Since millions of people are learning to cook right now, I have felt a little overwhelmed with where I can start helping. So, let’s start with what I start my day off with every day, a cup of coffee.
I have to be honest, and I would never have thought this would be necessary until I was working at a startup in Oakland, and someone asked me to make the coffee one day. I was probably the oldest person in the building, even though I was still under 40, and realized I had skills.
I’m a natural homebody, and I am old enough that I learned to drink coffee before Starbucks existed, so I have made my coffee for years. Furthermore, because of my ten-year stint in the early morning restaurant business, I’ve become both a coinsure and a hack when I make coffee for myself. I was spoiled with free espresso five days a week, then had to figure out the easiest way to get caffeine in my system before 9 am on my days off.
I started out and still, on occasion, use a one-cup Melitta pour-over coffee funnel. It’s plastic, and I know it will probably give me cancer, but it is tough for me to get rid of something that works to replace it with something that does the same job, so I will probably have it for the rest of my life.
I’ve had coffee makers, both drip and a Keurig. They work okay, although I have never found the coffee that comes out of a Keurig to be any good, especially if you drink black coffee. And the point of this article is to teach you how to make coffee, when you might not have all of the modern conveniences or the availability of a Keurig pod.
Back to making coffee:
The good news is all it takes is coffee grounds and water. Even though it might seem like water is scarce these days, most of the stuff out of the tap is acceptable, but filtered is better.
If you have a drip coffee maker or pour-over filter, line your basket with a paper filter, pour dry coffee grounds into the filter basket about half full and start from there. For the pour-over filter, pour boiling water over the grounds. For a drip machine, fill the water reservoir and turn it on.
You should try making coffee with more and fewer grounds on different days and then see which you like better. There is no right amount. You are the one who gets to drink it the way you like it.
A French press is one of the best ways to make coffee, but if you don’t have one, you don’t need to jump on Amazon right now, there are several ways to make coffee with what you have on hand.
Making coffee without a machine
In a glass container combine 16 ounces (2 cups) of boiling water and ¼ cup coffee grounds. Let it steep for 5 minutes, then pour the liquid through a strainer lined with paper towels or a coffee filter, or a clean piece of thin cotton material. (Make sure you collect the liquid that goes through, that’s what you drink.)
Cold Brewing
Cold-brew coffee became a thing just a few years ago, and I laugh every time I see what it costs. There is no magic in cold brew coffee. Cold-brew does take more coffee grounds per cup, and more importantly, it takes some planning.
In a glass jar, pour in ½ cup of coffee grounds and add 2 cups of cold water. Put the lid on, shake, and wait a day. I shake mine every couple of hours because I think it’s doing something, but it’s probably not. The next day, strain out the coffee grounds.
Follow the straining method above for making coffee without a machine.
In coffee circles, there is a thing called a coffee sock. They have worked out that straining with cotton material is better than paper. The makers are currently sold out, but I bet you have some cotton material at home that can be repurposed, so we should all be okay.
A few more coffee basics.
I would usually say, buy the best coffee that you can afford, but nowadays you might have to buy whatever is available. Remember, if you don’t own a coffee grinder, grind the beans at the store.
And, don’t hoard coffee until they stop growing it.
Having too much on hand is just going to give you bad coffee in the future.
The best coffee comes from recently roasted beans. The longer the time from roasting to brewing, the more flavor the coffee loses. The time from grinding to brewing is not as critical.
When I ordered coffee from Pete’s, they didn’t even roast the coffee until after I placed the order. Which is different from the way every other brand of coffee is sold. And, if you go into a Pete’s coffee shop, yes, it can be strong, but when you make it yourself, to your desired strength, I would recommend it every time.