By SARAH GRIFFITHS FOR MAILONLINE*
It is estimated that more than 2.25 billion cups of coffee are drunk globally every day.
But how do you get the best out of a bean and create the best cup of Joe possible?
Experts have shared their tips with MailOnline, from choosing the right beans and weighing out coffee before brewing it, to roasting beans up a mountain for better flavour.
PICKING THE BEANS
Coffee expert Rick Tingley from Taylors of Harrogate, recommends choosing beans from Colombia for the ultimate cup of coffee at Christmas.
This is because the beans are at ripe for harvesting in time for the winter months and provide a rich flavour that he described as ‘caramel with a hint of citrus’.
When coffee cherries first form on the tree they are small and green, but they grow larger, changing from green to yellow, orange, red and almost purple.
If they remain on the bush for too long after becoming purple, they can become overripe, so farmers have to rely on their knowledge of the season and inspect the size, softness and pulp of the fruit to establish the perfect moment of ripeness.
Mr Tingley advised customers to choose coffee where the beans are washed. This process gives them a ‘bright, lively acidity’.
‘The washed process is known for producing cleaner and brighter coffees, whereas the natural process produces bold, heavier, sweet and smooth coffees,’ he explained.
Much like whiskey aficionados and single malts, many purists will argue that the ultimate coffee would have to be a single origin one, to really let the coffee’s character shine through.
But it’s also arguable that a blend – where beans are from different places – can produce a quality cup.
Simply put, coffee connoisseurs should choose a bean with the flavour characteristics to suit their taste.
THE ULTIMATE ROAST
Roasting brings out the aroma and flavour locked inside coffee beans.
Applying rapid heat causes changes at the chemical level, turning them dark and fragrant.
The two principal chemical reactions that take place during roasting are the maillard reaction and pyrolysis.
In the maillard reaction, free amino acids and reducing sugars produce the volatile aroma compounds, giving coffee its distinctive aroma.
Pyrolysis means the caramelisation of sugars. Caramelisation actually makes foods more bitter as the reaction uses up sugars, so the process produces bitter, ‘roast’ flavours in coffee.
After roasting, the beans are quickly cooled.
A shorter roast produces fruity, acidic aromas, while a longer roast makes for darker, more toasted notes.
‘There is endless variation, determined by everything from the speed at which the heat is accelerated to the soil in which the beans were grown,’ Mr Tingley said.
If money were no object, the ultimate cup of coffee would include beans roasted at high altitude.
Mr Tingley would choose to roast beans in the French Alps, one of the highest points in Europe – perhaps a 12,605ft-high (3,842 metre) peak overlooking the ski resort of Chamonix.
This is because coffee can be roasted at a lower temperature at high altitude to preserve delicate flavours.
‘Some of the caramelisation that produces bitterness is reduced, to accentuate the sweetness and acidity of the coffee,’ he added.
TIPS FOR A BETTER CAFETIERE
Most of us have a cafetiere in the kitchen. Taylors have five tips for making a better cup of coffee with it.
1. Clean your cafetiere thoroughly to check there are no trapped stale grains of coffee.
2. The perfect ratio of coffee for a normal strength cup of coffee is 60 grams of coffee for every litre of water. Pop your catetiere on a weighing scales to measure the correct amount of coffee out. Add more coffee for a stronger cup and less for a weaker one – don’t brew it for a longer or shorter length of time to change the intensity.
3. Use water between 88°C and 94°C (190°F to 201°F) for a less bitter cup.
4. Give the coffee a stir to agitate the grinds for a more intense flavour
5. Four minutes is the optimum brewing time. Any longer and the brew will become more bitter. Push the plunger down slowly and smoothly, before serving the coffee in a white cup.
ALL IN THE GRIND
Mr Tingley continued that coffee beans should be ground at home for the ultimate cup, ‘but it’s important to ensure that the beans have been well packaged since roasting, and haven’t staled.
‘If you don’t have a decent grinder, go for a quality super-fresh pre-ground coffee.’
Grinding is important because the particles have to be the correct size for a chosen brewing method.
For espresso, he said beans should be ground to a very fine size, similar to flour. Aeropress should be like sand and for filter, coffee particles should be similar to sand or table salt.
Coffee should be coarse – ‘coarser than table salt’ for a cafetierre. Too fine and it will taste bitter, and too large and you’ll have a ‘flat’ cup of coffee.
‘The different grind sizes allow you to brew the coffee in different ways as it influences the speed of extraction,’ he explained.
‘But as a rule of thumb, the bigger the grind size, the longer the brew time.’
In this case, there is no ‘ultimate’ choice because the grind has to suit the brewing method.
‘A fine grind size is practical for an espresso, where a burst of hot water is quickly pushed through the grinds to extract a short shot of coffee that is intense in flavour,’ he said.
BECOMING A COFFEE TASTER
Most people have the natural qualities you would need to train to become a coffee taster, although there is a small proportion of the population who can be described as non-tasters.
The key to becoming an expert taster is training and practice, and Taylors trainees spend around two years tasting, or ‘cupping’ up to 200 coffees every day in order to develop their palate.
Following training, the Coffee Buyers also sit an internationally recognised professional qualification called the ‘Q Grader’, where they must pass over 25 sensory tests in tasting and aroma perception.
As well as tasting, becoming a Coffee Buyer also involves learning about and building relationships with coffee suppliers around the world.
During their training trainees spend an extensive time overseas learning about how coffee is grown, processed and exported, and building crucial relationships with producers at origin.
‘Whereas you’ll find that a course grind size is practical for a cafetière, as the grinds are immersed in hot water for a longer period of time (4 minutes), which allows it to develop flavour and produce a longer cup of coffee.’
Coffee flavour is at its very best when the beans have just been ground and Taylors of Harrogate take just six seconds to grind the bean and seal it in a pack.
THE OTHER INGREDIENTS
In order to create the ‘ultimate’ cup of coffee, even the water should be considered.
To create the best cup ever, Taylors travelled to Switzerland to get a bottle of water to use from a low mineral spring.
This is because the best tasting coffee contains few minerals in the water used. But this may be a step too far at home.
For the money-is-no-object cup, Taylors travelled to a farm run by the Hare Krishna movement near London, to buy milk.
There, cows are milked by hand and even serenaded with Sanskrit music to boost their quality of life and that of their milk.
BREWING
The brewing method depends on the flavour coffee connoisseur’s desire and Mr Tingely is a fan of using a coffee siphon – a piece of kit you may not have in your kitchen.
Cafetieres are best used to make strong cups of coffee, while paper filters preserve delicate flavours.
Regardless of methods, with the exception of espresso, coffee should be brewed a between 88°C and 94°C (190°F to 201°F), meaning it is best to switch the kettle off just before the water boils.
For a normal strength cup of coffee, the experts advise using 60 grams of coffee to one litre of water.
Add 10 grams more or less to make the coffee stronger or weaker rather than brewing it for a longer or shorter time, experts say.
HOW TO DRINK IT
Adding milk can change the flavour of coffee.
In a video for The Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC), Professor Charles Spence, a psychologist at the University of Oxford, said that the colour of coffee sets expectations about aroma and taste – and if milk is added, this changes expectations.
‘In particular, when milk or sugar is added to a coffee, both tend to reduce the amount of aroma we get from a coffee,’ he explained.
‘But for those who like adding milk to their coffee, lower-fat homogenised milk tends to have smaller globules of fat, hence those result in a greater aroma from the coffee than full-fat milk.’
Mr Tingley also advises using lower fat milk, as well as drinking out of a plain white cup as it provides fewer distractions from the great tasting coffee.
A recent study by Oxford University found the colour of the mug that you drink your coffee from can have an effect on the flavour.
The researchers discovered that when coffee was drunk from a white mug, the intensity of the flavour increased, in comparison to drinking the same coffee from a transparent mug.
However, in a second experiment using a white mug and a transparent mug, the coffee was rated less sweet in the white mug.
It is thought that the white mug may have influenced the perceived brownness of the coffee and this, in turn, may have influenced the perceived intensity.
Another study on latte art revealed that an angular shape, relative to a more rounded shape, influenced people’s expectations concerning the likability, bitterness and quality of the drink.
Professor Spence explained we first taste on the tongue and as we swallow, we get the ‘retronasal’ aroma. Combined, this gives us what we call flavour.
‘On the tongue, we’ll be getting a little sourness, bitterness and sweetness – perhaps in some cases a little salt and umami – the five basic tastes,’ he said.
‘But most of the interest in coffee is the retronasal aromas that we get – that deliver the floral, fruity, caramel, chocolate, smoky notes.
‘Our brain binds the tastes and the aromas together – and combines the mouthfeel – whether the coffee tastes juicy or astringent.’
COFFEE AND THE BRAIN
Professor Spence continued: ‘Drinking a cup of coffee without one of the sensorial cues, for example without being able to smell the coffee aroma, will reduce the effect on the other senses and impact our experience and pleasure derived from drinking a cup of coffee.
‘The experience is about much more than the smell or the taste of the coffee in that moment as research suggests that aroma can trigger emotions and evoke memories.’
The smell of coffee may remind drinkers of feelings from other coffee moments such as relaxation or perhaps alertness, but further research is needed to determine whether the aroma of coffee alone is enough to enhance alertness in the morning.
Approximately 850 volatile compounds have been identified that are associated with flavour in coffee, but research suggests a small proportion of these – around 40 volatile compounds – contribute to its unique aroma.
