How To Brew

Storage and Brewing

Here we offer a few short tips on coffee storage and brewing. There are as many ways to store and make coffee as there are coffees, and this is not at all a comprehensive list. But, coffee is sensitive, and taking care of it pays off in what you drink.

Tips for storing coffee

The best thing to do with freshly roasted beans is to drink them – they taste best a few days out of the roaster. Fortunately, that very best taste lasts through the first week, and even extends into another week if you take care of the beans.

We pack our beans in clear heat sealed stand up pouches with a zipper closure at the top. This container offers excellent protection during shipping and your initial storage, and is a convenient way to re-seal the coffee bag as you use it.

Here is how we recommend storing our beans:

We ship them to you heat sealed. Don’t tear off the seal until you are ready to use them.
Grind the beans immediately before use. Ground coffee doesn’t retain taste for very long.
If you plan on storing the beans for longer than a 4-5 days, we recommend keeping them into the freezer. You don’t have to defrost the beans before grinding, just grind them up frozen. (see the ideas section for more on freezing)
After you take the beans out of their bag, push the air out and close the zipper closure.
Keep them out of direct sunlight.

All in all, it’s pretty easy to store our coffee — just keep it sealed up, and replace it every week or two with new fresh coffee.

Cone Filter

A very easy and low cost way to make a few cups of coffee is a plastic filter holder and filter paper. I used to do this out of college in my first job at the office — I couldn’t bring myself to drink the office coffee there.

These are quick, you just put the filter right on top of the mug you use, put grounds into the filter and let it brew right into your cup. Step-by-step:

Grind your coffee. The typical recommended ratio is 2 tablespoons for 5 oz of water. Play with the ratio to see what taste you prefer. You want a fairly fine grind for a filter paper so that it extracts correctly. Note: a “standard” coffee scoop is 2 tablespoons.
Set the filter holder on top of the mug, put the filter paper in, and dump in your grounds.
Pour the water over the grounds in the filter, and wait till you have a full cup of coffee.

You want the water temperature just below boiling (195-205 degrees). In Colorado, water boils at 204, so just boil and pour. If you are at low altitude, boil water and let it sit a bit (10-20 seconds), and then pour.

French Press

This is my favorite method of brewing drip coffee (for 1-4 cups). There isn’t much between you and your coffee with this one: you grind up the beans dump them in the water and then press out the grounds before drinking. It doesn’t get much more direct than that. Step-by-step:

Grind your beans in the proportions you like (see above). You want a medium-fine grind for a press so that you don’t get too much sediment in the coffee at the end.

Put the beans in the press.
Pour the water in, and wait 4-5 minutes.
Push down the plunger and drink.

Some people don’t like the sediment in the cup, but I actually like the small particles that make their way through — it gives the coffee a bigger body, which I really like. Not everyone does though, and if sediment gives you the coffee willys, stick to a filter method.

Drip Coffee Maker

If you have a normal home drip coffee maker, the instructions are basically the same as the filter cone above. Except, of course, that you’re making more than one cup at a time, so you adjust the grounds and water upward accordingly.

One trick is that most drip coffee makers list more “cups” than a cup measure. The “cup” in your maker is probably 5-6 oz, not 8 oz.

A good way to get started is to guess that your drip coffee maker marks cups as about 5 oz, and to put in 1 scoop for every “cup” (ie, using the standard ration of 1 scoop for 5 oz of water).

Espresso

Espresso is more involved to do well at home. There are lots of equipment options out there and lots of opinions on what constitutes great espresso. One option we know produces great espresso is the Rancillio Sylvia espresso machine and Rancillio Rocky grinder. I have these at home myself, and I can tell you that you can make espresso as good or better than a coffee shop’s. But, it does require some learning of how to tamp and how to steam milk.

We’ll add to this later with more detailed instructions, but for now, if you’re interested in this method, just search on Sylvia and you’ll find many good people who have put their instructions online.

Sun Coffee

On a Sunday afternoon, about a few minutes before I was going to make myself a french press of our Organic Mexican, the power went out. It was about 95 out, and I was really ready for my normal afternoon coffee, so I decided to see if I could make some coffee without using electricity: “Sun Coffee”

Here’s what I did, in case your power goes out or you want to give it a shot:

1. I started with 7 scoops of Mex (each scoop is 7g, ie, the “normal” 2 tbsp coffee scoop)

2. I then took a hammer and a ziplock bag and went to work on the beans. I pounded them until they were mostly crushed to what is hopefully a coarse French-press sort of “grind”

3. Then, I put them into a ball jar, with 3 cups of water (yes, this is a pretty strong ratio)

4. I made a sort of bowl out of a couple of sheets of aluminum foil, and then I put the whole thing on our patio in full view of the sun. The very hot sun. If you do this, you might not want to look directly at the aluminum foil like I did. Wear your shades.

5. I let it sit for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

6. I went back, and amazingly enough, there were nice bubbles on the top of the grounds – always a good sign when brewing freshly roasted coffee. So, I strained it through a fine mesh into another ball jar and popped it in the fridge. (You could use a cone filter or the bottom of your french press, or another strainer)

I gave it a taste right away, though. Wow, it actually made some good coffee! Sort of in between a french press and a cold brewed “toddy” coffee. And, it was surprisingly hot – that sun and aluminum foil really generated some heat.

And, after 24 hours in the fridge, as iced coffee with a bit of 1/2 and 1/2, it tastes even better! This is some good coffee. I was drinking it side by side with another french press brewed coffee, and I finished the Sun coffee first!

So, the next time the electricity goes out, or if you just want to try brewing coffee a different way, give it a try.

—Morgan