Coffee, coffee, coffee… everyone loves coffee. If you don’t, that’s ok. I’m writing this to try and convince you that coffee can be amazing.

The Benefits

One of the many benefits of coffee is caffeine. Used by millions, coffee increases concentration and focus while preventing fatigue. Caffeine blocks the neurotransmitter adenosine that makes you feel sleepy. Another benefit is coffee contains many nutrients and antioxidants such as riboflavin, pantothenic acid, magnesium, etc. Finally, the most important reason to drink coffee— it’s delicious!

The Taste

The taste of coffee is almost entirely due to the volatile compounds produced when we roast coffee beans. When coffee beans are roasted from the pale green color to the light brown or dark brown, they undergo the Maillard reaction. As heat is introduced to the beans, the chemical compounds are broken down and reformed creating new distinctive tastes. Coffee can easily be one of the most complex forms of food with a multitude of subtle taste differences. Instead of downing your coffee in two minutes to get the caffeine rush why not slow down and take a sip and try to break down what you’re tasting. After a while, you will start to pick up notes within your morning coffee that you never have tasted before.

Before the Process

Coffee Beans: NEVER buy pre-ground coffee! It oxidizes faster than whole beans resulting in it losing flavor, even if it’s 40% off, it’s not worth it! There are many cafes around town that sell beans at an affordable price.

Grinder: Do your research on a grinder and buy one that fits your budget, if you can afford a burr grinder you will be set to have consistent grounds. Amazing beans can be destroyed with a terrible grind, but decent beans can still be amazing with a good grind.

Kettle, thermometer, kitchen scale: All of these may be things you already have so save your money if you already have one use it. If you want to invest, get an electric kettle with a gooseneck, a sugar thermometer and a kitchen scale with a timer.

The Process

Drip Coffee Maker

  • Follow your coffee makers instructions for making a pot.
  • If you use a paper filter, rinse it first to remove paper taste.

French Press

  • Coarse grind enough beans to ensure you have a 1g of coffee grounds to 15g of water. (6 cups French press uses 1420ml of water, use 95g of coffee)
  • Drop your grounds into the bottom of your press.
  • Starting a timer, fill your press to be half full of water. (swirl your press to ensure all the grounds are soaked in water)
  • After one minute, lightly mix and fill the rest with remaining hot water.
  • Put the lid on but don’t press down on the plunger yet.
  • After another two minutes have elapsed, you can plunge the coffee. (The slower you plunge the better, 30 seconds is generally a good amount of time)

Chemex

  • Heating up the Chemex by pouring water into it. (if you use a paper filter you can wash it during this process to remove the paper taste and allowing it to stick to the brewer)
  • Pour out the old water, measure out 70g of coffee grounds and pour in into the filter.
  • Slowly pour enough water to soak all the ground and then let it sit
  • After the 45 seconds, slowly once again continue pouring water in until you have poured in 600g of water or it has been 2 minutes 45 seconds (the closer the two factors are, the better).
  • After, wait till all the water passes before removing your filter and serving.

Striving for the “Perfect Cup”

There is no such thing as the perfect cup of coffee, everyone has their own preferred taste so experiment! Don’t take everything following as steadfast rules but as suggestions to starting your journey.

The taste of coffee depends on beans and personal taste so try something new occasionally. It doesn’t matter as long as you continue to create something that you enjoy, because at the end of the day, do what makes you happy!

Coffee around School

Here are some of my recommendations for awesome places close by the school for some good coffee!

  • The Bean’s List | Recommendation – La Joya
  • The Grizzlar | Recommendation – Latte with a mini apple pie
  • Dirtbag Café | Recommendation – Mocha and a carrot muffin
  • Drunken Ox Sober Cat | Talk with the barista and find a drip coffee you would like
  • The Nook Café | Recommendation – Americano
  • District Café | Recommendation – Latte and a cinnamon bun

by Tim Samson

Tim is a Bachelor of Commerce student majoring in Accounting and minoring in finance at MacEwan University. He has worked three years for MacEwan Recreation as a Recreation Assistant and is a coffee enthusiast.

Citation:

Healthline.com

CoffeeScience.org

HopkinsMedicine.org