Coffee is so much a part of our culture that it’s easy to forget how complex it can be to brew a consistently good cup.
“Coffee, unfortunately is very, very easy to screw up at home. It’s one of those tricky things,” said Heather Perry, chief executive officer of the rapidly growing Klatch Coffee chain.
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Specialty Coffee Association of America proclaimed Perry the nation’s best barista in 2007, after a Long Beach competition. She went on to the World Barista Championship in Tokyo, where she came in second.
Perry has mastered the complexities of coffee. She and her staff share their knowledge in three-hour, $150 classes at Klatch’s headquarters in Rancho Cucamonga. Topics include brewing methods, using an espresso machine and the art of the latte.
But what if you’re not ready for that?
“As complicated as coffee is, it’s pretty simple to improve most people’s coffee program at home,” she said.
The equipment
There are two main brewing methods.
Drip is when hot water filters through coffee grounds. Home brewing machines make eight to 12 cups of coffee, usually taking several minutes. Espresso is when hot water is forced through coffee in a special machine. Home espresso machines make one or two shots at a time in less than a minute.
If you have baristas to grind a bag of coffee for you, they may ask what kind of machine you need it for.
Espresso is more finely ground than drip coffee, and an espresso shot is often stronger and more complex than a cup of drip coffee.
If you go to a big box store this holiday season, you may see as many Keurig machines on its shelves as brewers. Keurig machines brew cups of coffee from K-cups, single-use containers filled with pre-ground coffee. Nespresso is a similar product with pods instead of K-cups.
Nespresso is more like espresso, and Keurig is more like drip coffee, according to a Business Insider article.
Both products offer convenience, but Perry pointed out their coffees are very expensive and customers have no control over the outcome.
The coffee
Perry has three pieces of equipment on her kitchen counter at home: a brewer, an espresso machine and a coffee grinder.
“If you are doing home espresso, you need to have a grinder. It is life-changing,” said Perry. “It doesn’t have to be a $500 purchase. You can get a great grinder for $100.”
Klatch is big on whole beans and fresh grinding.
“Think of grinding your coffee like peeling a banana. That oxidation that occurs, the same exact thing happens with coffee,” Perry said.
Air causes coffee beans to lose freshness, people should only grind as much as they need and reseal the bag or put the coffee in an airtight container away from light and heat.
Klatch’s coffee bags have stickers on the back with the date the coffee was roasted. People should wait at least five to seven days after that date to start using the beans because they have high levels of carbon dioxide. Some coffees are sold in bags with “degassing” valves that release carbon dioxide without exposing the beans to outside air.
Visual test
At Klatch’s headquarters, Perry demonstrated an easy way to test the freshness of your coffee. She put some grounds in a bowl and then poured water over them from a pot with a long, narrow spout. She said you can do the same thing in your coffee brewer’s filter basket.
“As soon as the water hits the coffee, you should see a bloom happen. See how it’s bubbling up? That’s what you want your coffee to do. If we were using stale coffee, you would see your coffee grounds would not be lifted up. They’d just be sitting at the bottom.”
“Ninety percent of the coffee experience is the aromatics. So having fresh coffee dramatically changes your experience,” she said.
“Coffee gets one-noted as it ages. What we want about coffee is all the complexity.”
The taste test
“The way that you brew coffee is called extraction,” said Perry. “We’re essentially turning water brown. So the two big terms that we’ll use are overextraction and underextraction.”
Overextraction happens when people don’t use enough coffee and have a low ratio of coffee to water.
“Overextracted is all the way in the back of the tongue, one-note and bitter,” said Perry. “The majority of the coffee you’re going to taste out there is overextracted.”
Generic coffee makers don’t hold enough coffee, she said.
“Use more coffee is what I almost always tell people.” Instead of brewing a 12-cup pot, brew an eight-cup pot and fill up your coffee basket.”
She said a good rule of thumb is 2 tablespoons of ground coffee for every 6 to 8 ounces of water.
“Make sure you’re using water you would drink. Coffee is 98% water,” she added.
Underextraction is when you don’t extract enough of the flavor of the coffee into the water. The water may not be hot enough or pass through the grounds too quickly.
“The coffee is thin-tasting. It’s usually pretty sour when it’s underextracted as well. You’re going to taste it in the front of your mouth. So when you take that sip of coffee there’s nothing in the back. It’s one-noted. Coffee should always be complex.”
Perry gave a lesson on how to begin experiencing espresso. She said take a shot, skim off some of the foam, called crema, and see what it tastes like. Next, taste the beverage under the foam. Finally, stir them together and taste again.
“You’re crema tells you a lot about the shot. It tells you it’s fresh. It tells you it’s a nice-bodied coffee as well,” said Perry. “Espresso’s going to change from top to bottom. It’s going to change from your first sip to your last sip.”
First steps
Between the grounds, the water and the equipment, there are a lot of variables to master when you get serious about brewing coffee.
“It feels like there’s a lot that’s out to get you,” Perry said. “That’s why if you follow a few basic rules, it sets you up for success.”
Luis Miranda, director of coffee culture, said Klatch cafes dial in their espresso machines — that means make adjustments to their settings — six to eight times a day and are constantly pulling shots to get optimal results.
He compared brewing coffee to driving a car.
“You have to learn a lot of things to drive a car. What are the symbols on the road? How much brake do you do? How much should I turn? At the start, it’s not going very good. You’re in the high school parking lot with your dad and you’re not having a good time. But give it six months and you’re perfectly fine. You don’t even think about it anymore.
Don’t be afraid to fail, Perry said.
“It’s like the first pancake. Toss the first pot. Try it again.”
Information: klatchcoffee.com