Cup-o-Joe, by Em

I told a friend that I was thinking of writing about coffee and she said that coffee was one place where she was not willing to economize. I understand and fully empathize with this. I am the kind of coffee addict who can have a couple cups in the morning (before work), seven shots of espresso in the early afternoon (at work), a cup in the afternoon (snack), and one after dinner (dessert) and still get to bed at a reasonable hour. I am a coffee addict’s coffee addict. With this in mind, I am going at least acknowledge the whole java spectrum.

Obviously, the “best” option, monetarily speaking, is not to drink coffee at all. It has no nutritional value to speak of and actually prevents calcium from being absorbed by your body. If you do drink coffee on a regular basis, it’s important that you make sure to compliment that with a calcium-rich diet. To be fair, it also contains practically no carbs and fats and it is a wonderful source of sweet, sweet caffeine. There are other benefits to coffee. Filling up on java means you aren’t filling up on other things, plus, drinking a hot beverage more slowly gives your stomach more time to realize that it’s getting full and coffee, at approximately 50 cents per serving (homebrewed), is not a huge drain on your wallet. Now, if I have convinced you to come over to the dark side we will proceed. How do you get the most out of your homebrewed java?

Learn from coffee’s evil twin, espresso:

Brew time
Though espresso has a much stronger taste than coffee, it actually contains less caffeine because the water comes in contact with the ground for a much shorter amount of time, which means that coffee made in a French press is going to have the most caffeine. Even if you don’t have a French press, drip brew coffee is a much slower brew than an espresso machine, so no worries!

Not counting Turkish coffee, which is an entirely different beast, there is one other brewing method that I am aware of, cold brew. Cold brewing coffee results in a coffee concentrate that you can then dilute with hot water, milk, etc. This brewing method results in a coffee that is less acidic and therefore much smother tasting. For more information here is an article about cold brew. Cold brew coffee makers cost about $30, but I also found an article that shows how to make your own cold brew setup for much, much less.

Roast
Somewhat counter-intuitively (at least in my mind) darker roasts contain less caffeine, so espresso beans (traditionally a much darker roast) have actually had quite a bit of the caffeine roasted out of them. When purchasing coffee at a store, decide exactly how powerfully you would like to be gripping the steering wheel on your way to work, and purchase accordingly.

There is another way to perfect your roast and that is to roast your own beans. You can purchase green coffee beans online from a number of companies online. This article from Wikipedia lists several different methods for roasting at home, including the simplest method of roasting them in a flat pan over high heat. Home roasting will allow you to buy in bulk and use a little at a time for maximum freshness. If you are roasting at home, you will need to purchase a coffee grinder. A cheap grinder costs around $15 and the more freshly ground the coffee, the fresher the taste, which brings me to the last topic…

Grind
The grind is meant to achieve the ideal flavor for each roast. Basically, the longer the roast time the coarser the grind. French press or cold brew would be the coarser grinds and espresso and Turkish-press are the finest grinds with drip brew landing solidly in the middle. Now here’s where I show my true colors. All of the experts say that it’s important to basically stick to the aforementioned formula, but my coffee-addled mind would just like for me to add this little tidbit – finer grind equals more caffeine. In order to get more caffeine out of my coffee, I often set the store grinder to Turkish grind. I have been told repeatedly that my coffee is ridiculously strong. Perhaps this is why.