We can’t all be coffee experts, and sometimes it can be hard to know what to look for when you buy your morning brew.
There are a number of things that can go wrong in the barista process, and any one of them can lead to a sub-par coffee. Here are a few of the things that have an impact on the overall cup of coffee once it makes its way to you:
Firstly, the grind might be too fine. What this essentially means is that the coffee hasn’t had the opportunity to expand, leading to that burnt/bitter taste I’m sure you’ve experienced at least once before.
The basket may be overpacked. Sometimes there can be too much coffee in the basket, leading to a higher likelihood of over-compression. When the shot goes on, the water finds it more difficult to pass through, leaving you with a dry and hard puck. The best cafes and baristas combat this by using scales to calibrate the perfect amount of coffee for each shot.
Alternatively, the pressure with which a barista ‘tamps’ the shot can affect how it pours. They might have used the perfect amount and consistency of grind, but if they’ve compacted it too forcefully the results can be just as unpleasant. A shot of coffee relies on the ability of water to pass through with ease and balance, so the tamping pressure can have a huge effect on the way your coffee tastes.
Finally, there's the age of the coffee to consider. Like (almost) anything edible, coffee has a use-by date (I’m looking at you, fast food). Likewise, the quality of coffee is affected by the time since it was roasted. Ideally, you should be consuming coffee that’s around 7-10 days from roast date. The roasters that show you a use-by date and not a roasted-on date are the ones you need to be careful of! Old coffee loses its gases and can taste sour and bitter as a result.
It might be unclear to you which of these factors is affecting your cup of coffee, but hopefully you can use these as points of reference in your ongoing coffee knowledge. If you’re interested in making your own coffee, try and keep these few tips in mind when brewing your own, and watch this space for more info in the future.