Coffee Brewing Methods

Water: You need clean, clear and pure water. If you live in an area with low water quality, especially when it is chemically treated, you might consider in filtering it or using high quality bottled water. The water is the carrier for the taste, so on its quality depends the quality of the finished coffee.

Coffee: There are so many different kinds and flavors of coffee beans available that there is only one way to find out the ideal one for you – by brewing and drinking the coffee.
It is also important to use the right coffee for the right method of coffee brewing. Especially the grade the coffee is grounded to is important. The finer the coffee, the more surface is available to be in contact with the water and to infuse it with taste and flavor. But that doesn't mean that very finely grounded coffee is always the best choice for every method of coffee brewing.

There are a lot of different methods to brew coffee, some are more apt for small amounts, others are better to brew more coffee for larger groups. All three generations in my family had their favorite method of brewing coffee, here they are:

My grandmother preferred to use a manual drip brew. She would place a paper filter in a holder, put 1 teaspoon per cup and one extra teaspoon “for the pot” of coffee in it, add a pinch of salt and pour one gulp of hot water over it. She then would wait some minutes and after that add the rest of the water very slowly, making sure that the coffee grounds got equally soaked. Easy, quick and without the need for any fancy equipment.

My mother used an automatic drip coffee maker, but she would follow my grandmothers' example by turning it of for a short while to “let it sit” and she would also add always add a pinch of salt to enhance the taste and flavor of the coffee. Pretty much an on auto-pilot method ;-)

I know there are many more ways out there to brew a good cup of coffee ;-) What is your best tip?