It's half-past eight and I'm at the office, hungry and sweating from the morning drive. I've been developing the habit of waking up at 5 AM and the immediate reward I give myself is to brew my French press coffee when I arrive at school (I work in a University).
The first thing I do is reach for my coffee grinder. It's a manual conical burr grinder. I got it last year during the Christmas season and it's one of my best purchases. I've been really into French press coffee before the onset of the pandemic. I used to order coffee grounds until a friend gave me coffee beans as a Christmas gift. I couldn't brew it unless I had a grinder. And so I bought one for around USD10.
The grinder has a lid at the top and below it is the hopper or the space where you put in the coffee beans to be ground. It has a burr mill at the center where a conical burr grinds the beans into the size that you set the grinder to. My grinder already has some leftover coffee grounds on the burr but I'm not sure how often I should clean it. I also don't even know how to clean it. It does not smell bad so I think it's still good.
The beans I'm using are from Nescafe. It's called Aromatico. It's a blend of Arabica and Robusta beans. I bought this online after I saw that it was on sale. I've had it before and the best thing about the beans is the aroma and I also like how it's not too strong even at the lowest coffee-to-water ratio.
My girlfriend has given me coffee beans before and one of them was an expired Nescafe Aromatico. She got it from her brother-in-law and we thought a month or two after the expiration date was still okay. Turns out, even after being expired, it's still good.
The beans are medium roast and the profile says its flavor is quite intense with little notes of fruitiness and cocoa.
I want my coffee to taste the same every time I drink it. I tested out different ratios and I found that 1:14 is enough for me. I started from 1:12 but it was a bit strong for me. So I weigh my coffee beans and my water to get the taste, strength, and amount that I want.
Using a kitchen scale, I weigh 15 grams of the beans. This will give me around 210 mL of brewed coffee which I think is the right amount if you want to drink a mug of coffee. I used to brew 20 g of coffee beans but that's a lot if you're only drinking it in the morning and all by yourself. I guess I could drink again in the afternoon but drinking hot coffee in the morning is enough for me. And I also don't want my beans to run out quick. Some coffee beans can be really expensive.
The grinder has a removable bottom container for the grounds but I use it as a container for the beans when I weigh them. For this particular coffee session, just as I was reaching for the container, I spilled the beans on the table and the floor. I didn't mean to but it turned out to be just what I wanted for the time when I decided to take pictures during a coffee session.
I know picking beans that fell on the table and some on the floor is not very hygienic but what the hell, it's just me who's going to drink it. And I hope that the hot water would be enough to kill most of the germs.
I transfer the beans to the hopper and I see that choosing 15 grams is a good amount. The space in the hopper is just enough for it. I can still add five more grams but it would be full to the brim.
Along the center of the grinder is a rod. This rod connects to the lever. I put back the lid and at the top, there's a peg where the lever is secured. At the other end of the level is a wheel handle that allows the lever to be turned which also turns the burr and grinds the beans.
Grinding the beans is a bit of a workout. You use your arms to turn the lever for a couple of minutes. The sound of the beans being crushed is oddly satisfying.
I adjusted my grinder to produce coarse grounds because I will brew it using a French press. The filter in the French press has larger holes compared to the other brewing equipment (coffee maker, pour-over, espresso machine).
Still, I think my grounds are too coarse but they don't produce a lot of fines in my coffee. Fines are those powdery residue left at the bottom of your coffee. I follow the most common French press brewing method and it usually produces a bit of fines in the coffee.
It's time to brew! I pour the coffee grounds into the pre-heated French press. Pre-heating just means putting hot water inside the French press and leaving it for a minute or two. This ensures that there won't be a drastic temperature drop when you pour your brewing hot water into the French press.
I have bought two French presses already but the one I'm using at the school is not mine. I don't know whose is it but it's been sitting in the office since the pandemic. I just made good use of it.
I put the French press on the kitchen scale to measure the amount of hot water that I pour into it. I don't have a kettle so I just use a cup. It's messy because hot water gets splashed all around the table. I pour in around 210 mL of hot water. Because I don't have a wooden spoon yet, I carefully stir the mixture using a metal spoon. This can break the glass if done too strongly. I close the lid and bring the plunger just right above the water. And I wait for four minutes.
When the alarm sounds, I push the plunger down and pour my freshly brewed coffee into my cup. I put two teaspoons of sugar because I like my coffee sweet. I don't add milk or creamer because I'm lactose-intolerant. I take the first sip and enjoy my delicious coffee. I'm not an expert when it comes to coffee flavors. The profile is correct. It's intense but I can't distinguish the subtle cocoa and fruity notes. Brewing using a French press doesn't really bring out the subtle flavors in coffee unless you use the "longer method." Maybe I'll talk about this other method in a different post.
I pair my coffee with my breakfast, usually just bread or a sandwich. I savor my coffee and sip it slowly until it's almost 9 AM and I'm ready to work.
That's it! Although I'm writing this in the afternoon, it's making me want to have a cup of coffee right now. How about you? Do you drink coffee? And how do you make your coffee?
I hope my post intrigued you a bit about coffee-making. In my next coffee post, I think I'll be sharing about the time when I had a Coffee Flight Set. It's a set of coffee drinks that you order and you taste each one which you try to distinguish from each other. That was an interesting experience.
See you in the next post. Cheers! ☕☕
