Brewing Better Filter Coffee at Home

A good cup at home takes five minutes, a scale and a little care. Here is the method we use at the café every morning.

Start With Fresh Beans and Good Water

Coffee is mostly water, so water matters. If your tap water tastes good, it will usually make good coffee. Beans are at their best between one and four weeks after roasting, so buy smaller bags more often and keep them sealed in a cool, dark cupboard. Grind just before you brew, medium-fine, about the texture of coarse sand.

Photo by Andrew Kliatskyi on Unsplash.

Wet the filter with hot water first, which rinses the paper and warms the cup. Add your coffee, pour twice its weight in water and wait thirty seconds while it blooms. Then continue with slow circles in three pours, finishing at around two and a half minutes. If the cup tastes sour, grind a little finer; if it is bitter, go a little coarser. Change one thing at a time and write down what you did.