How You Can Make Great Espresso

As a young student of the cookery arts, there were a handful of �commandments�-central tenets of proper cooking-that each of my mentors persistently reinforced (read: screamed).One such precept, which has been indelibly seared into my cortex, is that temperature equals flavor.Heat browns meat, caramelizes sugar, and extracts body-providing gelatin from bones. Heat alsocreates aroma, concentrates flavor compounds, and melts unctuous fats. If warmth is so great(which it can be), why on Earth am I promoting the practice of combining ground coffee with room-temperature water and letting it infuse slowly for hours? The perfect solution lies in the fact thatheat is indiscriminate.

It�s true that caffeine brewed at 210 qualifications will contain more smell compounds,dissolved solids, and flavor than coffee made at 72 degrees. But this is one case exactly where moreisn�t necessarily far better. Along with the good stuff, heat also extracts the majority ofbitterness and astringency found in hot-brewed coffee. Exposed to far less heat, cold-brew issignificantly less acerbic than its sweltering sibling. Significantly less bitterness means that thesubtler flavors found in coffee beans are more perceptible. For me, very good cold-brew amountshints of dark chocolates, caramel, ripe black fruits, and vanilla with a pleasant viscosity, mild acidity,and pitch perfect bitterness. If my description sounds florid to you, it�s probably since youdidn�t have cold-brew this morning. In all honesty, it is lush, nuanced, and unbelievablysmooth.

Still, cold-brew does have its pundits (myself at one time included). Naysayers complain that cold-brew lacks the body and complexity of flavor of a heat-extracted brew. Through the years I�vetried to extract more complexity and richness from cool-brew coffee, in the hope of achieving thebest of equally worlds. I�ve tried several out-there tactics including an initial hot water bloom(there�s that heat again); pressurized brewing in a cream whipping canister; near-continuousagitation; and 5-day-extended extractions in the fridge. But none of these techniques improved mycup of cold-brew. What they performed was turn a simple, gratifying process into a chore.

Right after reconciling my love of chilly-brew with several years of heat-focused culinaryindoctrination I am now willing to pass along my own commandments on how to make good cold-brew coffee. I assurance not to yell.

Here is a tip, be sure you always use filtered water. It can change the taste of the coffee and willgive you a under perfect cup of gourmet coffee.

I grind my beans fine. That is a mistake, although most frosty-brew recipes call for medium-coarse orcoarse ground beans. The factors with the biggest impact on coffee extraction are watertemperature, grind size, extraction time, and finally, agitation-in that order. Since I use room-temperature water I can mark temperature off the list of variables and grind size gets mostimportant. Finer particles will release more flavor compounds than larger ones.

I combine room-temp water (usually filtered, as my tap water doesn�t style great) and freshlyfloor coffee in a large French press. The press makes it�s a snap to separate the concentratefrom the grinds after brewing.

After about 10 minutes, a solid raft of coffee grinds will kind on the surface. I find it important to stirthis raft into the water to maximize contact with the floor coffee.

After the initial blend to combine the ingredients, this is the only other time I mix during brewing.Frustration is last on the list of variables affecting extraction, as I discussed earlier. I find it anuisance to stir a batch of cold-brew many times over the course of a day; the good news is Idon�t have to.

Next, I cover the French press with plastic wrap and allow it sit at room temperature for 24 hours(give or consider an hour in either direction). I�ve done room-temperature brews as short as12 hours and as long as 72 hours. 20 or so-four hours is consistently the sweet spot.