Popular Mechanics - USA (2019-06)

_ June 2019

I

Where to Start

The guy at Stumptown

says I want my water to be

196 degrees for the best

extraction. Seriously, 196?

THE OPTIMAL EXTRACTION temperature is

somewhere between 195 to 205 F. If you’re

working without a thermometer, a good

rule of thumb is to let your water come to a

boil and then wait 30 seconds before begin-

ning to pour. A kitchen thermometer like a

Thermapen ($80; thermoworks.com) is a

great investment.

FOUND THE BEST coffee in the world in Dingle, Ireland, one summer in college when

I was aimlessly backpacking around. I’d wandered into a small stone-carving shop to

cool off, and made friends with the dog keeping idle guard—apparently a good enough

reason for the proprietor, an old Italian man, to offer me a coffee. I can’t remember

if he served it with cream or with a lemon peel; if there were floral notes or chocolaty

undertones; if it was espresso or Americano or simple drip coffee. What I do remem-

ber is sitting in the tiny garden beside his home as he talked to me about his art and

what he missed about Italy, sipping slowly and feeling both calmed and energized. The

caffeine is an objective boost, yes. But coffee’s also personal. Something easy to share.

And despite what the recent proliferation of intimidating, blond-wood-and-Edison-

lightbulb cafés would have you believe, it’s easy to make, too.

Here’s the real secret to coffee: What matters isn’t mastering some trendy new pro-

cess; it’s figuring out what you enjoy and making sure you can brew it consistently. Half

of that is chemistry: ratio, temperature, and time. The other half is atmosphere.

We can help with the first half.

1. SCALE
   Peter Giuliano, chief
   research officer at the
   Specialty Coffee Asso-
   ciation (SCA), says most
   people like their coffee
   best when 1.15 to 1.35
   percent coffee solids
   make it into the brew,
   and it has an extraction
   of 18 to 22 percent.
   What that means
   in practice is that you
   should have a ratio of
   about 60 grams dry
   coffee per one liter
   water. (For a stron-
   ger cup, don’t brew it
   longer—that’ll turn it
   bitter. Just add more
   grounds.) Your scale
   should measure over
   one kilogram, to at
   least one decimal

place. Most jewelry

scales will do the trick;

we also like the Acaia

Pearl Bluetooth scale

($14 0; acaia .co).

2. GRINDER
   Get a burr grinder.
   Blade grinders—which
   are cheaper and more
   common—don’t work
   as well for coffee.
   They slice the beans
   into uneven particles,
   which can throw off
   the extraction process.
   Burr grinders instead
   pulverize the beans
   into a consistent size.
   Make sure you get one
   with metal, not plastic,
   burrs. We recommend
   the Baratza Virtuoso
   ($230; baratza .com).
   3. BEANS
   There’s no hard rule
   on how much to
   spend, but “if you
   see cheap coffee, it’s
   almost certainly too
   good to be true,” says
   Christopher Hendon,
   a chemistry professor
   at the University of
   Oregon who’s studied
   coffee extensively.
   He usually stays in
   the range of $15 to
   $20 per bag. “You get
   probably 20 cups of
   coffee out of one bag.
   That’s like $1 a cup,
   and it’ll make
   you extremely
   happy.”

What’s a good

pour-over system?

Also: Isn’t it a little fussy?

THE IMPORTANT PART of a pour-over sys-

tem is the brewer itself—functionally, it’s

the basket where the filter sits, removed

from an automatic coffeemaker and

plopped on top of your mug of choice. The

Hario V60 (page 52) is more or less the

industry standard. Once you’ve heated your

water and measured out your grounds, it’s

pretty straightforward, but you do have to

stand there pouring slowly for the entire

process—usually about two and a half to

three minutes.

What is the best

drip machine?

THE GOOD PEOPLE at the SCA can answer

that question for you. Teaming up with the

coffee lab at UC Davis, they run tests on con-

sumer drip brewers to determine which

machines hit all the right qualifications.

“Most brewers don’t pass that test,” Giuliano

says. He’s not kidding. The SCA currently

lists a mere 23 approved brew machines on

its website, including the Bonavita Connois-

seur (page 52).

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