What a way to open a can of worms; telling someone how to make coffee.  With all the varied methods of brewing, varieties of coffee, and ways of serving it up, there is bound to be some heated debate following any discussion on "how to" regarding coffee.  Were you to google "how to brew coffee", thousands upon thousands of websites will come up offering advice.  And, most of them give the same advice, having basically passed on to another the same information.  So, what on earth can I offer in the way of advice that is going to be any diffent?  First of all, I'll try to keep it simple.  Most importantly, you won't feel inadequate because you don't own a thousand dollar espresso machine.

Most people, and I say "most", will agree that really good coffee is better than a hum-drum cup of joe from a cafeteria urn.  But in reality, many folks simply do not wish to engage in all the time consuming steps in getting that perfect cup.  "Good" coffee is often good enough, and if you want really good coffee you go to a coffee house (right?).  Well believe it or not, you can make as good a cup of coffee at home, and with a minimal amount of effort, time, and cost.  All that is required is the patience beforehand to make sure you understand what it is that goes into a really great cup of coffee.  And I will try to make that part very easy for you  right here.

By far, the most popular method of brewing coffee in this country is the automatic drip coffee maker.  These really do not do a great job because they don't get the water anywhere near the proper temperature for brewing, between 195 and 205 degrees.  Coffee has lots and lots of chemical compounds in it, some of which we want brought out in the cup (for flavor), and others that we do not (bitter compounds).  In order to acheive the fullest flavor without bitterness, we need to brew the coffee at 195-205 degrees, and ideally it should take about a minute a cup for proper extraction of the good flavor compounds at this temperature (at a medium grind).  Now wait a minute, you may think, this sounds pretty complicated right off the bat.  Proper temperature with only 10 degrees variance, and only 60 seconds per cup brewing time?  Fortunately, most auto drip coffee makers brew at the proper time, just not the proper temp.  However, there are a few coffee makers out there that, with a couple tricks, can get it close.

Cuisinart's line of coffee makers are actually pretty good.  Aside from the older Brauns, Krups, and Melittas, this is about the only brand that I regularly recommend (even though they are made in communist China).  They're well designed, and suprisingly well built.  And they come with a 3 year limited warranty.  Krups' FME/FMF line of coffee makers are also well made, though the glass carafes on these tend to be a bit fragile.  There are other more expensive machines out there that actually do brew at 200 degrees, but aside from Bunn's line of machines at a little over a hundred bucks, they are mostly beyond the range the average person wants to spend.  As for older machines, thrift stores and yard sales will often turn up some suprising bargains.  Melitta's BCM4 (made for Gevalia Kaffe) is a dandy coffee maker, and brews at 192-197 degrees.  But, it's only a four cup brewer.  Melitta also made an 8 cup machine (the Deluxe 132) that was as basic as it gets.  The entire top of the coffee maker is a lid that gives you access to the water tank, and the filter basket fits onto the carafe.  But, the West German made one I have brews at 195 degrees.  Braun's discontinued line of Flavor Select (KF140, 180, 187) also brewed at the proper temperature. 

I have found that the simplest way to maximize an auto drip machine's brew temp is to ignore the warning "use cold water only".  This is meant to convey to the user the importance of not adding boiling water to the resevoir.  Hot tap water is fine, and will not harm the machine in any way.  Most drippers have a tube that runs up through the water tank.  The water is drawn from the bottom of the tank, through the heating element, and then back up this tube to be expelled from the nozzle and into the coffee grinds.  If the water in the tank is cold, it will slightly cool the hot water as it makes its way back up through the coffee maker.  Using hot tap water prevents this happening, and you can gain as much as an additional 5 degrees this way (actually it's 5 degrees you're not losing).  You also want to make sure to use the proper grind.  The coffee should be ground fine enough to allow the brew to flow through freely without stalling, but you don't want it pouring through.  Like the name of the machine implies, it's 'drip'.  If the grind is too coarse, the water flows through too quickly, and the grinds cool off while waiting for more water to flow through.  It also is not getting the proper extraction time.  Sounds simple, right?  Add hot water from the tap, and make sure the coffee is ground fine enough.

You may be one of these people who adamantly insists that canned coffee is fine for you.  Well, if it's good enough for you, then that's all that's important, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.  But, if you used canned coffee, try to keep a few things in mind.  First of all, do not buy the giant cans, even though they are cheaper by the ounce (unless you make about four 12 cup pots a day, then go for it).  Coffee begins losing its flavor immediately after grinding, even when it is vacuum packed.  When you open a can of coffee, and you hear that rush of air escaping, think of that as the coffee's flavor, and the clock is now ticking.  After opening a can of ground coffee, you have about 5 days to use it up and have it still taste anything approaching "fresh" coffee.  The big cans force you to use stale coffee long after you've opened it.  None of us here are coffee snobs (they stopped reading halfway through the paragraph on auto drip machines), but there's still no sense in drinking yucky coffee if we don't have to.  And, if you wish to continue using canned coffee, I would recommend using a good percolator for brewing it in.  Percolators will extract the flavor from pre-ground coffee much better than an auto drip machine, and they do it without burning the brew (despite what many of the "experts" say).  If you're using canned coffee, there's no sense in buying any kind of expensive machine, so keep it simple.

You cannot get any simpler than a manual pourover brewer, like the one Melitta still makes after many years (they retail for around $15, and can be found at many supermarkets).  Boil your water, let it stand about 20 seconds removing from boil, pour the water through the filter cone with the filter and coffee in it (of course), and watch your coffee magically appear in the carafe below.  These don't take any longer than an auto drip machine, but you do have to stand there and pour the water yourself.  However, it's 5 minutes well spent.  It's best to immediately transfer the coffee to a thermal container to preserve its heat, but if you're going to drink a couple cups and have the rest in a travel mug on the way to work, that will do as well.  The best pourover coffee brewer is probably that by Chemex.  It's been around since 1948 (I gave one away last week that was actually made in 1948), and there is one on display in the Museum of Modern Art.  These use a very thick paper filter  (actually made of lab paper), and so the extraction time is slowed way down in order to get a really full brew.  And, since the filters are so thick, no sediment, and very little oil, finds its way into the final brew. 

Okay, but what if I want to enjoy freshly ground coffee?  First of all, do NOT use the supermarket grinder.  These are very rarely cleaned, and almost never cleaned properly, and will impart the flavor of everything that has gone before it to your coffee.  Don't like vanilla hazlenut?  If you use the grinder at the supermarket, then you're going to be drinking it whether you like it or not.  If you want to grind your own beans, then you first need to decide what method of brewing you will use.  If your preferred method of brewing is auto drip or pourover, then a simple blade grinder will suffice.  Actually, it will more than suffice, it will do great, and last for many years.  The simple truth of the matter is, drip coffee does not require the consistency of grind as press pot or espresso.  And you can pick up a super quality blade mill for $20 or less.  It seems like everyone makes a blade grinder; or at least they have their name on them.  I have used, tested, evaluated, reviewed, and completely trashed about every grinder out there.   And of all the different blade grinders on the market, there are only 3 (maybe 4) that I can recommend. 

Braun's KSM2 blade grinder has been around forever, as has Krups' Fast Touch grinder.  The Braun is powered by a 150 watt motor, the new Krups have a 200 watt motor (the old ones were powered with 160 watts).  The older Krups and the Brauns did about the same job grinding beans, but I have to say that the new Fast Touch with the 200 watt motor beats the heck out of the Braun.  But, either will do for a drip machine.  KitchenAid brought a new entry to the blade grinder market a few years back, and it is quite a piece of work (I mean that in a good way).  It has a removable stainless steel grinding container, is powered by a 200 watt motor, and has a huge capacity.  Now, neither of these grinders will do a very good job grinding small amounts of beans. The Braun and the Krups work fine for grinding 4-8 scoops.  If you have a 12 cup coffee maker, then you may want to invest the extra ten bucks and get the KitchenAid.  However, if your primary method of making coffee is using a single cup pourover brewer, then about the only blade grinder I have come across (those in current production, anyway) is Bodum's C-mill.  It will do okay grinding only a couple scoops of beans at a time.  The others simpley rattle the beans around inside if you don't use more.

Now, if you wish to try more exotic methods of coffee brewing, then you will need to invest a little more money.  Everything I have recommended to this point will get you a really good cup of coffee, and with a minumum of fuss.  But, say you want to try a coffee press or a stove top espresso maker (not strictly espresso, but pretty good).  For either of these two methods, most blade grinders produce too much dust, resulting in too much sludge in a press, and too bitter a brew in a Bialetti.  You will need a burr grinder, a mill that uses either flat steel burrs or conical burrs to crush the beans into a uniform consistency.  Realistically, you will probably need to spend around a hundred bucks for a decent burr grinder.  However, Braun's old KMM30 can still be had for fifty dollars or less, and it's about the best quality budget end burr grinder ever made.  It's noisy, it produces more dust than others (but the static causes the fine dust to stick to the inside of the grounds receptacle where it can be removed from the ground coffee), and it can be a static monster with dark roasts.  But, it's common for these Braun grinders to last ten years or more without a hiccup.  I would only recommend this grinder if you want greater consistency than a blade grinder, but really aren't overly concerned with the little extra sediment in your presspot.  That, and if you use a manual drip coffee maker, and ocassionally only need about two scoops of coffee.  I actually use one of these, having rid my kitchen of my Chinese made Infinity (a great grinder for the price, and probably the one you want to look at if you're getting a conical burr grinderJ).

So far, I have probably given more detail than substance.  Okay, the meat of the issue.  How do you make good coffee?  Whether you use a good auto drip machine, a percolator, a coffee press, or a stovetop moka pot (like that pioneered by Bialetti), there are really only a few basic rules.  Start with clean equipment; I cannot stress this enough.  If you use an auto drip machine, wash the carafe with hot soapy water after each use.  You don't want old coffee oils finding their way into the coffee maker.  Also be sure to remove the used coffee and filter as soon as possible after brewing, and wash the filter basket before making the next pot.  If your machine uses replacable water filter cartridges, replace them as recommended by the manufacturer.  An old water filter will make your coffee taste terrible.  And, descale your machine once a month per the manufacturer's instructions.  Percolators need to be thoroughly washed with hot soapy water after every use, and you may have to resort to using a stiff scrub brush to get the filter basket really clean.  A dilution of bleach and water will work to remove the residual oils while scrubbing.  Coffee grinders also need to be kept clean.  Blade grinders are pretty easy; just wipe out with a damp cloth.  Burr grinders usually have recommendations from the manufacturer on how to clean, and you should follow these instructions.  Do not attempt to disassemble a burr grinder any more than instructed unless you really know what you are doing.

The next rule in good coffee is fresh water.  Lots of people like to insist on filtered water, but as long as your water tastes good from the tap, and you plan on descaling your equipment once a month, you don't need to use filtered water.  What I mean by fresh water is don't use bottled water that's been sitting around for weeks or months.  The third rule is to use the correct amount of water and coffee.  As a general rule, you want to use 1 1/2  to 2 tablespoons of coffee per 5 or 6 ounce cup (sound general enough?).  Using this as a starting point, adjust to suit your taste.  Use coffee that is as fresh as possible, and try to make it using a method that will allow the coffee to brew at the optimal 195-205 degree temperature. With some varieties of beans, and especially if they are a dark roast, then hitting 190 degrees will still produce a decent cup.  My final rule for making coffee would be this; do not make more coffee than will be consumed within 20-30 minutes.  After this amount of time, many of the delicate flavors in the brew begin to fade some, and if it's kept on a burner or hotplate, you will begin burning the coffee. 

And there you have it, a few simple rules for brewing a really good cup of coffee.  I hope that this guide has taken some of the mystery out of brewing that cup you normally have to spend a few bucks on at the local coffee house.  Making really good coffee does not require expensive equipment, or extraordinary knowhow.  A simple little blade grinder, a decent quality coffee maker, and a little attention to detail is all that you really need.  If you wish to be adventurous and try more complicated brewing methods, then the sky's the limit.  However, for most of us, the information in this guide will get us through our day to day search for a good cup'a joe.