Preparation - Drip Method
Drip is the most common form of coffee served in the United States. This method essentially pours near-boiling water over medium-course coffee grounds to produce coffee. This is probably the easiest method of making coffee. A few words about filters: There are two types of filter available for drip coffee. One type is paper. The other is a metal or plastic permanent filter. Neither is innately better but they do produce different coffee flavors. A paper filter will hold some of the essential oils that are being released from the coffee. Some people have a preference for this. In paper filters there are several brands that have various thickness and types of paper that will absorb more or less of the oils. One selling point for paper filters is that they are very easy to clean up; just throw them away. This of course means more landfill and more trees being cut down. Some people also feel that paper filters give coffee a papery taste. The permanent filter has some obvious advantages and disadvantages in relation to paper. I will add just a couple of ideas about them here. One, use metal; plastic won't last as long and may give your coffee an off flavor. Two, permanent filters require a slightly courser grind and you may get some sediment in your cup. This is probably comparable to the sediment in a coffee press.

French Press, Bodum, Press Pot, Cafetiere
A French Press is a glass container with a wire mesh attached to a plunger. Some French Presses will also have an optional nylon fine filter that will help to catch dust that some grinders produce. To make coffee, you first allow water to come very close to a boil but just short of this point. If you are heating water in an open pan, when you see the very beginning of a boil, pull your water. The overall temperature of the water from top to bottom should even out to be in the ideal range for coffee. If you are using a closed tea pot, this is the point where the water just begins to sound different in the pot. For more information on temperature see the section on water temperature. The press should be pre-warmed before putting the coffee in. This will help keep the glass from absorbing as much heat when the hot water is put in the press thus making for warmer coffee when you pour. The press should contain approximately the same amount of very coarsely ground coffee as you would use for drip coffee. Let it brew for 2-3 minutes or until it is easy to press the plunger down and then plunge the wire mesh. This filters the coffee. Course ground coffee is a must here or there will be a great deal of sediment in the cup. You will have a small amount of sediment no mater what. Due to the fact that there is no paper filter, all oils make it into the cup. This is a great cup of coffee.

Espresso
- Preheat your cups; it makes a big difference, particularly if you drink doubles or if you're making for several people. By the time you hit the bottom of your cup, or finished making the coffee for the last person, the first shot can be very cold. Boiling water usually makes the cups too hot to hold, but filling them with hot water from the tap works well. If you put hot tap water in your cups before starting to brew coffee they will be ready by the time you get everything ready. You will also want to warm the brew head before starting. If you do not do this the heat of the water will be dissipated by warming the brew head. If you are making multiple cups leaving the brew head in the machine between cups should keep it warm. - Make sure the coffee is ground for an espresso machine. If the coffee is too coarse the water will go through too fast and will not extract the nectar from the coffee. If the coffee is ground too fine the water will not be able to travel through the grounds properly and may lead to over extraction. Think of salt as a general rule. The best, of course, is to grind your own, but you can tell your coffee supplier to grind for an espresso machine. Until you get the knack of exactly how fine is fine enough you might want to buy pre-ground coffee to get an idea of what is correct. Espresso is definitely one place that a whirly blade grinder will not work. - Make sure the filter basket is full, and tamped correctly. This is another one of those places that a little experimentations is in order. If the coffee is tamped too hard water will not flow through. If it is not tamped hard enough the water will run through the grounds too quickly. ater there. If there's uneven crema, then either the coffee has been left sitting too long after being ground, or the dose in the handle hasn't been tamped down firmly enough.
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