The Perfect Brew

Making your perfect cup of coffee is a simple process, so long as you pay attention to a few basic principals.

PROCESS | ROAST | GRIND

Processing Coffee

Coffee beans come from the cherries of coffee plants. While there are may ways to get the bean out of the cherries, we're going to focus on the two primary methods.

Washed - This method will give the coffee a traditional "nutty" or "chocolate" taste. In the washed process, the fruit covering the seeds/beans is removed before they are dried. The coffee cherries are sorted by immersion in water. Bad or unripe fruit will float and the good, ripe fruit will sink. The skin of the cherry and some of the pulp is removed by pressing the fruit by machine in water through a screen. The bean will still have a significant amount of the pulp clinging to it that needs to be removed. This is done either by the classic ferment-and-wash method or a procedure called machine-assisted wet processing. This process produces the "cleanest" bean possible, and reduces the amount of fermentation from the cherry.

Natural - This method gives the coffee a "fruity" or "berry" flavor. Natural process is the oldest method of processing coffee. The entire cherry after harvest is first cleaned and then placed in the sun to dry on tables or in thin layers on patios. The cherries are allowed to dry for up to 4 weeks. During this time fermentation of the fruit occurs, and the bean absorbs flavors from the juices which include juices and alcohols. 

The Roast

Roasting coffee is deceivingly simple in appearance. Green coffee is heated to a specific temperature, then cooled. However, there are multiple methods and machines that may be used to roast, and each kind gives the coffee a slightly different flavor. Form a consumer standpoint, we'll focus on the big three roast profiles; Light, Medium, and Dark.

At 10x10, we want you to discover the flavors of the coffee. Our coffees range from medium-light, to a dark medium. We urge the consumer to select a coffee based on its flavor profile, and not the roast. 

Light Roast

Lighter-bodied, higher acidity, no obvious roast flavor. This level of roast is ideal for tasting the full origin character of the coffee. Best for Natural Processed coffees. You will taste the maximum amount of fruit in this cup.

Medium Roast

Sugars have been further caramelized, and acidity has been muted. This results in coffee with higher body, but some roast flavor imposed.

Dark Roast

Bittersweet flavors are prominent, aromas and flavors of roast become clearly evident. Little, if any, origin character remains.

THE GRIND

Probably the most important aspect of how your coffee tastes is the grind. A simple rule to follow is the coarser your grind, the stronger your brew. We recommend that you get yourself an adjustable burr grinder, and play with the size of your grinds. We recommend a burr grinder because your grounds will always have a consistent size. Here's a quick reference to how to grind your coffee based on how you plan to brew.

French Press/Cold Brew - Coarse Grind

The key to a good french press, or cold brew coffee is a coarse grind, and time.  With both options you end up tasting all of the coffee flavors because they aren't passing through a paper filter. Due to it's lack of fine paper filter, a coarser grind is required to minimize the amount of sediment in the bottom of your cup. Additionally, the flavors tend to become more complex due to the slower extraction rate. Both the press and the cold brew require your coffee to be steeped like a tea. French press usually requires at least 4 minutes of steeping, and cold brew should steep for at least 12 hours. 

Drip/Pour-Over - Medium Grind

This is the most common brewing method. Wether you're making coffee on a commercial machine, a home brewer, of a high end pour-over; you're going to want a medium grind. As hot water drips or pours over the coffee grounds, and gravity pulls it to the funnel, it must extract the same amount of coffee as a french press, and in less time. This requires the grind to be finer, thus creating more surface area for the water to pass over as it makes its way to the pot.

Espresso/Aeropress/Turkish - Fine Grind

A combination of hot water under high pressure, and powdery fine coffee make this the fastest extracting coffee method. In fact, espresso is Italian for express or fast. 

The Ratio

So, you've selected your coffee, and you've decided what you're going to make it in, there's only one more question; how much coffee do you need???

Weigh It!

1:16

Like most ingredients in a recipe, weight is more important than volume. A cup of water will always weigh the same. However, a tablespoon of coffee can have a different weight based on any number of factors (bean density, roast level, bean size). If you want your perfect cup of coffee to always be perfect, weigh your beans and know how much water you're using. I recommend starting with a ratio of 1:16, grams of ground coffee to water. This is about 30 grams of coffee for 500 milliliters (grams) of water, and will generally make a standard 10oz. cup of coffee. play with your ratio, and make your coffee stronger or weaker. You can also scale this ratio to full pots. Just remember, the "cups" that are marked on your coffee pot are not actually a measured cup, but rather the size of a small cup of coffee that you would get in a restaurant.   

If you don't have a scale, or you're a visual learner, try this handy dandy chart to measure your coffee: