Frequently Asked Questions

Q:  What is the best way to brew coffee?

A:   I have found a French press to give me the best flavor.  The older vacuum method provides great flavor as well.  Other methods that use paper filters are satisfactory but the paper traps some coffee oils that contain the fresh flavor we all love.  If a mesh filter can be substituted for the paper the resulting cup will be far better.

 

Q:  What grinder do you use?

A:   I use a Kitchen Aid Pro Line burr grinder.  It is heavy duty and you can get them at a discount on e-bay.  I think it is the best home grinder on the market.  I use a burr grinder for consistent grind size, as opposed to a blade grinder that chops the beans into a variety of sizes which leads to a more bitter brew, since the smaller bits are in the water too long while the larger pieces may not be brewed long enough.

 

Q:  Should I use a grocery store grinder?

A:    Unless you live next door to the store I would not.  The first issue is time.  When fresh, whole bean coffee has a shelf life of about ten days before it is notably stale.  Grinding coffee exposes so much more surface area to the air that the ten days of freshness for whole bean is reduced to eight to ten minutes.  Therefore, it is best to grind your beans immediately before brewing to preserve the freshest flavor.  The second issue is that the grocer carries flavored coffees which, when ground using the store grinder, leaves those flavoring oils on the burrs and that will taint whatever is ground after that.

 

Q:   Why are some bags of coffee “puffed up”? 

A:    Freshly roasted coffee emits CO2.  The “puffing up” you see is a result of that process.  That “degassing” takes place over a roughly ten day period.  The “degassing” process also carries away some of the volatile oils within the coffee bean.  Those oils contain a great deal of the special fresh flavor of the coffee.  The only way I know to stop the “degassing” process or to drastically retard it is to freeze the fresh roasted beans, which I recommend.  Frozen, freshly roasted whole bean coffee can retain its full fresh flavor for months (rather than days if left at room temperature).  While it is less convenient and more costly for me to freeze all roasted coffee for later packaging and shipping, this is the best way to ensure that my customers get the freshest, most flavorful beans.

 

Q:  What is “extraction time”?

A:   That is the time necessary for the proper brew to take place.  It is four minutes with a French press using a course grind.  During that time, the hot water extracts the right amount of “coffee solids” for the brew to be as flavorful as possible.  Too much time in the brewing leads to “over-extraction” and a more bitter cup.

 

Q:  What is the difference between “first crack” and “second crack” in coffee roasting?  What is a “crack”?

A:    As the beans heat up during roasting, the moisture in the beans turns to vapor and “pops” the bean, much like popcorn.  This is known as the “first crack” because the Roaster will hear this popping taking place.  That event expands the bean by 40% or so and opens the cellular structure (think of a honeycomb) inside the bean, which allows the coffee oils to heat and to further color the bean.  The “second crack” is the sound made when the coffee oils in the bean boil and escape by blowing a hole in the bean.  The caramelization of the sugars in the bean happens just before the second crack and the focus for the Roaster is to end the roast at that point with as few beans as possible going through that second crack.