15 Mar 2010
The Best Coffee Starts With Freshly Roasted Coffee Beans
I think the key to making a great cup of home brewed coffee to start with filtered water and recently roasted whole bean coffee. The smell…the taste… is wonderful. Now, there are two ways that you can purchase your whole bean coffee. You can either purchase them pre-roasted or you can buy green coffee beans and then roast them yourself. at home. Roasting your own coffee beans is far less complicated than it sounds.
Selecting Whole Bean Coffee
The whole bean coffee you choose will depend on if you like a light, medium or dark roast flavor A lighter roast lets all of the bean’s true flavor come through, use this for a coffee whose flavor you truly enjoy.
Buying your beans from a store or coffee shop that roasts its own beans is most important. Many online retailers will take your order, roast the coffee beans and then quickly package it up and send it to you. In this way you receive the freshest whole bean coffee available. After roasting, coffee’s true flavor only lasts from about 7 days to up to four weeks depending upon the type of whole bean coffee you purchase.
What difference does this make?
An important factor to keep in mind is that as soon as the beans have been roasted, they begin to lose their freshness. The oils in the beans will start breaking down almost immediately after roasting, causing the bean to lose the fresh roasted flavor. The less time between roasting and drinking, the better.
Though you may be tempted to, pick up whole bean coffee from your local supermarket these beans have been roasted at who knows where and trucked to your local supermarket. These beans could already be going bad.
Keeping Coffee Beans Fresh
I like to grind just what I need for immediate use and then store the rest of the whole bean coffee in an airtight container preferably away from extreme heat, cold or light. I like to keep my beans in the freezer and if I do grind extra I usually keep this in the fridge. I keep my whole beans in the freezer and any ground coffee in the refrigerator. Just like my whole bean coffee that’s been roasted, ground beans begin to lose their freshness very quickly.
If You Want To Make A Good Cup Of Coffee
Only use whole bean coffee from a reliable roaster.
Grind the beans only when you’re ready to make a pot.
Use bottled water.
Use a coffee pot that brews at a temperature of 200 degrees.