The Basic Elements of Coffee Brewing
By choosing Equal Exchange, you've demonstrated that your coffee is very important to you. As you brew with care, you continue to honor the hard work of our small-scale farmer partners and join a community of Equal Exchange coffee lovers. Here are the basic elements of coffee brewing.
Water
Coffee is 99% water! Use only the cleanest, freshest water available. It's best not to use distilled water in which the natural minerals have been removed because coffee interacts with these minerals to naturally enhance the taste. Bottled spring water or filtered tap water is ideal.
Water temperature
The perfect temperature to brew coffee is between 195˚ and 205˚F. Since many automatic drip brewers average only 850 watts of power, it's important to make sure that your brewer's capacity is at least 1,000 watts as this is required to bring the water temperature up to the proper range. When brewing manually with a French press or filter cone, remove your kettle of boiling water from its heat source and let it sit 2 minutes before pouring over your ground coffee.
Grind
When you purchase whole bean coffee, it's best to grind your coffee right before brewing, although it's perfectly acceptable to grind your coffee when you buy it. Your goal is to achieve the right grind for the right brewing method:
coarse grind for French press brewing
medium-coarse grind (aka. "regular") for automatic drip brewers
medium grind for filter cone method
fine grind when making espresso
You may also purchase Equal Exchange drip grind coffee that has been ground and vacuum-sealed to preserve freshness for automatic drip brewers and filter cones.
Coffee-to-water ratio
Whatever method of brewing you use, the general standard is 1-2 Tbsp of coffee for every 6 oz of water. For the French press, use 2 Tbsp per 6 oz of water. Automatic drip brewers, on the other hand, tend to produce a desirable brew when using as little as 1 Tbsp per 6 oz of water. You'll want to experiment and adjust depending on whether you prefer a stronger or milder brew.
Brewing time
Once your coffee finishes brewing, the flavor and quality begins to deteriorate. In the case of the French press, after it's brewed 3-5 minutes and the coffee grounds have been pushed down to the bottom of the glass vessel, we recommend that you transport the coffee into a thermos, or serve it immediately; if left in the press, the coffee will continue to brew and become bitter. In general, we recommend that you transfer coffee from any method of brewing into a stainless steel thermos or an insulated carafe to keep it hot for the next cup.
Storing your coffee
Storing your coffee in an airtight glass or ceramic canister is optimal. Properly stored coffee can stay fresh up to two weeks and should not be refrigerated, nor is it necessary to keep it in the freezer. For maximum freshness, we recommend purchasing only as much coffee as you will consume in a 1 1/2 to 2 week period.
Looking to troubleshoot? We collected 8 Top Tips for Troubleshooting your Coffee Brewing
Check out more brewing tips and tasting guides on our Downloads page
