The case for better coffee.

The title seems funny, right? I mean, if something is better, what more of a case should you need? Because often better means more time consuming and labor intensive, but let me be the first incredibly lazy guy to tell you...better coffee through a few extra steps is totally worth it.

Once I become passionate about something, it doesn't take long for me to feel the need to transfer that passion to others. In todays edition, I will lay out for you the pro's and con's of making your coffee "from scratch" in the morning. This will allow you to appreciate future posts.

Let me begin by saying that by and large, automation is a wonderful thing. We no longer stick a hunk of metal on the stove, wait for it to heat up, and then iron our garments. We use an electric, automagic-heating device, with many different settings, that can simultaneously steam and press wrinkled clothes. We no longer stoke coals or logs in order to cook our food. It's 2013! We plug things in, and flick switches. In no setting is this more appreciated than in our zombie-like stupor most of us wake up in. If you're extra motivated, you've programmed and filled your auto drip machine the night before and wake up to a hot carafe of brewed coffee. If not then you're fumbling around in the dark, opening your refrigerator for some reason looking for mugs, spoons, etc. At that moment you're looking to make the vehicle for your caffeine delivery, and you're unconcerned with anything else.

Here is where we will have a divergence.

Coffee is so much a part of our daily routines, whether you're the stay at home mom with her Keurig, or the cubicle jockey with a worn and battered Mr. Coffee. If you just need the caffeine, which coffee is the cheapest way to get, then fine. If you don't particularly care about taste, or think that you have the ability to discern any differences. Fine. If you feel as though you might care about the quality of the coffee, but are unsure of how much more you would be willing to do in the morning to improve it; hear me out.

First, and foremost, taste is obviously subjective. What tastes good to one person, may taste bad to another. Chances are though, that some of you reading this have rarely tasted coffee as it should be. Crucial to making a personal determination of whether or not something tastes good or bad, is to have it prepared correctly. I think it's safe to say that almost everything which is not shelf-stable for long periods of time, tastes better fresh. Fruits, vegetables, bread all taste better in their ripe or freshly made state. Coffee is shelf-stable in that it will not spoil or mold after roasting, but will stale quickly which affects taste dramatically. Many people associate the freshness of coffee with time that it was first brewed, when in fact, it has far more to do with when the coffee was roasted and ground. Roasting and brewing coffee involves a lot of thermodynamics and chemistry. I'm far from an expert on either, but what I do know is that the changes that beans undergo during roasting makes them particularly vulnerable to oxygen. Oils trapped within the beans matrix of tiny pockets and, depending on degree of roast, present on the surface of the bean are sensitive to evaporation. A rapidly dissipating carbon dioxide "envelope" and the presence of those oils contribute to roasted coffee's ephemeral nature. It's for this reason that coffee should be enjoyed approximately 2-7 days after roasting, and only ground immediately before brewing.

You would be hard pressed (pun intended) to find a corporate or independent coffee shop that at the very least, doesn't follow those two principles. So if you can't tell the difference between pre-ground grocery store coffee and your local coffee shop, then maybe the case for better coffee isn't applicable to you. It's worth noting however, that the differences in coffee taste are usually subtle, and may be acquired over time. Another must for properly brewing coffee is proper temperature. Ground coffee is a soluble and water is the solvent. In order to extract the necessary components to make the coffee solution, the temperature of the water needs to fall between 195-205℉. One of the main problems with auto-drip machines is that the heating element used in them is not powerful enough to get the water in this temp range. This is usually caused by insufficient wattage, or due to the fact that it's heating element is shared with the hot plate. The dreadful, coffee souring hot plate. The high temperature of this plate continues to create changes in (read: cook) the coffee, lending a bitter taste after a short time. Some manufacturers have wised up and made double walled, thermal carafes but are disproportionate in availability to the glass style, and more expensive. If all of this wasn't enough to sway you, the final blow to the auto-drip maker is the water dispenser. Some call it a "sprayer" but that's a misnomer because all of them sort of passively drip water over the bed of coffee grounds. There is a wide variation in the shape and size of these nozzles, but most do not saturate the grounds evenly and end up reaching only a small portion of the coffee bed. If you don't believe me, open the lid to your coffee maker next time while it's running (if the sprayer isn't permanently affixed to it) and watch the water drip.

So what's the alternative? The keys to making good coffee are getting the coffee from roasted to liquid form as quickly as possible, and having control of the variables in between. It requires purchase of a few items initially, but you can definitely make better coffee on the cheap. Coffee is so massively traded that it's considered a commodity on the market, however over the last decade or so there has been a renaissance, referred to as "specialty" or "third-wave" coffee. Freshly roasted coffee is more widely available. Home grinders and brewing equipment has become more widely available, especially with the help of the interwebs.

Trust me, if I can start to figure this stuff out, anyone can. I won't go further into the different equipment and methods in this post so that I may expound upon them later, but I hope I've made you slightly more curious as to how you can upgrade your morning joe.

The best part of waking up is Folgers freshly roasted and ground, evenly brewed coffee in your cup.