Happy new year, coffee lovers!  May the year 2012 bring us all more good coffee, and less Mayan apocalypse.

If you follow this blog, then you’ve heard me suggest before the importance of the water that you use when making coffee.

Read: Why Water Is So Important to Coffee

If you follow me on Twitter, then you also know how much horrible hotel room coffee I drink.

Read: The Truth About Hotel Room Coffee
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I was reminded of the importance of water in coffee over New Years Eve.  Our hotel room featured vacuum-sealed Starbucks coffee – an African blend of theirs, so I must admit it was better than the hotel room coffee I’m used to.  The first cup I made was definitely drinkable. 

When I made my second cup, I used bottled water instead of tap water.  I can’t express enough how much of a difference it made.  The second cup was not only drinkable, but an excellent cup of coffee.  The best hotel room coffee I’ve had in almost a year.

I’m not suggesting you use bottled water everytime you make coffee, but apply the same standard to your coffee water as you do to your drinking water.  At the very least, invest $12 in a Brita pitcher, and use only that water if your brewing method doesn’t already involve boiling the water.  Coffee is 99% water.

Many years ago, my brother introduced me to the French Press.  He explained that for many, this was the best way to brew coffee.  At the time, I didn’t have a sophisticated enough taste for coffee for it to make much difference.  I also remember staring at the press pot and thinking about how primitive it looked compared to some of the tricked-out drip brewers that were on the market. 

It would be many years before I would use a French Press again.  I had made plenty of upgrades in my other coffee gear and certainly, the coffee itself that I was buying.  I had finished some reading on making great coffee, and the press pot came up again and again.  I decided to buy one, and alternated between using it and the drip brewer.  As time has gone on, I’ve used the drip brewer predominantly to make a large amount of coffee to be poured into my Thermos, but for smaller amounts, some of the fancier brewing methods.

Read: Buy a Thermos…Make Good Coffee

Last year, two different guests to the website asked me which I thought was the better brewing method between the press pot and the pourover method (the latter also known as the Chemex or Melitta).  Similarly, many people still refer to the press pot as the Bodum, named after the company that made the design popular.  Pourover was new to me, so I actually had to research it.  When I did, it just seemed like a LOT of work compared to the very turnkey way of making coffee by press pot.  With nothing else to go on, I ruled in favor of the press pot.

Read: Melitta vs. French Press…fight!
Read: Pour-over Brewing Method – the Chemex (greatly expanded description of pourover)

I now have a drip brewer, a press pot, and a pourover coffee maker in my coffee bar.  I will say that both the press pot and pourover make a noticeably better coffee than the drip brewer, but then again, both are intended to be improvements on the design of the drip brewer, itself an improvement on the percolator. 

Here is some loose logic for how and when I decide to use each:

- Drip Brewer: For making a lot of coffee at once.  Generally to load into my Thermos for a day of being on the road, or if I am making coffee for a lot of guests.

- Press Pot: Takes the longest to cool down, so for when I have time to sit back by myself, and enjoy it (ie. Sunday afternoon, no hurries).

- Pourover: For some novelty in preparing it – it is definitely the most interesting to watch being prepared.  I do enjoy talking through the process as I prepare it.  Also, the paper filter removes any sediment from the coffee, which I like to provide for coffee drinking guests in my home who may not know to swish their cup before the last swallow, or care to.

So, the drip brewer remains my method for brewing a volume of coffee.  Between the press pot and pourover, I cannot pick a “winner”.  I like them both.  The pourover leaves no sediment in the cup but the coffee cools off quicker.  The press pot leaves sediment in the cup, but it doesn’t bother me as I’m expecting the sediment.  I love having them all in the coffee bar at my disposal.

Question: “How will using reverse osmosis water in my coffee maker affect the flavor? Is it a bad choice?” - Tina

Answer: I’m hearing more and more about water filtration and purification systems in the home, and reverse osmosis continues to come up.  I’m by no stretch a chemist, but I’ve made a valiant attempt to understand how RO works and will do my best to explain it, leading to how that would affect the taste of your coffee.

RO works by creating two “chambers” separated by a membrane.  The membrane acts as a filter that removes unwanted chemicals and particles from the water in the first chamber, which (along with some waste water) is flushed into sewage, while the second chamber contains a purified water that pours from your tap for cooking and drinking.

So, the short answer to your question is that not only will it not affect the flavor of your coffee adversely, but it will likely make it taste even better.  Water is one of the most underrated ingredients in making good coffee at home.  Fresh roasted whole bean coffee and unfiltered water still make only a mediocre coffee.  When I use my drip brewer, I only pour filtered water from the Brita in my fridge, or I use one of two methods that involve boiling water – the French Press or the pourover method.  So, I did further research comparing RO to boiling water as purification methods.

While RO is certainly more convenient than having to boil water each time you want to use it, it ALSO appears to be a better system for purifying water.  The membrane in RO will stop many unwanted particles from ending up in the water that you drink.  While boiling water will kill bacteria, it will only move unwanted particles around in the water which will end up in your cup.

So enjoy your new RO system!  I think you will find that it has a very favorable effect on your coffee.  Thank you for the question.

Question: “Hi Marc, I love coffee and have been striving to make the perfect cup for years. I’ve always been mixed up with the coffee/water ratio, however. You say 1-2 tbsp per mug. Not only is 1-2 tbsp subjective but what about the mug size? Let’s say I want to make 8 cups of coffee. By 8 cups, I mean 8 coffee cups, not and not 8 250ml cups. Many sources have said 2 level tsbp ground coffee per 1 coffee cup (I think that is about 170 ml), other sources have said 1 heaping per 2 coffee cups…. I have a Krups coffee grinder that I just indicate how many cups I want and it takes care of grinding the correct amount. The manual on the grinder says 2 tbsp per 1 coffee cup, however, when I actually measure it out on a tbsp it’s closer to 1 tbsp per coffee cup. What are your thoughts? Also, I’ve heard to brew at full strength and add hot water to weaken (if desired) as opposed to reducing the amount of coffee grounds. One more thing… are the ratios the same if using a coffee press??? Thanks so much for the help! Love the website by the way.” – Brad



Answer: Awesome Brad, thanks for the comments.  I still remember how confused I found referring to cups of coffee, whether that’s a coffee mug or a 250mL “metric cup” of coffee.  Your question made me realize how unconsciously I make my coffee but unconscious or not, how consistently I make it.  This advice should work:

• Drip Brewer: Just about every drip brewer today measures volume in the carafe by number of metric cups.  So a 10-cup brewer makes you ten metric cups of coffee.  I consider this roughly five mugs of coffee, but don’t let me confuse the issue…use this guideline.  For each two metric cups of water you pour into the carafe, use a heaping tablespoon or coffee scoop of whole beans, or a level scoop of ground coffee.  Adjust to taste from there, but that should be a good starting point.

• French Press: This one is a little trickier because as you mention, we have to consider the size of the mug now.  With the drip-brewer carafe, you can measure your coffee to the cup measurements on the carafe.  With a French Press, there usually aren’t volume indicators on it.  What I do to get around this problem is estimate one heaping tablespoon or scoop of whole beans per “standard coffee mug” worth of water I pour into it.  I know, just barely scientific but I use the same mug of coffee for drip-brewed coffee as I do for pressed coffee so for each one of those I boil in water, I use one heaping scoop of coffee.

I either solved your problem or confused you even more!  The problem I have with most standard advice is that it’s not that practical for me to measure the coffee I brew by “standard coffee cup sizes” or volumes of water because my gauge is either the volume indicators on the carafe or else the number of mugs I intend to drink.  I hope you find this advice practical.

Question: “I like coffee really hot, so was interested in a double-walled stainless steel cafetiere/bodum, rather than the usual glass type. But I was wondering whether the steel would adversely affect the taste of the coffee. Any comments much appreciated. Thank you.” - Mrs. Sodera

Answer: I confess that I was not entirely familiar with the stainless steel French Press until I received your question.  I’ve only ever seen the glass French Press, and it’s the one that I use in my own home.  In fact, I’ve used it twice today already.  My biggest complaint is that the glass construction is not at all insulated so once you start drinking, you have to drink it progressively faster until it’s gone (and obviously cooler by that point).

For those of you not familiar with the French Press method of brewing coffee, click the link to learn more about it.  For many, it is the ideal way to make the best possible coffee at home.

I did some research when I received your question.  The answer is that the stainless steel construction will not adversely affect the flavor of the coffee you prepare in it.

The only comment related to flavor that I could find from somebody who uses one is that he felt the flavor did have a subtle difference from a glass French Press.  He was sure to point out that it was different, not worse and not indicative of steel in the flavor of the coffee.  I took this comment similarly to the different types of mugs that people use to drink coffee, and how many will say that it affects the flavor.  I personally like coffee best out of a ceramic cup but with my travel schedule, am often drinking out of a thermal mug.

The other factors to consider are look and price.  Many people prefer the glass look.  On price, you’ll pay approximately $70 for a stainless steel French Press.  And for that, you will have a coffee that stays hotter longer, and that will not break.  Let’s face it with a glass French Press, I’m bound to break it at some point, it’s just a matter of time .

Thanks for the question.

NOTE: Since this post was written, I did indeed break my glass French Press by putting it in the dishwasher and running the cycle.

Question: “Dear Marc, I never thought these letters were true until something happened one night…oh wrong forum for this one. Sorry…

I would like your thoughts on coffee makers in hotel rooms. Are they cared for and cleaned regularly? There must be stories of BAD things happening to them.” - Bill S.

Answer: Bill, thank you for putting your magazine down long enough to ask this question.

It’s a great question, and if you follow me on Twitter, you know how much time I spend traveling, and in hotels.  All of this amounts to a LOT of bad coffee.  Unfortunately at times, I agree whole-heartedly with the following quote from David Lynch, “Even a bad cup of coffee is better than no coffee at all.” And if you don’t follow me on Twitter, you should be following me on Twitter.

Hotel lobby coffee is likely made with all of the same care, or lack of it, as hotel restaurant coffee.  It’s definitely the lesser of hotel coffee evils.  But, hotel room coffee should be avoided unless you absolutely need one and there isn’t any in the lobby.  It’s a rare case where I’d sooner recommend an energy drink.  Here’s why:

- Coffee maker is of bare minimum quality.  The maker in the room is designed to heat water, drip it over the filter, and not blow up in the process.  As I type this, I’m staring at a Sunbeam coffee maker, probably the same quality as the mini Mr. Coffee that I used for making coffee in my room in college.

- You don’t have access to filtered water.  The water you use to make coffee is so important.  When staying in a hotel, you’re probably using tap water from the bathroom.

- Between guests, the coffee pot cleaning is suspect.  In a five-star hotel, I’ve seen housekeeping clean the coffee pot with a facecloth in the room’s bathroom sink.  Over your next hotel stay, look at the cart that housekeeping has to service the entire room, and compare that to how you would clean your coffee pot at home between uses.  Your question was about maintenance of the machines, and I doubt very much that the hotel is running vinegar cleaning cycles through its machines before they reach the end of their lives and are disposed.

- The coffee will NOT be good.  I stay in hotel rooms almost half the time.  I’ve never had a quality coffee in a hotel room.  At home, I stick my face in the bag of new coffee each time I open it.  I wouldn’t even think to breathe in from a single serving of the mass-produced pseudo-instant coffee that are in the rooms.

Venture into the lobby for a coffee.  I find myself favoring chains that put coffee in the lobby 24 hours a day.  The best hotel room coffee experience I’ve ever had was at a Marriott in Portland, OR – they had a pod coffee maker in each room and an assortment of pods of coffee.  It was so exciting for me (and due to my kleptomania), here’s a picture that I had tweeted of what happened when housekeeping left their cart unattended in the hallway…