brewing coffee
How do you brew coffee?
My mother always uses 4 rounded scoops (scoop = tblsp) for a 10 to 12 "cup" pot of autodrip coffee. ("cup" is 6 oz for coffee)
However, coffee companies (and web sites, newspaper articles, etc.) suggest between one and two tablespoons of grounds (aka grinds) per 6oz cup of water, which is at least twice what Mom uses! I've always followed Mom's recipe, since it seems to work well enough, and uses minimal coffee, and besides, the coffee companies just want to sell more coffee, right?
Well, I finally saw a video internet thingy that explained why useing so much coffee was important. It won't make your coffee stronger, but will give it a better (rather than bitter) flavor. Why? The water will take a certain amount of flavor out of the grounds. It will take the good stuff first (which is a good thing), then start leeching out the bitter stuff. If there is insufficient grounds for the water to extract only good stuff, you get the bitter too.
Still doubtful, I decided to experiment. I added 9 cups of water to my machine, and 9 scoops of grounds. I don't think 18 would fit in the filter! It's brewing as I'm typing this, so I'll know soon how it tastes compared to my normal recipe.
My mother always uses 4 rounded scoops (scoop = tblsp) for a 10 to 12 "cup" pot of autodrip coffee. ("cup" is 6 oz for coffee)
However, coffee companies (and web sites, newspaper articles, etc.) suggest between one and two tablespoons of grounds (aka grinds) per 6oz cup of water, which is at least twice what Mom uses! I've always followed Mom's recipe, since it seems to work well enough, and uses minimal coffee, and besides, the coffee companies just want to sell more coffee, right?
Well, I finally saw a video internet thingy that explained why useing so much coffee was important. It won't make your coffee stronger, but will give it a better (rather than bitter) flavor. Why? The water will take a certain amount of flavor out of the grounds. It will take the good stuff first (which is a good thing), then start leeching out the bitter stuff. If there is insufficient grounds for the water to extract only good stuff, you get the bitter too.
Still doubtful, I decided to experiment. I added 9 cups of water to my machine, and 9 scoops of grounds. I don't think 18 would fit in the filter! It's brewing as I'm typing this, so I'll know soon how it tastes compared to my normal recipe.
