Post by M.R. Hagerty on Jan 28, 2023 19:23:10 GMT -7
Coffee-to-Espresso Preparation Methods
Oldest – Turkish Coffee
Coffee is roasted, then ground in a mortar, then set in a pot with a measure of water and boiled. When considered boiled to taste it is served without filtering. This accounts for the strong consistency of Turkish. Americans will generally find it too harsh and may induce stomach and digestion issues in some drinkers. Turkish coffee violates one of the golden rules of preparation – “boiled coffee is spoiled coffee.” But in the end, there is no accounting for taste and many find it perfectly acceptable.
The Moka Pot
Essentially a double-chamber pot similar to an early 20th century percolator, Moka is a Yemeni invention from the city of Mokha, alternately spelled Mocha, which also gives its name to Mocha-Java coffee beans. The method involves heating water in the lower chamber which eventually is pushed up a pipe into the upper chamber and soaks and combines with the coffee grounds.
Unlike the percolator method, liquid coffee in the upper chamber does not drip back into the bottom chamber. Timing must be learned to not let the empty bottom chamber steam into the upper chamber.
Percolators
Percolators have a long history in modern America as the classic way to prepare a pot of coffee for several drinkers. Sunbeam, Cuisinart, Farberware, GE, Hamilton-Beach are the most familiar brands for these units.
Coffee is similarly brewed as a variation of the two chamber method. Water in the main body of the percolator is heated to force water up a center pipe into a basket of grounds as in the Moka Pot. But in all percolators, sufficient hot water passing through the grounds eventually drips back into the main chamber to be reheated and cycled through the pipe, back into the grounds basket. This cycling allows consumers to use fewer grounds in the basket (three coffee scoops is normal for a 10-cup percolator). However, the result can be harsh due to reboiling brewed coffee over and over and the lack of a filter. Filters for percolators can be placed in the bottom of the basket. Connoisseurs of gourmet coffee almost unanimously agree that percolated is the least desirable brew of coffee.
Drip Coffee Makers
Drip has been around for many decades and corrects some of the misgivings of percolators. Hot water is sprinkled over a basket of grounds which eventually drips down into the carafe below. Filters can be used to eliminate oils etc. Brewed coffee never re-enters the water system so it constitutes a one-pass brewing flow. Strength of coffee is strictly a function of the quantity of measured grounds used. Disadvantages of drip makers is their plastic construction, which soon begins to contribute a chemical flavor from the heated plastic. Also, plastic takes on odors from the spent grounds and combines with it’s own chemical odor to contribute bitterness of off-putting flavors to brewed coffee.
Again, consumers may get used to this coffee and stay with the system for its convenience.
Pour-over Brewing – Sometimes Called “the Melitta Way”
This was introduced many decades back by Melitta, whereby a portable single-cup cone-shaped basket with a paper filter holds coffee grounds and is placed over a single cup for brewing. Boiling water is poured into the basket in a one-pass method. A single small hole at the bottom allows the coffee to drain into the serving cup at a pre-designed rate. When done, the filter basket is removed and the cup is ready to drink or add creamer etc.
Pour-over provides a much-improved brew of coffee over percolators and drip machines, as it effuses water rapidly into contact with grounds and the flavors transferred to the brew are superior to earlier methods. One disadvantage is that plastic cone baskets can take on odors and make coffee stale. Using ceramic cone baskets eliminates this problem. Paper filters also provide a smoother more flavorful brew as they eliminate oils. Another common disadvantage is that pour-over can be messy. Users can’t often see when the receiving coffee cup is full and coffee coming down through the basket can overflow onto counter tops. Also, spent grounds and basket need to be quickly moved to a sink or receptacle where they can continue to drain, as in the sink.
The other noticeable inconvenience is that this method is limited to one cup at a time brewing, although there are large ceramic baskets available in some stores or on eBay that will allow you to make a pot of coffee. Large quantities are usually less flavorful because additional water that is poured in a second or third time is contacting spent grounds from the first pour.
Store-bought pre-ground coffee can be used as well as beans with your home grinder.
Pour-over with Mesh Filtering
This is a variation on the Pour-over method, whereby one uses a gold mesh filter basket instead of a paper filter, placed inside the cone-basket over your cup. This type of filter may seem superfluous since using the cone basket without a filter would achieve the same thing. However, there is more time in suspension that allows oils and additional flavor components to enter the brew.
French Press
The French Press incorporates the advantage of flushing hot water into grounds rapidly and a method of filtering away the spent grounds. Course coffee grounds are placed in the bottom of the carafe, then water just off boiling is poured directly into the carafe to mix with the grounds. A top with a thin filter piston and rod are mounted at the top of the carafe, then pressed down through the coffee in the carafe. This action stops the exposure to the grounds, pushing the grounds to the bottom under the filter and leaving the brewed coffee above it.
Proper wait time and coarseness of grounds are the key. Courser grounds can take four minutes to brew coffee sufficiently in the mix before pressing. Less course may average two minutes wait time. Some grinders have settings for French Press, otherwise, grinding several settings courser than regular is a place to start. Some stores offer grinders with these settings. French Press will make more than a cup at a time, but that usually means small cups. Pressed coffee will serve about two of the larger mugs per operation.
A disadvantage of French Press is that water from the stove or microwave cools down during wait time for brewing and pressing. If served immediately, coffee temps are just below normal for “hot” and cool rapidly. Second cups are usually warm but never hot. Heating the carafe with boiling water just before adding grounds helps to avoid loss of heat.
Espresso
As it sounds, espresso is coffee that is expressed, using highly pressurized water through finely ground coffee. It requires a machine that can apply this pressure to the grounds – an espresso machine.
A filter cup with a handle is filled with finely ground coffee. The filter – called a portafilter – has very fine exit holes in the bottom and the back pressure created by the portafilter helps to increase pressure to the proper level. The finely ground coffee is itself compressed tightly with a hand tool called a tamper, then the filter is attached to the machine into what is called the group head. A button starts the water to be forced down through the portafilter and into a shot glass or a coffee cup.
The noticeable difference in the coffee is the added expulsion of crema – a creamy golden foam that settles on top of the brewed coffee. Cheaper espresso makers use a combination of a heat pump rather than a true boiler and also a pressurized portafilter that has a double wall at the bottom of the filter. This enables a cheaply made machine to produce what is called faux-crema or a false look of crema. Some users can’t tell the difference from genuine crema and find this acceptable. Connoisseurs and purists will deride such machines. It’s really a matter of taste. But pressurized portafilters are by definition not true espresso devices.
Espresso Coffees vs. Espresso Brewing
Espresso brewing is per the description above, but virtually any coffee can be used as long as the grind is done for espresso, which is extremely fine, just above powder. Espresso coffee, however, usually refers to beans that are roasted to a dark roast level, known as full-city plus or vienna, which results in a bit of a burnt flavor in the coffee. Some call this too bitter, as some have labeled coffees like those at Starbucks. Dark roast is popular in Europe whereas light roast is often the favorite in America, but not for espresso. When you ask for espresso, it is assumed you want a European dark roast experience that is then expressed using an espresso machine. Interestingly, some users have found that medium or even light roasted coffee is desirable from an espresso processed brew.
Oldest – Turkish Coffee
Coffee is roasted, then ground in a mortar, then set in a pot with a measure of water and boiled. When considered boiled to taste it is served without filtering. This accounts for the strong consistency of Turkish. Americans will generally find it too harsh and may induce stomach and digestion issues in some drinkers. Turkish coffee violates one of the golden rules of preparation – “boiled coffee is spoiled coffee.” But in the end, there is no accounting for taste and many find it perfectly acceptable.
The Moka Pot
Essentially a double-chamber pot similar to an early 20th century percolator, Moka is a Yemeni invention from the city of Mokha, alternately spelled Mocha, which also gives its name to Mocha-Java coffee beans. The method involves heating water in the lower chamber which eventually is pushed up a pipe into the upper chamber and soaks and combines with the coffee grounds.
Unlike the percolator method, liquid coffee in the upper chamber does not drip back into the bottom chamber. Timing must be learned to not let the empty bottom chamber steam into the upper chamber.
Percolators
Percolators have a long history in modern America as the classic way to prepare a pot of coffee for several drinkers. Sunbeam, Cuisinart, Farberware, GE, Hamilton-Beach are the most familiar brands for these units.
Coffee is similarly brewed as a variation of the two chamber method. Water in the main body of the percolator is heated to force water up a center pipe into a basket of grounds as in the Moka Pot. But in all percolators, sufficient hot water passing through the grounds eventually drips back into the main chamber to be reheated and cycled through the pipe, back into the grounds basket. This cycling allows consumers to use fewer grounds in the basket (three coffee scoops is normal for a 10-cup percolator). However, the result can be harsh due to reboiling brewed coffee over and over and the lack of a filter. Filters for percolators can be placed in the bottom of the basket. Connoisseurs of gourmet coffee almost unanimously agree that percolated is the least desirable brew of coffee.
Drip Coffee Makers
Drip has been around for many decades and corrects some of the misgivings of percolators. Hot water is sprinkled over a basket of grounds which eventually drips down into the carafe below. Filters can be used to eliminate oils etc. Brewed coffee never re-enters the water system so it constitutes a one-pass brewing flow. Strength of coffee is strictly a function of the quantity of measured grounds used. Disadvantages of drip makers is their plastic construction, which soon begins to contribute a chemical flavor from the heated plastic. Also, plastic takes on odors from the spent grounds and combines with it’s own chemical odor to contribute bitterness of off-putting flavors to brewed coffee.
Again, consumers may get used to this coffee and stay with the system for its convenience.
Pour-over Brewing – Sometimes Called “the Melitta Way”
This was introduced many decades back by Melitta, whereby a portable single-cup cone-shaped basket with a paper filter holds coffee grounds and is placed over a single cup for brewing. Boiling water is poured into the basket in a one-pass method. A single small hole at the bottom allows the coffee to drain into the serving cup at a pre-designed rate. When done, the filter basket is removed and the cup is ready to drink or add creamer etc.
Pour-over provides a much-improved brew of coffee over percolators and drip machines, as it effuses water rapidly into contact with grounds and the flavors transferred to the brew are superior to earlier methods. One disadvantage is that plastic cone baskets can take on odors and make coffee stale. Using ceramic cone baskets eliminates this problem. Paper filters also provide a smoother more flavorful brew as they eliminate oils. Another common disadvantage is that pour-over can be messy. Users can’t often see when the receiving coffee cup is full and coffee coming down through the basket can overflow onto counter tops. Also, spent grounds and basket need to be quickly moved to a sink or receptacle where they can continue to drain, as in the sink.
The other noticeable inconvenience is that this method is limited to one cup at a time brewing, although there are large ceramic baskets available in some stores or on eBay that will allow you to make a pot of coffee. Large quantities are usually less flavorful because additional water that is poured in a second or third time is contacting spent grounds from the first pour.
Store-bought pre-ground coffee can be used as well as beans with your home grinder.
Pour-over with Mesh Filtering
This is a variation on the Pour-over method, whereby one uses a gold mesh filter basket instead of a paper filter, placed inside the cone-basket over your cup. This type of filter may seem superfluous since using the cone basket without a filter would achieve the same thing. However, there is more time in suspension that allows oils and additional flavor components to enter the brew.
French Press
The French Press incorporates the advantage of flushing hot water into grounds rapidly and a method of filtering away the spent grounds. Course coffee grounds are placed in the bottom of the carafe, then water just off boiling is poured directly into the carafe to mix with the grounds. A top with a thin filter piston and rod are mounted at the top of the carafe, then pressed down through the coffee in the carafe. This action stops the exposure to the grounds, pushing the grounds to the bottom under the filter and leaving the brewed coffee above it.
Proper wait time and coarseness of grounds are the key. Courser grounds can take four minutes to brew coffee sufficiently in the mix before pressing. Less course may average two minutes wait time. Some grinders have settings for French Press, otherwise, grinding several settings courser than regular is a place to start. Some stores offer grinders with these settings. French Press will make more than a cup at a time, but that usually means small cups. Pressed coffee will serve about two of the larger mugs per operation.
A disadvantage of French Press is that water from the stove or microwave cools down during wait time for brewing and pressing. If served immediately, coffee temps are just below normal for “hot” and cool rapidly. Second cups are usually warm but never hot. Heating the carafe with boiling water just before adding grounds helps to avoid loss of heat.
Espresso
As it sounds, espresso is coffee that is expressed, using highly pressurized water through finely ground coffee. It requires a machine that can apply this pressure to the grounds – an espresso machine.
A filter cup with a handle is filled with finely ground coffee. The filter – called a portafilter – has very fine exit holes in the bottom and the back pressure created by the portafilter helps to increase pressure to the proper level. The finely ground coffee is itself compressed tightly with a hand tool called a tamper, then the filter is attached to the machine into what is called the group head. A button starts the water to be forced down through the portafilter and into a shot glass or a coffee cup.
The noticeable difference in the coffee is the added expulsion of crema – a creamy golden foam that settles on top of the brewed coffee. Cheaper espresso makers use a combination of a heat pump rather than a true boiler and also a pressurized portafilter that has a double wall at the bottom of the filter. This enables a cheaply made machine to produce what is called faux-crema or a false look of crema. Some users can’t tell the difference from genuine crema and find this acceptable. Connoisseurs and purists will deride such machines. It’s really a matter of taste. But pressurized portafilters are by definition not true espresso devices.
Espresso Coffees vs. Espresso Brewing
Espresso brewing is per the description above, but virtually any coffee can be used as long as the grind is done for espresso, which is extremely fine, just above powder. Espresso coffee, however, usually refers to beans that are roasted to a dark roast level, known as full-city plus or vienna, which results in a bit of a burnt flavor in the coffee. Some call this too bitter, as some have labeled coffees like those at Starbucks. Dark roast is popular in Europe whereas light roast is often the favorite in America, but not for espresso. When you ask for espresso, it is assumed you want a European dark roast experience that is then expressed using an espresso machine. Interestingly, some users have found that medium or even light roasted coffee is desirable from an espresso processed brew.