, if it were prepared with the wrong parameters, the coffee would absolutely taste horrible.
One’s taste and desire for a great cup will also be influenced by the coffee variety and intensity of roast. Locally available are Arabica, Robusta, Liberica and Excelsa, or a combination of any of and all the four. The latter two are commonly known as the barakos.
Ultimately, how does one know that one is drinking good or great coffee? Great coffee is served hot, smells good, and the flavor is as good as it smells.
