5 Top Tips For Making The Perfect Coffee

Making yourself a cup of coffee isn’t hard. But making yourself a good cup of coffee – we’re talking about one that can rival the kind that costs £4.50 and comes prepared by the barista you’ve got a huge crush on – is no mean feat. The difference between drinking a smooth and nutty brew that perks you up just the right amount versus an acrid mug of over-roasted coffee that hangs around the back of your throat for a couple of hours is startling. A good cup of coffee can make your day seem a little brighter even in the darkest of times whereas a bad cup can put you in a foul mood for the foreseeable future. Or, at the very least, until it’s time for your next cup of coffee.

Life is too short for bad coffee. So, here are five of our top tips for making the perfect cup of coffee.

This is pretty self-explanatory but making sure you start off by using some good coffee beans (that have been ethically sourced) is essential to making a cup that really hits the spot. Not only will buying from a quality purveyor ensure that your end-product hits all the notes you’d want from a coffee, but their dedication to fair supply chains means your conscience can rest easy, too.

While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with drinking pre-ground coffee, this little guide is about making the perfect cup of coffee. And, in a perfect world, you should really be grinding your coffee beans every time you fancy a cuppa. Keeping your coffee beans whole for as long as possible is the best way to retain their freshness and flavour. Once you’ve ground those beans, you’re essentially working with borrowed time before all the coffee-ness seeps out and leaves you with a characterless caffeine powder. It might seem like a lot of needless effort but grinding each batch won’t add more than a couple of extra seconds to your day. Plus, you get to enjoy that freshly ground coffee smell every single morning. Whether you opt for an electric grinder or a simple manual grinder is up to you and your budget. Just try not to wake up everyone in your house when you do decide to give it a whirr.

Choosing the right brewing method is one of the most obvious ways of ensuring you can bring out the best of your much-needed 8:00am cup of joe. Even if your beans are freshly roasted and immaculately sourced, bunging them into a percolator and burning the hell out of them won’t do your coffee any favours. Choosing a method that you’re comfortable with is obviously important – don’t go out and buy a V60 dripper just because that hot Aussie barista said you had to – but do bear in mind that how you make your coffee can be just as impactful as your choice of the coffee itself. An AeroPress’d brew is going to taste vastly different from a cup that comes out of a cafetiere and it’s often down to experimentation to find the method that best works for your schedule and palate.

No-one likes cold coffee, right? Iced coffee? Delicious. Lukewarm coffee? Acceptable if your brain is feeling especially foggy. But cold? That’s just gross. One of the best ways to ensure your coffee remains at the ideal temperature is by serving it in an appropriate vessel. Thermos-like cups will be able to keep that cup warm throughout the day if you’re on the go but it’s also worth bearing in mind that whatever you put your beverage in is going to impact its taste. That’s why ceramic or glass cups are typically the preferred vessels for coffee – they’re good at insulating your coffee and don’t interfere with its subtle flavour profile.

Whether you’re a soy, almond, pea or regular milk drinker, choosing the right milk to add a layer of luxury to your coffee is essential. Specially designed barista versions of plant-based milks are your best shout at attempting to replicate the mouthfeel of actual dairy but, honestly, there’s no substitute for the real deal. And when it comes to milk that’s made for coffee, you can’t get much better than Cravendale. Made by British Arla Farmers, Cravendale uses ceramic filters to finely filter all of their milk to keep it fresher for longer without adding any additives or UHT treatment. Which is neat. But what those nifty ceramic filters also do is enhance the flavour and froth-potential of the milk, making it a “purer” and, well, milkier milk that’s favoured by baristas all over the country for its ease of use and creamy, foamy consistency. Two-thirds of your latte is made up of milk, right? So, don’t be surprised that using a good milk is essential to making the perfect cup of coffee. It’s not rocket science. Just regular science.