Grinding Coffee Beans
Air is the main problem, when it comes to coffee freshness. This mainly occurs once the coffee beans have been ground up. While the roast beans remain whole the flavor tends to remain all sealed up but once they have been ground oxygen from the air reacts with the exposed surfaces of the coffee grinds and starts to destroy the flavor.
When you buy already ground coffee from supermarkets you will find that they have been vacuum sealed in plastic lined foil bags. This keeps them nice and fresh while they are standing on the shop shelves. However, once you break the seal on these coffee grinds they start the inevitable procedure of oxidation and flavor loss. One of the best ways to ensure that you have the freshest ground coffee is to grind it yourself.
Different varieties of coffee and different ways of making it need different types of grinds and as a result you need to learn what is required and how to use your coffee grinder correctly. In this way you will make sure that you get the freshest tasting coffee possible.
Coarse Grind
Coarse grinds of coffee are needed if you are going use a percolator or the French press style of coffee maker. To do this type of grind, put the beans into the coffee grinder and then simply tap the grind button a few times in the same way that you might use the pulse feature on a liquidizer.
The aim is to break up the beans into chunks. They should still look like tiny pieces of the original coffee bean, such that you might think you could glue them all back into place and get the original bean shape back. If you find that you have produced a powder it is time to start again and try to do the actions more carefully and quickly. You should remember that you need to only tap the button and not hold it down.
Medium Ground Coffee
If you have an automatic drip coffee maker you will find that medium ground coffee is ideal. This is the same kind of grind that you are likely to find in packages of supermarket coffee. If you look at these grinds more carefully you should notice that they look a little like brown sand. Keep the image of the sand in your mind while you are grinding your coffee.
Once again you have to be careful not to grind the coffee too much as you hold down the button on the coffee grinder. Make sure you don’t get carried away and over grind your coffee because you don’t want to be using a fine powder in your automatic drip coffee maker.
Fine Grind
When using an espresso coffee maker you need a fine coffee grind where the beans are ground right down to a powder. This time you just need to make sure that you grind it enough. As a result you should just keep grinding it until you are happy with the result.
Take some time learning how to control your coffee grinder and in this way you will be sure to get the best results that you can with your particular coffee maker. Grinding the coffee beans is an important part of making sure that you brew up a great cup of coffee.
There are 2 kinds of grinder available for the domestic market. Both kinds have advantages and disadvantages.
Burr Grinder
This kind of grinder uses two serrated discs called burrs to grind up the coffee. You can set on a dial the kind of grind that you want and then put the beans into the chamber. Then start the grinder and as time goes by the ground coffee collects in a second chamber. You don’t have to make judgments and the grind should be consistent.
Propeller grinder
This is the most common kind of grinder. It has a 2 sided blade which spins and chops the beans. You load the beans into the chopping chamber and start the machine going. You can watch what is happening through the transparent cover of the grinder. As the operator, you decide when to stop the grinding process based on what you see and personal experience. A propeller grinder doesn’t have a second chamber to collect the ground coffee. Instead of this you have to decide when to stop grinding. You can of course open the lid to take a closer look and check how the grinding process is going and if it isn’t done enough you can carry on.
It takes longer to grind coffee in a burr grinder compared to the propeller type but you can be confident that the grind will be consistent without having to make any judgments. Consistency is important when it comes to brewing good coffee. Propeller grinders when used too much or old and worn out can end up burning your coffee. However, they are the most common ones around. So, they are easy to get and come in at a nice affordable price. Propeller grinders can save you time by doing the job in a fraction of the time if that is an important issue for you.
Roasting Beans at Home
There are a lot of different coffee roasters on the market. They come in all kinds of different shapes and sizes. You can pay anything from 25 dollars to a thousand or more. As with anything, high prices don’t necessarily mean that you will get the best value quality item in the end. Obviously, you should look for a reliable brand. But here are some details of other factors that you should take into consideration.
Cheap Roasters
The cheapest roasters that you can get are designed to work on the stove top and are essentially a saucepan with a tight lid. They also have a cranked handle which allows you to stir up the beans as they are roasting. This enables you to stop the beans burning on one side so that you get more evenly roasted beans.
It also helps to circulate the hot air in the saucepan through the beans. For this reason, it is essential that you continue to stir the beans as they roast. Temperature control is very important during the roasting process. So, even if you settle for basic model you should ensure there is a thermometer in the lid. These roasters are all manually operated. You have to keep watch over them to make sure that the correct roasting conditions are maintained.
Expensive Roasters
If you consider the very expensive models then you are looking at devices that will just about do everything automatically for you. In these cases, all you have to do is put the correct measure of green beans into the roaster. Then, close the lid and switch on. You can go away for a while and do something else as your beans get roasted to perfection. These all singing and dancing models have a thermostat. They can control the heat and flow of hot air through the beans. A rotating canister where the beans are placed ensures that even roasting takes place. A timer will automatically shut off the roaster once the beans are roasted for the correct amount of time.
Air Roasters
The most common kinds are air roasters which work a little like a popcorn maker. Here hot air is circulated through the beans while a separate agitator makes the beans move around the canister.
This system leads to evenly roasted coffee beans. It’s therefore important when you’re shopping for a roaster to make sure that they work by evenly circulating the hot air amongst the beans. It is probably best to avoid those roasters which rely on a heating source just at the bottom as these will restrict the air flow leading to uneven roasts.
Drum System
Roasters using a drum system prevent this problem because as the drum rotates gravity makes the beans fall back down the sides and this mixes them up. This does a better job than having a stirrer fitted to the bottom of the roaster.
A lot of machines let you check on the progress of the roasting by having a glass insert that you can look through. This then allows you to fine tune your roasts and experiment with different settings. And so on because you can keep looking a checking the progress of the roast.
Settings
These types of very automated roasters will have settings on a dial. This will allow you to simply choose the result you want such as light or dark. Some models also have a filtering system to remove any chaff that is produced when the beans expand in the heat and the skins burst open.
One thing to keep in mind with home coffee roasting is that a lot of smoke can be formed especially if you increase the quantity of coffee beans being roasted at any one time. This means that you should think about ventilation and the possibility of setting off smoke alarms in other rooms unnecessarily.
In the past coffee roasters were only for professional use by people in coffee houses and so on. Now, home roasters have the ability to do just the same thing. They can also now cope with larger amounts of beans. A coffee roaster is essential for anybody who is really serious about their coffee.