The Secrets Behind the Top Coffee Shops' Delicious Coffee
If you gravitate to your favorite coffee shop day after day to get your caffeine fix, you are not alone. There really is something magical about the taste of coffee brewed at coffee shops. You can invest hour after hour at home, attempting to recreate the taste of your favorite brew from the local coffee shop only to come up short time and time again. It is time to unveil the secrets behind the delicious taste of your local coffee shop’s satisfying brews.
Coffee Shop Coffee is Fresh
Most people who make their own coffee at home use ground coffee beans from a bag that has been open for at least a week or two. Alternatively, coffee shops go through several bags of coffee each day, meaning their brews are comparably fresh. The bottom line is the longer the ground beans are exposed to air outside of the vacuum sealed coffee pouches, the less fresh the brewed coffee tastes. Furthermore, the best coffee shops refuse to let brewed coffee sit in the carafe for more than 15 or 20 minutes. The best of the best will dump that old coffee and brew fresh java for their deserving customers.
The Machinery Matters
Chances are the coffee machine at your house is a decade old and cost less than $50. The coffee making machines and tools at your favorite coffee shop are regularly maintained and replaced, ensuring truly delicious coffee is brewed every single time. In fact, some of these pieces of equipment cost several thousand dollars and were installed by professional electricians and plumbers, ensuring optimal functionality and reliability. Such complex machines are carefully designed with temperature and pressure controls ensuring the brewed coffee tastes fresh and fulfilling every single time.
The Quality of the Grind
The grinder used to grind the coffee beans really does play a part in the taste of the coffee. You can certainly find a good number of top-notch burr grinders for use at home yet they don’t hold a candle to those used at coffee shops. Commercial grinders are much larger and more efficient. Furthermore, grinders used at home heat up faster than the commercial variety as they have to work harder to grind the beans. This heat has a negative impact on the bean flavor even before water comes into contact with the grounds. Furthermore, smaller burrs are likely to generate a wider variety of coffee grounds, meaning some are fine and other grinds are coarse - a mixture that compromises the taste of the brew.
Mind the Water
The quality of the water used to make coffee is of the utmost importance. After all, coffee is essentially bean-flavored water. The coffee you make at home consists of tap water while the coffee made at your local coffee shop passes through a commercial filtration system that might even have a reverse osmosis component. Your local coffee shop might even use premium filtered water that tastes significantly better than water from the tap.
Even the temperature of the water matters a great deal in the context of coffee taste. Coffee shop coffee makers typically brew coffee with water that is at a comparably high temperature. Water at a lower temperature extracts few compounds compared to water at a high temperature. Though using especially hot water forces you to wait a little bit longer to enjoy your cup of joe, the wait is well worth it considering the superior flavor.