Posted on 03/24/2023 3:48:15 PM PDT by nickcarraway
You don't have to suffer through a bad cup of morning coffee.×
Most people would probably assume I make great coffee at home. I work at Food & Wine, I care about things like garnishing my scrambled eggs in a cute way, and I deeply appreciate a good cocktail (or mocktail). Still, when it comes to my at-home coffee situation, the standards are floor-level. My roommate and I have been brewing our daily coffee in an ancient Mr. Coffee machine for the past four years — the coffee pot actually came with the first apartment we got together, so its age is undetermined, and someone clearly didn’t care enough to take it when they moved out. It also doesn’t help that we’re reluctant to buy anything but the cheapest coffee beans available at the grocery store.
Even if you happen to have a coffee scale and Chemex at home, odds are at some point you’ll end up in an office, great aunt’s house, hotel room, or somewhere else with mediocre coffee — and that’s when you’ll be grateful for these tips on how to make it taste better.
Okay, don’t literally add the cinnamon to the pot — you want to add your spices to the coffee grounds before you brew. This is an easy way to make your coffee more aromatic, flavorful, and cozy-feeling; it’s one of my favorite tricks in the wintertime. Any warm baking spices will work, such as nutmeg, star anise, cloves, or cardamom (the latter is especially good), but I’m more likely to have ground cinnamon on hand than anything else. Simply add a pinch or two of the ground spice to the grinds in your coffee filter, give it a stir to evenly distribute things, and brew as normal.
Make a little milk froth
Want to feel like you just went through the drive-thru at Starbucks, without the $6 hole in your pocket ?Add some foamy milk to your cup of joe, and you’ll instantly feel a little fancier. Milk will hold bubbles (as in, it’ll become foamy) when it’s warm –– so, to create a little layer of froth for your coffee, just pour a little milk into a sealable container, like a jar or tupperware. This will work slightly better with a dairy milk, but non-dairy alternatives will hold some bubbles too. Microwave it until thoroughly warm, but not scalding hot. Then add the appropriate lid, and shake the container vigorously for about thirty seconds. The result should be some frothy milk that will make it feel like you’re drinking a cappuccino.
Turn your coffee into a mocha
The obvious answer to making bad coffee taste better is to simply add more sugar, and there’s no way better to do that than by stirring a packet of hot chocolate mix into your mug. This is basically a cheat code for making a mocha at home, and the combination of sugar and milk powder is really great at masking overly bitter coffee. Make sure you use a cocoa mix that’s meant to be dissolved in water, like Swiss Miss. One of the biggest benefits of this hack is that it doesn’t require intervention before the coffee is brewed — so if your mother-in-law already started the pot, you can still save your own cup.
Sprinkle in some salt
According to the rules of science — which I know to be true, although I don’t really know why — either salt or sugar can help offset and cut bitter flavors. (A fun way to test this is by trying a leaf of radicchio without seasoning, then with salt, with honey, and with both salt and honey. But I digress.) Sprinkle a small amount of salt — think just half of a pinch — into your coffee grounds before brewing to reduce excess sharpness and acidity.
Use that random orange in your fridge
Coffee often has some chocolate notes to it, which pair especially nicely with citrus. If you don’t believe me, just ask, like, every pastry chef ever. Zest whatever citrus fruit you have in your fridge (I’d recommend using something you’d be willing to eat plain, like an orange or grapefruit, but not a lemon), and add about a teaspoon of the zested peel to your coffee grounds. Similar to what you’d do when adding cinnamon or another spice, make sure you stir the zest in to get it evenly distributed throughout the coffee.
While I happen to have a drip coffee pot, these tips would work for most at-home coffee brewing techniques. Feel free to try them out with your French press, Moka pot, or pour over; simply adjust the quantity of cinnamon, orange zest, or whichever addition you’re using to suit the amount of coffee you’re brewing. If you’re only crafting one or two cups, you’ll need a lot less salt than if you’re making an entire pot. And, please, do not add an entire packet of hot chocolate to your single serving of espresso.
So go forth and buy the cheapest coffee beans your grocery store offers. Be like me and avoid purchasing a state-of-the-art coffee machine at all costs, and hack your way into a better cup of coffee.
BINGO.
“I do not scrimp on coffee. I pay for good coffee because I’m with it.”
Me too but I still look for the best deal.
>The salt addition actually does work. At work we usually >have whatever somebody bought at Costco or Sam’s, or >uninspiring stuff like Folger’s. Sprinkle a teaspoon of salt >on top of the grounds basket before starting the brew and >people actually ask “Hey, did you bring better coffee from home?”
Skip the salt, use baking soda. Less than 1/8 teaspoon for a full pot (12 cups) pretty much neutralizes the acid in the coffee. No after taste either. No worries, it won’t make it past the filter either. Yes PH level is a thing
put some old bay seasoning in it...
Exactly
Too bad Mr. Dillon didn’t have Chester try this.
Ok, I have a Mr. Coffee and am a big coffee drinker. So what makes Gevalia (CM 500?) a better machine?
Two shots of Jamieson’s helps a lot.
Throw it out and make good coffee.
CC
Crown royal & honey
“Cheap instant, black, available immediately.”
Oh, yeah. In the field on manuevers we’d take the MRE’s Maxwell house packets and pour the instant coffee in our mouth. Water was optional. Worked great. I kept a jar of Tasters Choice for after we setup in a position. Refinement you know.
I can only drink Arabica coffee otherwise it wreaks havoc on my stomach. I get Marcella brand at Menards. I have a 4 cup stainless steel old percolator that goes on the stove at a certain flame setting for a set time. Perfect every time.
What a wimp!
The best tasting coffee on the planet is coffee our Gunnery Sergeant made by boiling water in a 15-gallon pot and throwing a whole bag of coffee in it.
It boiled for a bit and we all dipped our canteen cups in the pot and drank dark, powerful coffee with a few grounds in it and maybe some kind of oil floating on top.
THAT was coffee!
“put some old bay seasoning in it...”
It can double as crawfish boil :)
I was a Mess Sgt in ‘70. I have made coffee in every condition imaginable. I used to have custom medium roast Costa Rican or Sumatran made for me by a buddy. I would grind it myself.
Late in life I lost my stomach in a battle with cancer. Told to forget any coffee. One of five acids is only handled by a stomach and I no longer had one. Then I found out that the problem acid is missing or very low in air roasted coffee. A roaster in Kansas City, my hometown, The Roasterie, makes air roasted coffee.
Bingo, I now have a coffee I can alternate with exotic tea.
Funny because Pulp Fiction is on IFC right now!
Locally roasted beans, grind them and then use a Chemex.
I use half Columbian coffee and half coffee with chicory. I sometimes add a little cinnamon, not for the taste, but it helps digestion.
Use good ingredients and regularly clean the equipment.
I drink it black and have made my own for 4+ decades.
If you want good coffee, avoid Charbucks to begin with.
Even when I was a consultant traveling with an expense account I did not drink that burnt crap. $12 for a coffee pot in my room and $6 for a lb and I was set for the week (usually the duration as I negotiated no move out rates ).
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