At Craft Coffee Spot, we have written guides to step up your coffee game. We have reviewed different brewing methods with the most common informational needs out there.
The Basics: How-To Brew Guides
There are dozens of ways to brew coffee, and each method will have some nuances. For example, you can get a full-body using a French press or a clean cup with a Chemex. We have a curated list of comprehensive guides on different brewing methods. Each article answers how to brew each method with high-quality images. We’ll also cover what flavor to expect and whether the method suits your preference.
- The complete guide to all the ways to make coffee: if you want to start in one place, start here. This guide covers 13 brewing methods, from the classic drip coffee maker to the less common Walkure. Each method has an overview of the brewing method and the flavor, along with a difficulty rating so you can choose which to pursue.
- The French press guide: this is the easiest and one of the most common brewing methods. A French press brews a full-bodied cup of coffee in four minutes with relative ease. We specify the coffee-to-water ratio you should use, the biggest question for French press coffee. We also detail the standard method for brewing French press coffee and the popular James Hoffman method.
- Cold brew coffee: another popular and easy method, we show how to make cold brew coffee at home with a mason jar. You’ll get a mellow, smooth taste from a cold brew, and it’s a forgiving process. It’s a great read to learn a little more about flavor.
- Master the pour over coffee: if you’re ready to take it up a notch, pour over coffee is the way to go. You’ll have way more control over the outcome with a pour over device. We thoroughly explain each step and what you’ll need to get started with pour over coffee. It’s not nearly as difficult as you think, and we have a step-by-step Chemex guide.
- Describing coffee taste and flavor: knowing the difference between acidity, body, and flavor notes is important to understand what you like. Taste is subjective, but we cover ways to grow your palate.
Techniques for Brewing Great Coffee
There are some other universal learnings for any brew method. We cover some of the general topics you should learn to brew great coffee with any device consistently.
- Coffee grind size is the most critical factor to brewing great coffee, other than the coffee beans. You can dramatically affect flavor with too fine or coarse a grind size. We have high-resolution images for the seven major grind settings with a description and associated brewing methods for each.
- The coffee bloom: regardless of the brew method, adding a 30-second bloom stage will improve the coffee flavor of each cup. It’s worth reading this brew article to learn how to bloom coffee.
- The ideal coffee temperature: this is a less covered topic that is worth highlighting. Make sure to use a water temperature just below boiling and consider what temperature you want to drink your coffee. It will affect your perception of the flavor.
- How much caffeine is in your coffee? This is a resource page on the different levels of caffeine for each drink. Skim through to learn that you’re probably drinking way above the recommended levels!
- Water for coffee: your coffee is actually 98% water, and it’ll have an impact on your flavor. But, the details are confusing and we try to simplify it here.
Coffee Recipes
- Iced coffee with ice cream: a simple and creamy drink that is sweet with chocolate undertones thanks to the espresso.
Espresso
There is a lot to cover on espresso, a separate way of brewing coffee with a high-pressure machine. There is more to come on this topic as we just starting to scratch the surface with a few articles. Expect more to come:
- What is espresso: it’s a concentrated form of coffee made with a high-pressure espresso machine. We cover some of the main facts and list 11 different drinks you can make with espresso.
- Cappuccino and latte are two of the most popular coffee drinks consumed today, let alone espresso drinks. Deciding between the two drinks comes down to how much milk (latte) vs milk foam (cappuccino) you want.
Other Information on Coffee
- Fascinating coffee statistics: we also compiled a list of 51 interesting statistics on coffee, including information on the most popular brewing devices, what’s trending in home barista use, and how people consume coffee around the world.
- The environmental impact of coffee pods: we’ve reviewed plenty of Nespresso machines and wanted to find how bad coffee pods are for the environment. we did our own survey covering 2,500 people and found out the full impact along with a simple solution to reduce waste: make recycling easy.
- US coffee survey: how long can people go without coffee? This is our original work surveying 4,000 Americans on how long they can go without coffee or alcohol. We also asked a few follow-up questions.
- Coffee production and export statistics: the latest data on which countries produce the most coffee, where it is shipped, and what countries consume the most.
- Coffee shop statistics: a deep dive into the state of coffee shops, including the growth of the industry and how much a coffee shop makes.
Or, review our detailed espresso articles and espresso machine reviews here, and read about our acquisition of Arcadia Coffee.
