If you’re turning into a coffee aficionado, there is every chance you want to match your coffee shop experience at home. It can be really frustrating if you go to the coffee shop and enjoy a really delicious latte or other coffee drink, and come back home to a disappointing cup of joe.
In this guide, we’re taking you through the steps to experiment, and hopefully lead you to making the most delicious coffee at home.
Get The Right Beans
There are many ways in which you can prepare coffee beans and turn them into a delicious drink, but if you’ve got the wrong beans then it is incredibly hard to make a coffee that tastes even decent.
Quality, single-origin beans are a good starting point. Experimenting with a few types of coffee beans allows you to establish exactly what you like. For instance, you might find that you have a preference for African coffee beans or South American beans.
You can easily find a huge variety of coffee beans to buy online. Getting different ‘taster’ packs is a good way to see what you enjoy.
On top of this, we recommend getting a decent grinder so that you can adjust how you grind the beans to suit your preparation method. For example, if you buy beans for espresso you might need a finer grind than you would if you were preparing in a coffee dripper.
It’s easy to spend a huge amount of time and money getting the right method and setup for brewing the coffee, but if you forget about the grind then you will always be working with something that is not quite right.
Test What Drinks You Like
You can have some fun with this part. We recommend the best way to do this is simply going to a quality, preferably independent coffee shop, and working your way through the menu.
Okay, so you can’t do this in one sitting. Say you get a coffee every day, why not try something a little different each day?
You should try everything from the simplest filter coffees, to espressos, and milk-based barista-style drinks like lattes and flat whites.
From this experiment, you’ll know what direction you want to go in, and what you like when it comes to coffee drinks.
Replicate Your Favourites
Easier said than done, right?
If you’re the sort of person who likes a simple coffee drink like filter coffee or even an Americano, you can enjoy simpler preparation methods. It is easy enough to get a drip coffee machine or a pour over coffee maker, with simple preparation. A french press is an equally straightforward method to start with.
Replicating your favourite barista-style coffee has become much more straightforward, too. A bean-to-cup coffee machine is a way to do exactly this. Many machines allow you a huge amount of control over the brew, without you having to take a barista course in order to reach the stage where you are up to standard.
Many barista-style coffee machines and bean-to-cup machines just need you to add milk, water, and beans, and the machine will do the rest for you. Some of the machines have really simple interfaces, and you can even press a simple button to start the brewing process.
The Siemens “TQ505R09” is an example of a coffee machine that has a visual interface. You can press on the icon for the type of drink you want and the machine will get to work.
Experiment
Another fun step in the process of making the most delicious coffee. You get to experiment. Try different types of milk, or even add some syrups to your drinks. Coffee syrups can turn an ordinary latte into a hazelnut latte, and though some of the purists won’t agree, there is nothing wrong with working out what you like. You may find that one type of coffee is better for making latte while one is better for filter coffee.
Consider Reading Material
If you want to be able to make the most delicious coffee to suit everyone’s tastes, then it is time to do some reading. There are so many books out there that will teach you about coffee and the process behind making and preparing coffee.
You don’t exactly need to study for a degree, but it helps to understand the different varieties and what goes into making different types of coffee. If you are going to take to stamping your own milk and practicing some barista techniques it is even more important to subscribe to the right blogs and magazines, or read the right coffee books.
Conclusion
As you can see from our guide, there isn’t one simple method that works for absolutely everyone. Different people like different types of coffee drinks, and the equipment and techniques can vary massively. It’s all about coming up with your own method.
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