brewing coffee

[javasaurus]

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.

Comments

[blueeowyn.livejournal.com]

If your hopper won't hold that much coffee, could you get the same effect with less water? Or run the coffee through a second time with the new grounds?N

Re:

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

Less water would work.

The second idea has problems. After you put water into the coffee maker, it is heated and turned to steam. The steam passes over the coffee grounds where it cools and turns back to liquid, falling onto the grounds as a hot rain, and passing through, capturing the good coffee flavor as it goes. The nice thing about this is that the water compartment of the coffee maker only sees water, so you don't have to clean it (you should run a bit of vinegar through it occassionally to remove any built up deposits from the water). If you pour coffee in there, you'll have to clean it immediately after each coffee batch (not easy!). Second, who knows what will happen to the coffee flavor from the first pass through as you heat it to steaming. Will the flavor be left behind as a residue, or become foul tasting? Don't know, and I'm not prepared to find out.

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

Well, for my tastes, the difference isn't worth it. I'm not sure whether I like the "proper" method better or not. It's different, certainly tastes more like coffee beans, but for the effort and extra expense I'm not sure I'd repeat it unless I had fresh beans and a grinder.

*buzzzzz* Mmmmm...coffee.....

Re:

[wilhelmina-d.livejournal.com]

interesting.... not being a coffee drinker I don't know, but I always like the cofee "packets" that you can get with pre-measured servings. I occasionally make coffee for Himself. :)