Across the country, the craft coffee movement is growing. Great roasters are popping up all over the place and the level that quality coffee has reached is phenomenal. It is a great time to be a coffee lover. If you are just showing up to the coffee party, don’t worry. There is plenty of time to get up to speed. While the world of coffee knowledge is vast, here are a few tips for coffee beginners that can instantly elevate the quality of the coffee you brew at home and give you a head start on your coffee journey.

Start with Fresh Roasted, Good Quality Coffee

Not all coffee is on an equal footing. Most people know that there is a difference between various coffee qualities, but they might not know how vast the differences in quality actually are. The coffee that you choose makes a huge difference on your brewed cup of coffee. Here is what to look for:

1. Look for a roast date- Despite popular opinion, coffee is a perishable food and is actually pretty volatile. Don’t be fooled by coffee that has a best by date, look for coffee that has a roasted on date. Roasted coffee is best within the first month or so of the roast date.
2. Avoid pre-ground when possible- If grinding your coffee at home right before you brew is an option, that is the recommended method. Coffee stales much quicker in it’s ground form and purchasing pre-ground coffee with an expiration date instead of a roast date will probably mean you are not getting the most out of your coffee brewing experience.
3. Search for quality roasters and coffee you like- You may have a hard time finding fresh roasted coffee at your standard super market. Search out local coffee shops, coffee subscription services and area roasters for the freshest and best coffee. It helps to find someone; a roaster, a barista, or a twitter account, that you can actually interact with and ask questions about their coffee.

Pay Attention to The Details

As with most things worth doing in life, paying attention to the details matters for brewing coffee. There are many small details that go into making a great cup of coffee, but two larger details that make a big difference are using fresh, clean water and measuring your dosage. Coffee is mainly water, hence the water you use will make a significant difference in how your coffee turns out. Use water that tastes good to you, if the water tastes good it will probably be fine for coffee. Make sure it is fresh, clean and clear. Using bottled spring or drinking water is fine but do not use distilled. Regulating and measuring how much coffee you use when you brew is something that takes small effort but has huge pay-offs. Don’t just guess how much coffee to use. Start with the recommended dosage for your brewing method and then adjust for personal preferences after tasting your finished product. Your goal is consistency. Without measuring the ratio of coffee to water you are using, it will be hard to get repeatable results.

Focus on Quality

In a culture where nearly everything is mega-sized, making coffee is no exception. Mass quantities are the first priority and quality is typically only added in when it is convenient. Take the road less traveled and focus on quality, you won’t be disappointed. Here are a few things that can pack a punch from a quality of brewed coffee perspective:

1. Make small batches and drink it fresh- Brewed coffee is best fresh. It is better to make several small batches throughout the day than to make one large batch in the morning and have it sit on a hot plate all day long. Leaving your coffee on a hot plate will burn it and change the taste (it’s not a good change either). If you find it to be too inconvenient to make several batches of coffee each day, invest in a quality carafe. Keeping coffee warm and sealed in a carafe or travel mug is much preferred over constantly reheating or burning your coffee.
2. Consider manual coffee brewing- I am a huge proponent of manual brewing. (I have a blog named Brewing Coffee Manually in fact). Manual brewing is exactly what it sounds like; You are the coffee maker and you add water to coffee grounds in order to achieve the cup of coffee that you want. This may sound like a lot of work and like it is only for fanatical coffee addicts but with a minimal investment of time and a money you can make markedly better coffee than most automatic coffee makers.
3. Ease off the additives- If you are adding copious amounts of sugar and flavored creamers to your coffee, it may be time to reevaluate. There is nothing wrong with adding things to your coffee and this isn’t a snobbery thing. You may find quality coffee brewed purposefully to be enjoyable black. Before adding anything to your coffee each time, take a sip of it. You never know which one will strike a harmonious chord with your palate.

Enjoy, Learn and Share

As I mentioned earlier, it is a great time to be a coffee lover. Don’t stress out about the details, celebrate and enjoy them. With all the options available, you can explore and find a coffee made just the way you like it. If you are unhappy with the cups of coffee you are brewing at home, go back and evaluate your inputs and see where the problem is. When you are stumped don’t be intimidated, ask questions. There are tons of people out there who are willing and eager to answer your questions, myself included. When you get find a fantastic coffee you enjoy and get your brewing system down, share it. Nothing brings community quite like sharing a cup of coffee. It’s one of life’s simple pleasures. The fact that you made the coffee yourself will be the icing on the cake.

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Do coffee snobs set out to drink black coffee, or do black coffee drinkers naturally become coffee snobs? It sounds like a chicken and the egg problem, but it wasn't for me. I became a black coffee drinker first (to cut calories), and ended up becoming a coffee snob. Once the milk and sugar was gone, I began noticing the difference between good coffee and bad like never before.

If you want to enjoy coffee black, whether for health reasons or just for fun, here are three tips to do it right.

• The Beans - I’m going to make this super simple. Buy a bag of naturally processed Ethiopian coffee. The term “natural process” has nothing to do with being organic or anything like that. As soon as coffee is picked, it’s processed to remove the bean from the fruit. Most good coffee is “washed”, but “natural” processing leaves the fruit on longer, which creates a naturally sweeter coffee. And naturally processed ethiopian coffee, in particular, almost always has an amazing berry flavor. Blueberry is often unmistakable, strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry is sometimes there too. Overall, it’s an amazing coffee and the best place to start your black coffee adventures.
• The Grind - Grinding your own coffee fresh before brewing is NOT absolutely essential, but it is a big upgrade. If you don’t think you have time, it takes less than 1 minute with a decent grinder. If you can’t afford a decent grinder, you should know that there are totally respectable hand grinders available for about $30. They use ceramic burrs AND with no need for electricity, you can take them camping!
• The Brew - If money is an issue, buy a Melitta pour-over dripper. It’s $3 and makes amazing coffee. All you need is a mug and a kettle. If time is an issue, please for the love of the Ethiopian farmer who picked your coffee beans one at a time, by hand, please don’t use a Keurig. Great coffee takes maybe 5 minutes to make, and the Keurig is incapable of making good coffee. You’re a black coffee drinker now, have some pride! Throw away that Keurig and make your coffee any other way.

That should be all you need to get started. In just a few weeks, you'll be loving black coffee like you never thought possible! And spread the love, please share this article with someone who's ready to make the switch!

One french press brew guide to rule them all.

The french press coffee brewer is a classic, for many people it's their first introduction to decent coffee at home. But despite the fact that you can find them for sale at every grocery and kitchenware store, they're surprisingly tough to get right. The big problem is that they require a super consistent coarse grind, which only high-end coffee grinders do well. As a result, we never recommend the french press for beginners. But if you have a great grinder and want to revisit a classic, the french press produces a very unique (and enjoyable) cup of coffee. For the most part, the french press is straightforward to use. Add coffee, add water, wait, plunge. Water should be 195-205℉ (a few minutes off boil). Some recipes recommend a stir, others recommend pouring some water, letting the coffee bloom, and then pouring the rest. Really, it doesn't matter what you do as long as you do the same thing every time, eventually you'll dial in the recipe just the way you like it. To help you remember how to use a french press, we compiled a list of french press instructions from top coffee roasters. Roaster, Coffee (grams), Water (grams), Time Blue Bottle, 40g, 400g, 4:00 Intelligentsia, 33g, 525g, 5:00 Stumptown Coffee, 56g, 896g, 4:00 Sightglass Coffee, 38g, 600g, 4:00 Ritual, 55g, 850g, 4:00 Sprudge, 53g, 850g, 4:00 Average, 46g, 687g, 4:10 That averages out to a brew ratio of 15:1, which sounds about right. And in case you don't have a scale, that's fine, there are only a few conversions you need to know. French press manufacturers like to think a cup is only 4oz, so an 8-cup french press only holds 32oz. There are 28 grams per oz, so here's how many grams a reasonably full french press holds: Cups, Ounces, Grams 4, 16oz, 448g 6, 24oz, 672g 8, 32oz, 896g 12, 48oz, 1344g

Here's one one trick we've come up with that greatly improves the press (especially if you have a less than stellar grinder). Pour the grinds into a strainer and shake it to get the finest particles out. At first it might seem like a lot of coffee is being lost, but when I shake 40g of coffee, only 3g of super fines come out. Here's how it looks:

Taking those super fine grains out makes a HUGE difference, you'll have the best french press of your life. Not only will the coffee be less muddy, but 50% of the sour and 90% of the bitterness will be removed as well, without removing the pleasant acidity. That should be all the info you need to get started with the french press. Enjoy re-discovering a classic!