I’m sure you’ve seen it, at the bottom of some packages of coffee or on directions of coffee makers… “Use cold water when brewing your coffee”. But, why would it matter if you use warm or cold water when brewing, if the water will get hot anyway?

When you see the disclaimer advising you to use cold water, it’s under the assumption that you are using tap water, from the sink – and if you use tap water, then you should use the cold water side of the tap. The reason is, cold water from the tap is fresh. Water from the hot side of the tap has likely been sitting around in your water heater for hours (or even days!) and is probably not fresh. Hot water heaters can have minerals and scale at the bottom of the tank that negatively impact the final taste of your coffee (and often the scale from the tank can greatly accelerate the buildup of limescale in your drip-brew coffee maker). To make great-tasting coffee, you have to use fresh water… so don’t use hot water from the tap!

What about filtered water from a pitcher, or bottled water? This water does not need to be cold to brew… so no need to use cold bottles of water or keep your pitcher in the refrigerator. This water is perfectly fine to use at room temperature.

As a side note, I have noticed an improvement in taste when using cold (not room temperature) water while brewing in a drip-brew coffee maker. Although I’m more of a french press, AeroPress or cone dripper kind of guy, occasionally I will break out our regular old drip-brewer to brew some coffee for family and friends. When using cold bottled water (as opposed to room temperature bottled water), the brewing time seems to be extended a good 45-60 seconds… which may not sound like much, but when brewing coffee, it can make a big difference as one drawback with drip-brewing is the length of time the coffee grinds steep with hot water being cut short. If you use a drip-brewer, try using very cold water the next time you make coffee and see if you notice a difference.

Please leave a comment below to continue the discussion and share this post with someone who enjoys good coffee. Ken

This morning, as I made myself a french press of Guatemala Antigua coffee, roasted 3 days ago, I thought I would take a picture of the french press as it brewed. This picture is taken about 30 seconds after pouring near-boiling water on top of coffee, ground just seconds before. From the picture, you can see that this mini, 3-cup french press has a very tall crust!

You can see 3 layers here, a bottom layer of mostly liquid, a middle layer of water steeping with coffee grounds and a top layer of foam, bubbling as carbon dioxide is released from mixing with hot water. If you use stale coffee grounds, or even fresh coffee that hasn’t been properly stored or preground a while before brewing, you’ll likely just see the bottom and middle layers. When you see the top layer, you’ll know you’re getting the best tasting coffee possible. The carbon dioxide plays a huge role in transporting essential coffee oils (what makes coffee taste good) into your cup. Right click on the image above, left click on ‘view image’ then click again to zoom in and take a look at the crust. This is what you want to go for when making french press coffee. P.S. The mini 3-cup french press costs $2.99 at Ross (yes, the ‘dress for less’ place). 

Flavored Coffee and Maintaining Quality.
Lots of people like to drink flavored coffee… I enjoy it occasionally, but whenever I get flavored coffee at the local coffee shop or someone’s house, it never seems to taste very good. Have you ever noticed how bitter and bland the brew usually tastes? It’s like a mixture of instant coffee with irish cream flavoring. Not very appealing and no pleasant aftertaste.

It’s important to note that I’m referring to pre-flavored beans… coffee beans that have flavoring added to them as soon as they’re out of the roaster and the beans are still warm to provide the best possible atmosphere for absorption of the flavoring. As you can image, the coffee bean – which encapsulates all of the coffee oils that make up the unique flavors of the bean – can be compromised by the application of the flavoring.

The flavoring can be natural or, more likely, chemicals that are engineered to taste like “hazelnut” or “vanilla”. For the flavoring to be applied evenly to warm, just roasted coffee beans, the flavored concentrate is diluted in solvents such as vegetable oil, water or even alcohol. After the application, water is then sprayed on the still warm beans to cool them off… however, this quenching process can also have negative effects on the coffee beans as the water allows some of the bean’s natural flavors to escape.

A roasted coffee bean itself has over 1,000 chemicals or compounds which make up it’s unique flavor. Adding flavoring to roasted beans can mute some of the natural chemicals that makes an origin coffee such as a Sumatra taste like a “Sumatra”.

Another reason that some coffee roasters add flavoring to just roasted coffee is to extend the shelf life. Fresh roasted coffee starts going stale after 10-14 days but when flavoring is added to coffee beans, the stale flavors resulting from oxidation and aging of the coffee beans can be diminished by the added flavoring, making it difficult for consumers to tell if the bitter flavor is due to old, stale beans or the quality compromise from pre-flavoring. Some roasters also take advantage of the flavoring process by using low quality coffee beans (low grade or even Robusta) as they believe the flavoring they’re adding to the coffee beans will make up for it.

Now, don’t get me wrong, some roasters do it right… they use high quality coffee beans, use natural flavoring, quench the beans with air rather than water. But for the most part, I believe flavoring coffee beans just out of the roaster does more harm than good.

What then can you do to flavor your coffee while maintaining quality?
Fresh roasted coffee provides more natural flavor and unique tastes than old, stale coffee… but for those who still want to add flavoring, I always recommend flavoring coffee once it has been brewed and is in your cup. In my opinion, this is the best way to maintain quality as the coffee beans haven’t been compromised by a roaster adding the flavoring themselves. You can taste the quality of the coffee and then add flavoring to your cup by using flavored creamer or natural flavored syrups to add the kind of tastes you’re looking for.

Another plus for adding flavoring to your cup after you brew your coffee vs. using pre-flavored coffee beans is you’ll have less maintenance on your blade and burr coffee grinders. Flavored coffee leaves flavor extracts on grinders which can cause a lot of damage and require repairs. This is one of the reasons why many local coffee shops, who gladly grind coffee for their customers, will not grind pre-flavored coffee (and if they do, they have a special grinder they’ve set aside just for these types of coffees).

Some additional tips
Use complimentary flavorings to enhance the flavor of your coffee. At Weekly Roast Coffee, we always indicate the natural, origin flavors we get out of testing the coffees we offer (for example, one coffee may have a sweet chocolate note while another, a hazelnut or vanilla note). In these cases, you could use flavoring in your cup to bring out or enhance the hazelnut or a different flavoring to compliment it.

Another idea, somewhere in between using pre-flavored coffee beans and adding syrups to your cup after it’s brewed, is to keep fresh roasted coffee in an airtight container along with mint leaves, cinnamon sticks, or anything else that gives off an aroma you’d like to taste in your coffee. This works well because coffee is porous, so it naturally absorbs the flavors around it (which is why we recommend that you do not store coffee in the fridge or freezer).

Please leave your comments below so we can continue the discussion and share this post with someone who enjoys good coffee. Ken

Do light or dark roasts have more caffeine?
I was recently asked by a Twitter follower “why does dark roast coffee have more caffeine?”.

A lot of people believe that just because the beans were roasted dark and have a burnt taste, that means that the coffee is “stronger” and has more caffeine… but that isn’t exactly the case.

The quick answer is that for the most part, lighter roasts actually have more caffeine than darker roasts. When coffee beans are roasted, the beans undergo a series of physical changes including growing in size, becoming lighter in weight but also burning off some caffeine. The longer the beans are roasted (the darker the beans), in general, the less caffeine they will have solely due to them having more and more caffeine being burned off.

Now, it does get a bit more complicated than that. I mentioned that the longer coffee beans are roasted, the lighter they become (weight loss) so a pound of lightly roasted coffee could potentially have about the same caffeine content as a pound of dark roast (for example, a french roast coffee), simply because it would take more beans of a dark roast (going by weight) to make a pound. But, in general, taking 2 pounds of the exact same coffee – roasting one pound lightly and one dark – and not adding more beans to the darker roast to account for the weight loss due to roasting longer – the lighter roast will usually have more caffeine.

What kind of coffee beans have more caffeine?
In my blog post on Arabica vs. Robusta coffee beans, I noted that Robusta beans have a higher caffeine content than Arabica beans (about twice as much!). The downside, though, is that Robusta beans taste pretty awful. They are used by some roasters in coffee blends, sometimes as filler and sometimes for espresso blends solely due to their caffeine content. Since Arabica beans are associated with higher quality and better taste, Arabica is what you’ll likely find in your neighborhood coffee house or offered by a premium coffee roaster.

Which has more caffeine, espresso or drip brew coffee?
While on the topic of espresso, it’s important to note that, not only do dark roasts generally have less caffeine than light roasts, but espresso also has a lower caffeine content than drip brew! The reason is the length of time that the coffee beans are in contact with water for extraction. With espresso, the coffee may be in contact with water for 25 seconds or so. When making coffee via a drip-brew method, or even in a french press, coffee is in contact with water for a much longer period (up to 4 minutes). The extended time of the coffee being in contact with hot water is what allows more of the caffeine to make its way into your cup.

So the next time you want that caffeine “buzz” think twice before ordering that espresso or dark, french roast… and consider trying a lighter roast drip-brew or french press instead.

Please leave your comments below so we can continue the discussion and share this post with someone who enjoys good coffee. Ken