A reader has an interesting question about spending less and not sacrificing the flavor of coffee. Can you help?

 

I love coffee. I make good coffee at home using a French press and organic grounds, which are pretty expensive. Yet, the coffee is never as good as the best coffee you can get at a coffee shop. What are the tricks to make the very best coffee at home? What do they do at the coffee shops that make it so good? I wonder if I'm doing something wrong.
M.S.

It may have something to do with the quality of the water that they use.  Could be filtered in some way, why not ask them next time you are near one and you may get the answer you need.  Sally

I used to work at Starbucks in my college years.  First thing we learned about in training was that our triple-filtered water was the best place to start b/c the water makes all the difference in the world.  I'm not coffee expert by any stretch, but our water was exceptionally good!  I drank it by itself frequently.

 Maybe I am an odd one but I am not really getting the lure of the taste of coffee from a shop. Some of the different flavors is a nice variety but I find a cup of regularly brewed coffee to have a better flavor over all.

 

Your organic grounds may be from a region that you don't really like the flavor from.  Try different regions.

Water quality makes a difference.  I use Britta-filtered water and so does the local coffee shop here.

Temperature is the other variable.  The temperature range for a smooth cup of coffee is critical -not too hot, not too cold.  I can't tell you what the temp is b/c I use a pecalator from a resale shop instead of the french press.  I do know that the coffee shop people are very careful with temperature when doing french press coffee.  Get a thermometer and do some experimentation. 

I also remembered -- this post brought back memories of my days at Starbucks! -- that we were told to never keep our coffee or grounds in the fridge or freezer as the humidity can really disrupt the flavor; only to grind the coffee as we were going to use it; and, as 3-dog mentioned, to watch the water temperature.  Of course, in the store, this stuff was easy b/c the equipment was all calibrated to "perfection".

Note:  I just read that a French Press takes all the good health benefits out of coffee!!!  Just a note.

I drink inexpensive coffee black.  These days I sprinkle a little cinnamon right into my cup for added health benefits!

Thought I better add this:  http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/questions/coffee/

9.  Is drinking coffee made with a paper filter healthier than drinking boiled coffee or other types of coffee?

Coffee contains a substance called cafestol that is a potent stimulator of LDL cholesterol levels. Cafestol is found in the oily fraction of coffee, and when you brew coffee with a paper filter, the cafestol gets left behind in the filter. Other methods of coffee preparation, such as the boiled coffee common in Scandinavian countries, French press coffee, or Turkish coffee, are much higher in cafestol. So for people who have high cholesterol levels or who want to prevent having high cholesterol levels, it is better to choose paper filtered coffee or instant coffee, since they have much lower levels of cafestol than boiled or French press coffee. Espresso is somewhere in the middle; it has less cafestol than boiled or French press coffee, but more than paper filtered coffee.