How to make the perfect coffee at home

Brewing coffee doesn’t have to involve expensive equipment – a simple cafetiere or paper cone filter is perfect – but it requires just a touch more care and attention.

Freshness

Vital tips on coffee storage, grinding and serving

The freshness of coffee is vital to the aroma and flavour in the cup. Coffee is especially susceptible to air and oxidation – once coffee oxidises, the delicate aromas are soon lost and the coffee becomes stale. Stale coffee has a particularly flat, unpleasant taste.

Once coffee is ground, exposure to air becomes more of a problem because there is more surface area for oxidation to take place. This is why beans go stale more slowly than ground coffee and if you grind coffee very finely, such as for espresso, it will lose freshness very rapidly.

Many volatile aromas are held within the coffee’s natural oils, which rise towards the surface as the coffee is roasted longer. For this reason, on a darker roasted coffee, you will notice spots of oil and on a particularly dark roasted coffee there is a general oiliness across the beans’ surface. Once drawn out of the bean, these oils are also exposed to more rapid oxidation.

For these reasons, we combine the freshest possible roasting with the best packaging techniques at the roastery. When we roast our coffee beans, we pack them immediately after roasting. Coffee gradually releases carbon dioxide gas, trapped within the bean (this speeds up when you grind coffee). The carbon dioxide acts as a naturally protective barrier for the coffee.

We use packaging with the best oxygen barrier properties and a one-way freshness valve to trap in the aromas and keep out the air. For our ground coffee, we have a grinder positioned right on top of our packing equipment so that we can grind our coffee straight into the pack for the best possible results.

Here are our freshness tips for the perfect coffee at home:

1. Buy the best quality, fresh coffee beans or freshly ground coffee.
2. Grinding your own beans really produces the best results and it’s well worth investing in a good grinder
3. Don’t worry if you haven’t got a grinder. We aim to deliver our pre-ground coffees as fresh and aromatic as we possibly can.
4. Store your packs of unopened coffee in cool, dry conditions and away from direct sunlight.
5. If using beans, grind the coffee just before brewing. This is vital if grinding the beans for espresso, as the sudden release of carbon dioxide will help to develop a better crema on the coffee.
6. Store any opened beans in an airtight container and in a cool, dry place.
7. If using pre-ground coffee, once the pack is opened, store the coffee in an airtight container and once again in cool, dry conditions away from sunlight.
8. If you prefer, you can store the coffee container in the fridge but remember that coffee will easily pick up any smells and odours if not stored properly.
9. With that in mind, ground coffee and coffee beans are easily tainted and therefore should not be kept near any aromatic foods.
10. Once opened or ground, treat coffee as you would for other fresh products and use it as soon as possible, preferably within 2 weeks. It doesn’t matter how good, or how expensive, the coffee was to start with, if it becomes stale it won’t be the coffee it once was!
11. Once you’ve brewed or extracted the coffee, drink it immediately. If you wish to keep the coffee for longer, put it in a vacuum flask and use within a couple of hours. Don’t allow the coffee to sit on any heat or in contact with the grounds for any longer than necessary – it will either stew or over-extract all the nasty flavours.