Coffee DIY Tips Popular Questions About Making a Good Cup of Coffee

In the dead of night, when I was working overtime for the movie DotA, I had a cup of instant coffee that tasted very good. It seemed that my hand speed had also increased a lot. However, playing the game also required a ladder level, so drinking coffee naturally had a higher pursuit.

Coffee, as one of the most popular beverages in human society, is known for its bitter and exciting effects caused by caffeine. Before leaving their African roots, coffee beans were initially boiled and drunk only after peeling off the outer skin. In the long process of spread, coffee came to the Middle East, came to Turkey and Europe with the war, and finally was known to the whole world with the arrival of the Great Maritime Age. In this process, a variety of cooking methods with their own characteristics have been formed, and on these bases coffee beverages with various flavors have been produced.

There are many places in the world where coffee can be grown. Yunnan and Hainan in the mainland of China also produce coffee. Many origins have produced countless coffee bean brands, we are familiar with Blue Mountain Coffee, cat feces coffee and so on. Complemented by a variety of fermentation and baking methods, the price also varies greatly. But today we don't study how to buy coffee beans, we study how to make coffee.

First of all, we changed the tradition of the past, do not keep in suspense, direct step by step, from shallow to deep, step by step introduction of coffee drinking methods. Of course, it was also in the order of difficulty from ease of entry.

thirst

Instant coffee is a good and inexpensive option for most people. Nestle is officially the most famous instant coffee brand in the world with the slogan "Tastes great". Instant coffee, as its name implies, can be drunk with water. The coffee powder in the packaging bag is made by baking and grinding coffee beans and then removing moisture by spray drying or freeze drying. In order to facilitate drinking, instant coffee is generally added directly to the plant fat powder and sugar, and in recent years, it has introduced the "cappuccino" instant coffee that can directly bubble milk bubbles.

Instant coffee is not undrinkable, but the processing method is too simple and rough, so that the original coffee aroma is lost, and the coffee beans made into instant coffee are not very good varieties, so basically can only be used as thirst-quenching drinks. Of course, bottled coffee sold in supermarkets also falls into this category.

As a quick story, instant coffee was not invented for convenience, but to cope with oversupply of coffee beans.

be tasted

After drinking enough instant coffee, you can try a slightly more complicated method to make your own coffee. One easy way to do that is to buy a French press. The French filter press is a simple, tall glass cylinder with a piston with a strainer. When using, add ground coffee powder into the barrel, heat the bubble for four to seven minutes, and finally press the coffee powder to the bottom of the barrel with a piston filter. The coffee on the upper layer can be drunk.

In fact, this method of soaking coffee powder in hot water can be divided into one category, and the form of the appliance may also be slightly different. French filter pot structure is simple, easy to operate, the price is naturally not expensive, such as HARIO, BODUM brands can be a good balance between the grid and function, the price of about 200 yuan.

If your appeal is simpler, then the electric coffee pot may be more suitable for you. This coffee pot is the most common, generally there is a transparent glass pot in the lower part of the machine, coffee powder and water are added from the top, coffee will be extracted into the glass pot below. This electric coffee pot about 200 yuan can also be done.

If you want to add fresh coffee "anytime, anywhere" to your list, there's another very original way: drip coffee bags. This coffee bag is very similar to instant coffee, but after opening the package, it is a small bag that can be hung on the cup. Hot water is added to the bag and mixed with the coffee powder. The extracted liquid will slowly drip into the cup. This very original way, the cost of drinking coffee equipment can be basically ignored, but the effect is better than instant coffee.

In particular, I would like to talk about coffee powder. Now it is very convenient to buy freshly ground beans on e-commerce. It is different from making coffee. The more mechanized and modern the process, the more uniform the bean flour is, and the better the taste of the beverage is naturally. Of course, you can also buy your own small grinder to DIY coffee powder, but because we are going to introduce other coffee brewing methods have higher requirements for coffee powder, grinder is also a price of goods, so I suggest saving the money to buy a grinder, buy better finished coffee powder directly.

taste

At this level, drinking coffee may not be just a simple thing to taste, but the process may be more fun. Coffee cookers that meet this condition are non-siphon pots.

Siphon coffee pot, also known as Syphon, which originated in Germany, is a way to use the pressure generated when water boils to help cook coffee. The coffee pot is divided into two parts, the upper part and the lower part, and the middle part is communicated by a conduit. Water is converted into steam and the pressure on the water surface increases. Boiling water then enters through the conduit to hold the ground coffee. Then re-enter the lower part through the filter paper or filter cloth, and then drink it.

Wikipedia: Coffee

Here is my friend Baryn's siphoning pot experience.

This siphon pot is called Kono Syphon and is made by Jia. Coffee Syphon Co., Ltd. Ltd, hereinafter referred to as "CS"). CS was founded in 1923, mainly manufacturing medical equipment at the beginning of its establishment, and later began to manufacture tea and coffee utensils in 1925, and took Kono, the first president, as the brand name (Kono in Roman pinyin). In 1963, the name was changed to Ka. For decades before and after the company's establishment, the company's business mainly focused on coffee, and later added coffee beans to roast and sell. Although the siphon theory has long been used in the coffee cooking process, the industry generally believes that the siphon pot from theory to practice and finally finalized the formula, can not be separated from the efforts of Mr. Kono, so his enterprise is so named Cofee Syphon no one has any objection.

This siphon pot model is SKD-2, double, solid wood handle, paired with alcohol lamp. Unlike other siphon pots, Kono Syphon uses a spherical ceramic filter, which allows the coffee to flow back to the lower pot at a relatively smooth rate compared to stainless steel filters and the filter itself mixes less impurities into the coffee. Set includes an alcohol lamp with hood and cotton wick. Other accessories include a lid and a stir bar.

First of all, the ratio of powder to water is about 1:15, and some people suggest a little more water, because the coffee powder will be diluted during the extraction process, the powder is placed in the upper pot, and the water is placed in the lower pot. Then, Kono Syphon official suggested that the upper pot of coffee powder should be inserted obliquely into the lower pot. When the water in the lower pot is heated by the alcohol lamp to produce continuous large bubbles, the upper pot should be righted, and the coffee powder should be stirred evenly by drawing 8 characters. Finally, according to the characteristics of the beans and the taste of each person, the coffee in the upper pot will naturally flow back to the lower pot, and a cup of handmade coffee will be completed.

How about that? Isn't this a very different experience as a chemical experiment? This coffee must also have a different feeling. The Kono Syphon SKD-2 model sells for about 800 yuan on e-commerce.

appreciate

We know that many coffee categories sold in coffee shops, such as American, mocha, latte, cappuccino, macchiato, etc., are all based on conscious espresso. To make Espresso, the key conditions required are not only hot water, but also pressure.

It is generally believed that espresso requires 8.2 atmospheres and 95 ° C hot water to complete. To meet this condition, it must be an automatic or semi-automatic coffee machine with electric pressure. The more famous brands facing the masses are Delong and Cankun.

The essence of espresso coffee is that the particles are uniform and not too fine coffee powder, evenly filled in the powder tank, supplemented by appropriate pressure and extraction time. To meet such conditions, the general manual grinder is a joke, which is why it is recommended to buy finished coffee powder directly.

Since filling coffee powder is a job that requires experience, great foodies have invented another, more "automatic" coffee machine: the capsule coffee machine. This coffee machine features no traditional powder tank that needs to be manually filled, but provides coffee powder "capsules" sold separately, and the capsules are already pressed coffee powder. To make coffee, you just need to open the capsule, put it in the capsule slot of the capsule coffee machine, press the switch, and a cup of espresso covered with rich fat is ready.

Under normal circumstances, you are not half a minute to drink this 25ml espresso taste segment number. Therefore, cappuccino type coffee with milk foam is obviously more suitable for tasting. But about how to make foam, that's the story for another article.

The popular models of capsule espresso machines are basically Nestle production, Nestle's Nespresso about 2000 yuan, a coffee capsule about 5 yuan. There are also ILLY brands to choose from.

mood

In fact,"burning" coffee is not a true thing. Making a good cup of coffee does require sophisticated equipment, but money isn't all it takes. If you go to Starbucks and say "American black coffee without sugar" but can't really taste its bitterness, then even the most expensive coffee machine can't make you really happy. What the Chinese say is sweet after bitter, but it seems to be perfectly manifested in coffee, an exotic drink. A pot and a fire can make a cup of coffee, what you really need, maybe just really want to taste it bitter and sweet heart bar.