Home Brew

There’s nothing more irritating than a lousy cup of coffee. So invest a little time, and maybe a little money, slow down and learn to brew the perfect cup, thanks to the great advice from Wade Semograd of Calgary’s Big Mountain Coffee Roasters. The beans aren’t grown here, but Semograd imports and roasts them, making them far less travelled than the typical bean.

Bean there: Buy good-quality, whole beans, the kind that come out of the bag aromatic and medium-dark. Use a burr grinder (for uniform grounds) at home and grind beans in small batches, as needed. If you can’t be bothered, buy whole beans and have the barrista grind them. The shorter the time span between grinding and brewing, the better the joe.

Fridge or shelf? It’s a long-running controversy. Do coffee grounds or beans stay fresher on the inside or outside of your fridge? Wade Semograd, owner and roaster at Big Mountain is firm: keep coffee anywhere but in the fridge. Some of his customers say freezing works well. “In the cupboard, it’s good for a couple of weeks,” he says. “But just buy enough for a week for maximum flavour.”

Waterworld: You don’t need more bean for any particular method. Big Mountain advises you use one heaping tablespoon of ground for about 200 mL (six ounces) of water. Use fresh, clean, cool water and heat it to just shy of the boiling point.

Back to the grind: If you have a cone-shaped filter, grind your coffee fine, about 20 seconds in a home grinder, so it’s uniform and granulated. For a bodum-style press, use your grinder for about 10 seconds, for a coarser grind. Pour over the water, and let it sit for about three to four minutes before you press.

The gear: “Use paper filters, if you like,” Semograd says, “but gold mesh filters make for better coffee.”  Try a side-by-side taste test and you be the judge. Choose an insulated carafe, rather than a pot with a hot plate under it. The constant heat burns the coffee.