The most important thing I know about coffee: most of what you buy in stores is stale. Even vacuum-sealed roasted whole beans are a compromise, expiration date notwithstanding. Buy roasted whole beans at a place that roasts every week, and posts the roast date on the bin. Never mind stuff being from Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Kona, &c. It's most important to get the degree of roast you like, as recently as possible.
I go to the Allegro Roasters counter at Whole Foods each week and buy a medium roast from that day, or the day before. I have a cheap grinder at home, and I just use cheap #2 cone filters in a cheap single-cup cone brewer. I emphasize that those last 3 items are cheap. You don't need a fancy-schmancy grinder. You get a huge bang for the buck just by using beans roasted in the past 2 weeks. The other thing: make sure your water is the right temperature. (190 to 195 degrees seems to work for me.) Just borrow a candy thermometer, always use the same amount of water, the same pot, and figure out how long to wait to let the water cool to the right temp.
I have wowed friends with my coffee. Not rocket science. It's just brewed at the right temp, and it's fresh!
The Aeropress is pretty good. It's cheap, easy to use, and surprisingly easy to clean. I used to use it to make mochas and faux-cappuccinos (pseudo-espresso from the Aeropress plus milk frothified using a whirly-agitator thing instead of steam) but these days I just make Americano-style coffee, which I like because it comes out rich and smooth. I'm not really a coffee snob, though, so YMMV.
100% agree on freshly roasted bean. I see people put week-old store-brand coffee beans in a $500 Kitchen Aid grinder and serve a cup of absolutely vile tasting coffee. Some people simply don't deserve nice things.
However, a Burr grinder is good investment, especially if you need the finer grinds. The cheapest one you can find will do fine, however.
The blade-grinder will beat randomly around all your beans for the entire grind-time. This will kick the crap out of the aromatic oils, and you lose some flavour. The Burr grinder "crunches" each bean once and never touches it again, leaving the oils alone.
Yet another endorsement for a conical burr grinder. I like good coffee, without believing my pallet is that sophisticated, but I recently switched from a blade grinder and couldn't believe the difference (and consistency of results, probably the main point).
Keep the blade grinder around though; they're still good for spices :)
That's because most people dilute their coffee until it's nothing else. Most people don't like coffee - they like milk and sugar.
A good cup of coffee should taste wonderful without anything added. Of course, I know nothing about making my own - the coffee shop around the corner makes fantastic coffee and espresso :)
The grind especially matters, and burr grinders can pay for themselves, if you're concerned about the rising cost of good beans (places like Stumptown, Ritual in SF, Victrola in Seattle etc. are doing coffees pitched - and priced - more like wine than coffee). Take a look inside your blade grinder sometime - odds are you'll find entire halves of beans still kicking around in there. That sure isn't getting you maximum value out of your beans.
Most coffee is still good when it was roasted a week ago (whole-bean, of course, and true, a week is starting to push it). The problem is that plenty of places—Starbucks, etc.—sell several-month-old beans.
Be aware that there are different kinds of burr grinder. IIRC, it is preferable to have one that holds the grinding elements/surfaces (burrs) in what is referred to as a "conical" configuration. A quick google will elucidate; sorry, I'm still waking up...
Freshness is great, yes, and the quality of the beans and roast are usually higher from places that actually disclose the roast date, but grind is very important.
Coffee is very much about the extraction: under-extract, and the coffee will have a sour edge; over-extract, and the extra caffeine extracted will bring bitterness to the cup. Using a blade grinder means introducing a huge range of differently-sized solids that will extract at different rates, meaning even if you hit a nice middle ground, you're introducing sour and bitter flavor components into your cup. Burr grinders provide a very even grind and minimize this.
Next time you go to a place that roasts freshly, try to take home a little bit pre-ground. It will have less flavor (due to rapid oxidization), but the flavor should be better: more balanced and consistent (as long as it was a good brew). Don't get me wrong: pull an espresso shot from just-ground coffee, and pull another one from coffee ground 15 minutes ago, and the crema deprecation is pretty amazing. Pre-grinding kills a lot of coffee's oomph. Still, blade-grinding mangles a lot of coffee's hidden potential :)
I'd definitely second the recommendation to roast your own. Green beans are cheap, and the you can't really have better control over freshness. Hackers interested in roasting their own should probably just grab a cheap $15–20 hot air popcorn popper. You can actually get a great, consistent (if rushed) roast. I've migrated to bigger, slower machines, but can't say they always do a better job.
Presently, I keep them in a foil bag having a one-wave valve to vent CO2. I repeatedly fold down and then rubber band the opening to eliminate excess air. Works pretty well.
Any tips for backpacking? Is there a rule of thumb for getting the right water temperature without measuring? I'm planning on grinding before I go, taking a french press, and packing the ground beans in ziploc bags.
Those are really nice for travel or the office (I'm drinking from one right now) but I find the volume, weight and mechanism of the cup (making it only really usable for coffee) makes it too much of a luxury for backpacking.
I mean, keep in mind that the drip filter I linked is 14 grams. =D
And then you just reuse with whatever cup you are already using.
The roasting section actually has a few hidden gems. The first "pop" (called the first crack in roasting lingo) occurs slightly after the green bean begins to brown from carmelization and the moisture trapped inside rapidly expands via evaporation cracking the bean. After the first crack is known as a City Roast and is lighter, more woody and fruity tasting than the darker roasts.
The second crack occurs shortly after the first one at the end of the City Roast range as the cellulose matrices that form the coffee bean themselves begin to break down from the heat damage. At exactly the start of the second crack the beans are called Vienna roasted and begin to have darker, richer flavors. These coffees are where you hear about honey and chocolate flavors.
As you keep going the beans will continue to crack as they begin to literally degrade to ash. Further carbonization begins to take over the flavor alongside the aromatic oils which seep out of the now lipid-hostile inner bean environment. These form the oily-looking French roasts which are known for strong flavors, intense bodies, and bitterness.
If you do start to buy fresh coffee, play with the roasts. A single bean from a single place in the world has a wide spectrum of flavors depending on how long it's been roasted.
If you do shop, bear in mind that you can get great results inexpensively with a modified popcorn maker; there's DIY guides and instructables all over the place for all different brands.
I've had some of the best homemade coffee by using (1) fresh beans (2) a French press.
My secret to a good roast is http://www.stumptowncoffee.com/ - you can't go wrong with a good roast there. Not only that, but you can order the specific coarseness you'd like the coffee ground at, and they roast it and grind it after you order and send it to you with priority mail. It's nearly as fresh as it gets, anywhere in the US.
I have a friend who meticulously puts a small pinch of salt in her coffee before brewing. She says the salt slightly cuts down the acidity, and the flavor comes out a bit more. I'm not sure of the science behind it, but, she makes a damn good cup of coffee.
Another fun fact: a shot of espresso generally has slightly less caffeine than a regular cup of coffee.
Not sure why, but I'd always assumed a shot of espresso was like a concentrated giant cup of regular roast. However, a regular sized cup of espresso is a different story...
I could be just a matter of volume. The volume ratio is greater than the concentration ratio. You can say the same thing about espresso vs. soda -- drinking a shot of espresso will probably result in less caffeine than downing a large soda bottle. For example 1oz a espresso would have about 70mg of caffeine, which is less than 20oz of Diet Coke (80mg of caffeine).
"Coffee was originally eaten".
When I worked in the Alaskan fish canneries during summer break from college, one of the things we used to do to help stay awake and alert during peak times was eat chocolate covered coffee beans.
Jared Diamond explains in "Guns, Germs & Steel" that coffee beans were first domesticated in what's currently Ethiopia, yes, and from there it spreaded through Eurasia via de Fertile Crescent.
Does that fact have anything to do with the battle between Starbucks and Ethiopian local coffee producers around the right of using the names of the different local coffee beans?
I go to the Allegro Roasters counter at Whole Foods each week and buy a medium roast from that day, or the day before. I have a cheap grinder at home, and I just use cheap #2 cone filters in a cheap single-cup cone brewer. I emphasize that those last 3 items are cheap. You don't need a fancy-schmancy grinder. You get a huge bang for the buck just by using beans roasted in the past 2 weeks. The other thing: make sure your water is the right temperature. (190 to 195 degrees seems to work for me.) Just borrow a candy thermometer, always use the same amount of water, the same pot, and figure out how long to wait to let the water cool to the right temp.
I have wowed friends with my coffee. Not rocket science. It's just brewed at the right temp, and it's fresh!
Cheap cone brewer: http://amzn.com/B001S353EQ
Cone filters (hate the eco-guilt marketing, though): http://amzn.com/B000U5ACLW
My cheap grinder. Has nice design features. Still a mediocre grinder. Doesn't matter so much. http://amzn.com/B00006IUX5
Aeropress for cheap DIY "Espresso" http://amzn.com/B000GXZ2GS (Don't have one, but people seem to like it.)
EDIT: I grind for 20-25 seconds with my blade grinder. Again, this works for me. YMMV.