from Hacker News

The least you need to know to experience the joy of better brewed coffee

by jtrtoo on 3/7/19, 6:08 PM with 12 comments

• by sli on 3/7/19, 10:49 PM

  This is an excellent list, and it absolutely mirrors the advice I give to people.

  > Use the same amount of coffee grounds in your maker regardless of whether you’re making a full pot or not.

  This is a tip that is missed way too often, and I love sharing it with people because it seems counter-intuitive. Always prefer to use more coffee than less. If you use too little, as you approach the end of the brew, you're going to start extracting bitter compounds. I think this is probably the easiest way to improve your coffee (though not the best; a grinder and fresh, whole beans is the single biggest improvement one can make -- I consider that one upgrade, not two).

  This is why otherwise terrible coffee from the gas station still tastes "strong." It's not strong, it's just really bitter.

• by LargoLasskhyfv on 3/7/19, 11:06 PM

  Regarding 4. Store the beans sealed as tightly as possible (exposure to oxygen/air speeds up their deterioration)

  I'm always wondering if i did a great ghetto-style hack, or just deluding myself? What is a tight seal in the context of outgasing co²? When you buy beans in bags they have to have a kind of vent/seal, because otherwise they would burst. So i used a leftover 500g can from a protein shake, and the clear plastic protecting lid from a 500g yoghurt which sits over the aluminum foil, and fastened the clip with the use before date from a toast/sandwich bag as handle to pull it out with adhesive tape to it. The idea being: when i insert the clear plastic lid into the can over the coffee, it makes a DOUBLE seal with a buffer of co² between the cans loose lid and the inner plastic lid. It is sitting so tight that i can see it slowly glide down on the air cushion which it replaces, the more empty the can gets. Anyways, just four always availabe leftover parts. Am i ingenious, or what? :-)

• by makerofspoons on 3/7/19, 9:17 PM

  Be mindful of where you get your coffee. Intensive coffee farming is environmentally destructive: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/64/5/416/2754235

  Absent urgent climate action wild coffee will likely be extinct by 2080 and farming will likely have to move regions or move indoors: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coffee-cou...

• by zaphod12 on 3/7/19, 8:41 PM

  Excellent list.

  As an additional reason to buy whole beans, consider this:

  Researches who work often with cockroaches tend to develop an allergy to them, over time; requiring them to wear heaving gloves to handle the creatures. These individuals also become allergic to pre-ground coffee at the same time.

• by o_nate on 3/7/19, 8:17 PM

  These are good tips but I find it incomplete without at least a few words about the freshness of the beans at the time you buy them. If you're using stale beans the other steps aren't really going to help.

• by hanging on 3/8/19, 9:50 AM

  A striking omission is the importance of grinder type (Burr vs. blade).