How to perfect your new daily grind
Local roasters offer tips to help you brew that perfect morning coffee
You might not miss your daily commute. But you’re probably longing for that morning latte from the café near your office.
With social distancing in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, coffee drinkers working remotely are more motivated than ever to brew better at home. “We’ve spoken to people that are making coffee themselves for the first time,” says Slawek Janicki, who has been selling coffee makers for over a decade through his Milton showroom and website, idrinkcoffee.com.
“April was our busiest month ever,” he says. “I think with people isolating and staying at home, a lot of them miss coffee. They miss the café and they want to bring that experience home.”
If you’re starting from scratch, the first step is getting the right equipment. And you don’t necessarily have to break the bank.
“One of my favourite ways of making coffee, and one of the easiest, is the French press,” says Janicki. Ground coffee is steeped in hot water then plunged with a built-in filter, sending the grinds to the bottom.
“It’s full-immersion brewing so it gives a very good-tasting coffee. You get a lot of body,” says Janicki. French presses cost $25 to $60 on Janicki’s website, depending on size and style.
There is one downside, however. “You do get some sediment in the cup, which sometimes people are a little bit adverse to.”
Those wanting a cleaner brew could try filtered methods. One of Janicki’s favourites is the Chemex, a glass drip coffeemaker. Water flows through the ground coffee and filter, so the end result is lighter but sediment-free. “Chemex has been around for a very long time. Its design, with the wooden collar and that leather string, it’s actually part of the permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian,” Janicki says.
To take your home coffeemaking up a notch, try an espresso machine. “Canadians love milk,” Janicki says. “Cappuccinos and lattes are some of the most popular drinks and they’re the reasons why a lot of people buy these machines.”
Espresso machines are more hands-on than French press and filter methods. Ground beans are tamped into a dense puck, then hot water is forced through at high temperature and pressure. Espresso machines are also equipped with frothers to steam milk for making those revered lattes and cappuccinos.
“There’s a bit of a learning curve to making espresso and getting your grind right, getting your tamp right and getting the settings correct,” Janicki explains.
Two of his most popular entry-level espresso machines are the Breville Barista Express ($599.95) and the Gaggia Classic Pro ($549). But if you’re looking to splurge, Janicki sells machines priced up to $13,000.
“You gain the ability to draw espresso and froth at the same time, so it’s faster,” Janicki says of the pricier machines. “There is also better temperature stability so the higher-end machines can actually be easier to use and more forgiving than entry-level machines.”
Aside from coffee makers, one additional piece of equipment is essential to the home coffee experience. “We have seen unprecedented demand for grinders during the pandemic,” says Janicki. “Products like the Baratza Encore, we’ve sold over 1,000 pieces over the last month. We can’t keep them in stock.”
If you’ve been using preground coffee, you’ll notice the difference in grinding whole beans just before brewing, says George Fowler. He is co-owner of Remarkable Bean, a coffee roaster and café with locations in Leslieville and the Beach.
“Once you grind it, one bean becomes a thousand particles and those particles are now open to surface oxygenation, which is like rust on cars,” Fowler explains. “The oxygen starts to destroy the flavours of the coffee.”
Where you buy your beans also makes a difference. “If you go to the grocery store, some of the expensive stuff shipping from Italy might end up sitting in a warehouse for a year,” says Fowler. “You can drink it. It’s just not optimal.”
Fowler’s operation roasts beans three to four times a week. “Generally, most of our coffee is freshly roasted within a day or two from the time that you would pick it up,” he says.
Budding bean enthusiasts can inquire about the roasting process used at their local shop. The traditional method of roasting, favoured by larger industrial-sized operations, is a large rotating drum with a turning arm that distributes the beans. But Fowler says drum roasting can cause some beans to burn. Instead, he uses a “fluid bed hot-air roaster.”
“Our beans are levitating on a bed of hot air so we never end up with scorched beans,” he says.
Your local café is a good spot for procuring freshly roasted beans if they are sourced from a nearby roaster.
Once you’ve brought home your preferred beans, you might be tempted to store them in the fridge or freezer for longevity. But Fowler advises otherwise. “The three enemies of coffee are oxygen, light and moisture,” he says. “There is moisture in the freezer and the fridge. So you want to put them in an airtight container in a dark spot in your cupboard.”
Beans should ideally be used within 14 days of roasting, and expiry dates of months or years will be indicative of quality. “We put our roasting date on the bottom of the bag,” says Fowler.
Beans can still be used after two weeks, but the oils within the beans will begin to go rancid, resulting in a sour-tasting coffee.
Once you have your beans and method down pat, all that’s left is the water. Fowler recommends using water that’s just short of boiling hot. “You don’t want to burn the beans,” he says.
About 95 degrees Celsius is an ideal temperature for French press and drip methods, but if you don’t have a temperature gauge on your kettle, boil water and let it cool in the kettle for a minute before pouring.
Lastly, using filtered water will improve your coffee by removing the chlorine present in tap water. “Ninety-seven per cent of your coffee is water,” Fowler says. “So if you start with good water, you’ll end up with good coffee.”
“If you start with good water, you’ll end up with good coffee.”
GEORGE FOWLER REMARKABLE BEAN