SYNERGY, BABY! Recently Jim and I unveiled our new line of coffee, “Number One” over on fourlights.shop. I thought it would be fitting to use one of the first Leal Deal product spotlights to review my journey from coffee neophyte to coffee apprentice and aspiring acolyte.
I’ve never been a big coffee drinker, I’ve traditionally preferred my caffeine to be fizzy and cold and not hot and flat. But most of my experience with coffee was desperately trying to drink the swill my uncles brought to the work site in a giant Stanley thermos to stay warm on bone chilling Indiana mornings. It was freeze dried instant coffee brewed my psychopaths, so go figure.
Flash forward to the start of the year when we were pitching and investigating different product ideas to develop, and coffee ended up being the obvious choice. I figured my job in this would be to gamely drink a cup on live streams, with the goal of saying with all honesty that it’s one of the best cups of coffee I’ve ever had. I did not expect to enjoy it to the extent that I have. I’ve finally after 47 years on this rock become a daily coffee drinker.
I love geeky, technical, gear oriented hobbies as much as the next guy, and coffee has this in spades. Our Four Lights roaster and all around Coffee guru, Zip Howard, made us a cup of coffee so good I couldn’t believe it, and with so many different methods, too! From high end machines to the humble pour over, there were seemingly no wrong answers and just consistently great cups of coffee. But as you might expect a man with an industrial roaster, he has all they toys and years of experience.
Me? I had none of that. My first few weeks of brewing Number One I used my 15 year old Keurig with a few reusable stainless steel cups. This is not a bad way to go! It’s quick, easy, and makes a perfectly fine cup of coffee. I particularly recommend those cups if you want to go this method, as they use an extremely fine mesh that does not require disposable filters. But I noticed it was a bit “flatter” in terms of taste from the reference cups Zip brewed for us. Plus, it noticeably lacked that distinct velvety mouthfeel that first attracted me to espresso and that we were getting from Number One brewed by such a pro.
So, I started to gear up. For me, the really fun part of all this has been iterating the process and experimenting with grind size, temperature, brew time, etc to find the best tasting cup of coffee for me. It’s kind of amazing what a few seconds more or less in brew time or a few degrees difference in water temp can do to change the flavor and character of your coffee. Not only has it become a nice little morning ritual, but it also scratches that “honing a useful skill” part of my brain that I find really satisfying.
In our intro podcast we did with him, Zip gave us a few key points to elevating our coffee game: water quality, temperature control, a consistent grind, and of course, a quality, reliable method of brewing. Let's review those points and I'll share with you what I've come up with for a solution. And the best part of it, I've only spent just over $100 for everything I'm going to recommend. You can either go all in, or identify your weakest link and upgrade more modularly as you have time and funds.
1) Quality water: Most people reading this will have a great source of water right in their home, the tap. You do NOT want to use distilled water, even though that's the purest water you can get. This is because making coffee relies on at least some mineral content to brew correctly and taste great. If you live in one of the many locales where your tap water may have a funky taste or odor, and any of that will obviously transfer to your cup o' Joe, so we’ll want to get rid of that.
Filtered water to the rescue. I’ve used a Britta pitcher for years to keep an ice cold supply of tasty and refreshing water always ready. I’ve had mine for 20 years and it still works great, replacement filters are readily available and reasonably priced. My exact pitcher is discontinued, but this is the current generation. There are various sizes available if you’d like something smaller or larger. By the way, the base model of filter will do fine for eliminating smells and tastes. If you need the more advanced filter option, but unless you have a need to filter heavy metals and lead out of your tap water, you can save money by avoiding the "Elite" models.
2) Temperature control: If you want to step away from the Mr. Coffees and Keurigs of the world, you’re going to need a way to precisely heat water. The preferred range of water temperature for the best brew is going to be between 195 – 205. Our roaster Zip recommends the higher side of that range for Number One. You’ll know you’re going too low, if you get sour notes in your coffee, too high, and it brings out the bitterness. You want it just right. The simplest way to get there is just to boil water, then remove it from heat for 30-60 seconds. But I wanted more precision...
I ended up getting this stainless steel kettle by LuxHaus. It’s a solid kettle, with a gooseneck spout for precise control of the flow of hot H2O, and it has a built-in temperature gauge on the lid with the optimum temperature range highlighted for easy reference. I have an induction cook top surface, and it can bring a few cups of water to the right temperature in just a minute or two.
Electric kettles are also good, but I’ve never used one. If you have recommendations let us know and we’ll test a few and recommend one in a future spotlight.
3) Grinder: If you want to maximize taste, you can’t beat fresh ground coffee. And the smell of fresh grinds, ahhh… It’s also a practical consideration; a ground bag of coffee can become stale in a matter of weeks, while whole beans can keep their freshness – properly stored – for up to six months. If you want the freshest tasting cup of coffee, you want to go with whole beans.
Now, I’m going to be up front, this is my shakiest recommendation on the list. I made this purchase without consulting Zip first. I’ve since found a solid coffee grinder is one that uses a burr, and in particular a conical burr is preferred. Burrs crush the bean between two abrasive surfaces, and since you can precisely set the distance between the burrs you can precisely grind the beans to your preferred fineness. The course or fineness of your grind will come down to brew method and personal preference, pour over methods require a courser grind, espresso requires finer.
I got the Shardor Electric Coffee Bean Grinder, which uses blades to do the grinding and not a burr. That means the grind size isn't going to be as consistent as a burr grinder. It also means the blades will gradually dull and become less effective, and there doesn't seem to be a way to replace them, making this a cheap, disposable grinder. Having said that, I’ve found that for my preferred brewing method (we’ll get there!) it does fine. As a bonus, bladed grinders can be used to grind various herbs (͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°) and spices if you’re into that sort of thing. Burr grinders should NOT be used to grind anything that’s not coffee beans. It’s relatively quiet, quick, and it’s super easy to clean. The entire stainless steel grinding cup twists off the base and can go right into the dishwasher. Easy peasy.
And while it’s not the “perfect” grinder, I’ve found you can improve your grind consistency by interrupting the grind half way through to give the cup a little shake to help things along. But I’ll probably run this thing til it breaks and upgrade to something nicer.
If you want to go straight to a "best in class" solution that still won't break your bank, Zip suggests the Baratza Encore. This is a "buy it for life" kind of option, and is designed to be serviceable and repairable, with parts being easy to find, plentiful, and inexpensive. You can grind through a pound a day and in 5-10 years spend $30 on a rebuild kit and have essentially a brand new grinder. That said, this is a serious pro-sumer grade grinder and can be loud and messy, spilling grind and residue during use.
A top Reddit pick seems to be the Capresso 560 Infinity. It's cheaper, quieter, cleaner, has less grinding options, and is not repairable. But it might be a better option to get started over my El Cheapo bladed grinder, last you several years, and if you've converted to Total Coffee Guru over that time, get yourself the beast of your dreams, or even get a used commercial grinder off a site like Home-Barista.
4) Quality Brewing Method: Okay, I’m telling you now, for making individual cups of AMAZING coffee, there’s a clear winner in my eyes and it’s not even close. The Aeropress! This thing is fool-proof, quick, easy, and an absolute breeze to clean. You just twist off the base, add a new filter, throw your grinds into the press, put it over your mug, pour your hot water over it, give it a stir, install the plunger, wait 30 seconds, and press. It almost takes longer to type this up than it takes to do it. To get it ready for another cup, just twist off the base, tap out the press into the garbage, rinse it with warm water, and it’s good to go. It’s also remarkably flexible, with a few changes to the amount of grinds, water, and timing, it can brew anything from americano all the way to a respectable shot of espresso! It comes with simple to follow recipes to get you brewing your preferred cup in minutes. As a bonus, it packs relatively light, so it’s a great travel solution and damn near decadent in a camping situation.
I cannot adequately describe to you what a difference this makes if you’ve never tried one before. And the best part, it costs less than two bags of Number One. Even better, supplies are locally available; if you have a Wal-Mart in your town, congrats! You have an Aeropress dealer.
I will say if I could do it over again, I might have sprung for the “clear” version. It costs a little more, but I’ve found it’s some what hard to read the level of liquid on the side gauge and I feel like the clear one would eliminate that issue, and for how cheap they are why not? Brewing americano you essentially fill it nearly to the top, so it’s not a huge issue for me at the moment, but trying to hit the lower marks for espresso, etc, can be a bit tricky if your kitchen lighting is kinda meh like mine.
Got a significant other and want to brew one for you and one for your sweetie simultaneously? Get an Aeropress XL. It can make up to two cups of American style coffee and up to six shots of espresso in one go. The only real hole in this solution is it’s not great for brewing in bulk. You drink multiple mugs of coffee in the morning? Want to fill your monster Yeti and drink all day? Want to brew a batch to caffeinate the whole extended family on Christmas morning? That’s a LOT of Aeropressing. Maybe it’s time to break out the old drip brewer? But when you want to treat yourself to the best damn cup of coffee you can, Aeropress all the way.