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Common Flaws We Make In Our Morning Coffee

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's the morning beverage of choice for most, but many people are ruining perfectly good coffee on a daily basis.

If your coffee tastes funny, maybe your water is to blame. Patrick Dinkins prefers filtered water. Dinkins is the Roast Master and Cameron's Coffee in Shakopee.  He suggests using filtered water to let the taste of the coffee stand out.

The truth is there are many variables that go into brewing the perfect cup. It seems like such a simple formula: Beans, water, heat it up and you get coffee. To achieve the perfect cup, one must consider water temperature, the proper beans and grind.

"You can have really good coffee and wreck it when you brew it," said Dinkins, also a certified coffee taste tester.

Dinkins can save us from our bad coffee brewing habit.

"There's an art to brewing coffee.  There's an art to roasting coffee," said Dinkins.

In general, Dinkins says people don't use enough coffee. The coffee to water ratio will vary he says depending on the type of beans. He suggests experimenting by putting in more until it tastes right to you. By trying out different varieties of beans and roasts, you may find one you prefer.  After all, the taste of coffee varies depending on which region it's grown.

The fresher the better, said Dinkins, but be mindful of how you grind the beans. Dinkins says a blade grinder will chop the beans up into various size chunks, whereas with a burr grinder the beans are ground more consistently.

And then, there's how you brew the coffee.

"Most coffee brewers, consumer brewers don't do a really good job of brewing a good cup of coffee," said Dinkins.

This fundamental flaw he says is that they don't brew it hot enough.

"You're not getting the proper extraction.  You're not pulling everything out of the coffee you can," he said.

His perfect water temperature is 200 degrees.  If you don't want to fork over big bucks for a new coffee maker, try a French press. That way you can heat the water on the stove to the proper temperature before you brew.

After all, if we're drinking it every day, we might as well brew it right.

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