How to Make a Better Cup of Coffee

There’s no single “right” way to drink and enjoy coffee. At our market tastings, we hear it all: milk and sugar, chocolate and flavoured syrups, honey, butter, lion’s mane mushroom, turmeric, alternative milks… even coffee enemas (which may not be a flavour preference, but it’s definitely come up in conversation). Customising your cup to match your tastes is part of the fun. But beyond what you add to your coffee, how can you elevate the coffee itself?

 

Buying better beans 

Lower-priced supermarket coffee is often made from lower-grade beans and roasted darker to create a consistent, uniform flavor. Dark roasting tends to mask the bean’s individual characteristics, so most of what you taste comes from the roast itself: strong, bold, toasty, nutty, sometimes bitter notes. 

Lighter roasts, on the other hand, allow a roaster to showcase the natural flavors within the bean. Coffee is afterall a seed from inside a fruit and if you give that little seed a chance, you can enjoy the taste of what is special about it. Where was it grown? What variety is it? How was it processed? You don’t need to know all the details to appreciate the result, but a lighter roast gives you the chance to experience those differences. You’re more likely to notice brighter fruit notes, gentle sweetness, or perhaps floral qualities. 

Check out our blog post “Flavours in Coffee” for a deeper dive into this topic. 

Water

Water makes up the majority of your cup so it absolutely matters. Brewed coffee is about 98% water, and espresso is around 90% water. If your water doesn’t taste good on its own, your coffee won’t either. You don’t need to get overly technical at home, but using filtered water will noticeably improve your brew. 

Tap water often contains chlorine, which can dull coffee’s natural sweetness and clarity. It can also be “hard,” meaning it’s high in total dissolved solids (TDS) like calcium, magnesium, iron, and other salts all of which can flatten flavour. While you can check your local council’s water quality report if you’re curious, the takeaway is simple: filter out some of those impurities and your coffee will taste cleaner, brighter, and better balanced. A simple jug filter like a Brita filter is usually enough to remove off-tastes and improve balance.

Coffee’s flavour comes largely from weak organic acids. If your water is too alkaline, it neutralises that acidity and your cup can taste flat and lifeless. Completely distilled water isn’t ideal either as it can produce sharp, bitter or hollow flavours because there are no minerals to help with extraction and flavour perception.

The sweet spot? Relatively soft water that still contains a small amount of minerals. You need some magnesium and calcium present for proper extraction and to help the flavours “pop,” but not so much that they overwhelm the cup.

We’re admittedly a bit nerdy about this and start with distilled water, then add specific minerals back in to create a perfectly balanced brewing profile. It makes the coffee sing. But at home, you really don’t need to turn your kitchen into a science lab. Simple filtered water will do wonders for your coffee and help to keep your equipment free from the build up of minerals that can happen with using hard water over a prolonged period.

If you’re curious about the science behind all this, pioneers in coffee water chemistry like Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood and Christopher Hendon have done fascinating work exploring how water composition affects flavour.

Weigh

If you make a coffee today that you really enjoy and want to replicate tomorrow, consistency is key. One of the simplest ways to achieve this at home is by using a set of scales. Small changes in the amount of coffee or water can dramatically affect flavour. Water acts as a solvent, extracting soluble compounds from the coffee grounds, the more water available, the easier it is to extract. However, using more water will also dilute the strength of the coffee, so finding a balance that suits your taste is important. As a general guide, filter coffee is typically brewed at a ratio of 6 grams of coffee per 100 millilitres of water, while espresso often uses around 20 grams of coffee for 60 millilitres of water. Ratios are slightly less critical for milk-based drinks, as milk makes up most of the final volume and softens flavour differences.

You can buy scales under $30 on amazon and ebay, just look for a product with 0.1g accuracy and that should suffice. Brands such as Acaia, Brewista, and Timemore have some more expensive, professional scales if you're into that. 

Grind fresh 

We are happy to grind your coffee for you but be aware that ground coffee starts to go stale pretty quickly as the surface area has been largely increased and oxygen will start to degrade and off-gas the coffee. A lot of what makes coffee flavour is volatile organic compounds (VOC) and they are... volatile so it’s best to grind fresh every time. If you do purchase ground coffee, it can be a good idea to keep the bag in the freezer until you open it for the first time. 

There are some affordable hand grinders on the market that can be a simple option for making coffee at home, for example a couple of brands worth checking out are Timemore or KINGrinder. 

Storage 

Coffee is best stored in a cool, dark place, ideally kept sealed in its original bag. Avoid leaving the bag open, storing it in a hot room, or placing it in the fridge. Once opened, frequent temperature changes (such as opening and closing the fridge door) can cause condensation, which negatively affects the coffee’s freshness and flavour. It’s also important not to leave coffee sitting exposed in a grinder hopper, as contact with air speeds up staling. Keeping coffee in a sealed bag allows you to push excess air out, which is why our resealable zip-lock bags are ideal. If you want to store coffee for longer periods, you can portion it into small, airtight zip-lock bags and freeze them to help preserve freshness.

 

TLDR

Great coffee doesn’t require expensive equipment or complicated rituals, just a little intention. Choose beans that have something to say, use water that lets those flavours shine, measure your doses so you can repeat what works, grind as fresh as possible, and store your coffee with care. None of these steps need to turn your kitchen into a laboratory, but each one makes a noticeable difference. When you pay attention to the fundamentals, you give that small seed the best chance to express where it came from and what makes it unique. And once you taste that difference in your own cup, it’s hard to go back.