Everything you need to know so you can be the best at-home barista.
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All your questions and answers about coffee gear & accessories
A French Press is a manual coffee brewing method. It consists of a cylindrical glass pot and a plunger. You grind your coffee (coarse), pour in hot water, time the brewing (blooming), and press the plunger. The French press brings out a richly aromatic coffee, a full-bodied brew.
A Moka pot is a stove-top coffee maker, invented by Bialetti, an Italian engineer, in 1933. Made of aluminum, sometimes of stainless steel, it comes in multiple sizes, with its characteristic shape. The Moka pot brews coffee under pressurized water by steam through the coffee grounds. The result is a full-bodied aromatic coffee.
An AeroPress is an easy-to-go manual coffee brewing method. Put coffee and hot water in the tube, stir it, let it sit for 10 to 50 seconds, and then press through a paper filter into your cup. For the devoted fans, it makes some of the best coffee, without bitterness.
A knock box is mess-free disposal of the espresso puck— a metal or plastic canister with an anti-slip rubber grip that collects coffee grounds.
A silicon coffee tamper mat keeps the portafilter from sliding around while you’re tamping. It protects your countertop and portafilter from damages.
A Chemex® is a manual pour-over hourglass shaped coffee maker. Ground coffee is placed in a Chemex-Bonded® Coffee Filter that will retain all oils. By pouring hot water evenly and at a controlled speed, you end up with a pure, crisp coffee without bitterness.
A coffee distribution tool evenly spreads espresso coffee grounds in the portafilter by rotating the leveling blades. It helps prepare a flat coffee puck and makes it easier to apply even pressure with the tamper.
A tamper is a tool used to pack espresso grounds into the basket of your portafilter. That allows creating resistance for the pressurized water to extract the coffee flavor compounds (oils, acids, sugars, and fibers), resulting in a rich, thick, and flavorful coffee. Tamping evenly your coffee grounds is essential to extract a perfect espresso shot.
The French word for “half-cup,” a demitasse, is a small cup used for espresso. It holds between 2 and 3 ounces (60 to 90 milliliters), approximately half the size of a typical European full coffee cup.
Brewing techniques questions and answers
A pour-over is a coffee brewing method used with a coffee dripper or a Chemex®. All you need is to pour slowly and evenly hot water onto ground coffee beans and four minutes of your day. It makes a pure, crisp coffee without bitterness that lets the characteristics of the coffee origins shine.
Dialing in espresso is the trial-and-error process to adjust the grind size to find the optimal setting to extract a perfect espresso shot.
Blooming is the visual reaction caused by the release of CO2 when hot water soaks grounds of freshly roasted coffee beans.
Tamping espresso grounds allows creating resistance for the pressurized water to extract the coffee flavor compounds (oils, acids, sugars, and fibers). The result is a rich, thick, and flavorful extraction. Evenly tamping your coffee grounds is essential to extract a perfect espresso shot.
Crema is the smooth light brown emulsion that floats atop of an espresso. When hot water emulsifies the coffee oils and gets saturated with the CO2 contained in the coffee grounds, it forms a layer with a lot of tiny bubbles called a crema. Although visually appealing, a think crema is not indicative of the quality of an espresso shot.
Caffè (coffee) Americano is a black coffee obtained by diluting an espresso shot with hot water. Practically, you pour a 2 oz espresso shot into 4 oz of hot water. You can vary the strength of an Americano coffee with the number of espresso shots and the amount of water added.
“Did you know?” questions and answers about coffee-related subject
The three coffee beans are meant to represent the three blessings: health, prosperity, and happiness. You can garnish up a coffee-related cocktail or dessert with three coffee beans.
Specialty coffee is a term to design a high coffee grade from farm to cup using single origin or single estate coffee. The coffee is roasted and extracted differently. Those coffee beans score higher than 80 points on the SCA quality scale (Specialty Coffee Association).
A suspended coffee (known as a caffè sospeso) is an act of charity that started in Naples, Italy. Instead of buying just one cup of coffee, you buy two or more for a person in need. This can be applied to food as well.
Yes, bees love coffee plants, and they are attracted to the caffeine in the flower’s nectar. Scientists have found that caffeine can improve a honeybee’s memory, helping them remember the plants’ scent to return for optimal pollination. 🐝
One of the world’s most expensive coffee, “Kopi luwak,” is cat poop coffee. From Indonesia, these coffee beans are eaten, digested, and defected by a civet cat. A pound could cost by $100 to $600!
The coffee belt, known as the bean belt, is a zone that runs across the equator, situated between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. That zone provides the only conditions found on earth to grow coffee plants successfully. The coffee bean belt covers part of Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
Arabica coffee comes from the beans of a Coffea arabica plant from Ethiopia. Over 60% of coffee drank in the world would be an Arabica. Arabica is more expensive than Robusta and better in taste, with notes of fruits and sugar tones.
Why? Because their husbands were frequently absent from home, domestic duties, spending money, and preferring to down copious amounts of coffee and chatting with their mates.
Women were not allowed in the coffee shop and called coffee “a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking, nauseous puddle water.”
The name cappuccino comes from the Capuchin friars (monks) in Italy. This distinctive red-brown color of the hooded robe they wore was similar to the popular drink made by mixing espresso coffee with frothed milk.
In coffee shops, they often serve a lemon or orange peel on the side with an espresso. You can drop the peel into the cup or squeeze it to brighten the coffee’s flavor and counteract any bitterness.