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Coffee for Company – 5 Quick Tips
Here are a few tips to help you the next time you are having company and serving coffee.
- Buy a glass lined carafe. This simple piece of hardware can keep coffee fresh for hours. If the people who are coming are equal amounts regular and decaf then you might need two. For under 20 dollars you can have a ready reserve of coffee already hot and ready for your guests. When they request coffee, start a pot and pour from the carafe. Brew the coffee a couple hours before anyone is supposed to show up and you’ll be set.
- Buy Whole beans, and an inexpensive grinder. While pre-ground coffee is a time saver it also doesn’t have the same full flavor profile. Grind the coffee earlier in the day, right around the same time you start your pot for the carafe. Grind one serving at a time and place them into individual baggies in the freezer directly after grinding. The coffee will taste better.
- Pull the pot. Place a trivet, coaster or some other device to rest your pot on directly after its done brewing. Remove the pot from heat as soon as the drip stops, coffee left on the warmer for any longer than 10 minutes starts to get bitter, even if the initial brew was smooth. Burning the coffee is a common mistake. Your better off having to nuke a cup of coffee than have sour faces.
- Sugar and Spice. Check the sugar bowl and use a creamer, it makes for better presentation and an easy setup. Also consider using small jelly jars for any other spices you want to offer, or a unique sprinkler. Remember to put out the Vanilla extract.
- Avoid flavored coffee. Nothing polarizes a room quicker than brewing a sickly sweet pot of hazelnut vanilla only to find that half the room detests hazelnut. Use flavored syrups or spices instead to add flavor.
Bonus: When picking your coffee, choose a medium roast. Dark roasted coffee tend to have a stronger flavor, and can come off burnt even when they are fresh brewed. a nice medium roast should suite most palates nicely.
One last thought, know your audience, ask ahead of time who drinks what, uses what and try your best to have a ready supply of cream, milk, sugar and artificial sweeteners. You would be surprised at just how many people have very strong opinions on just which artificial sweetener they like.
Source: ineedcoffee, Paul Rj Muller/http://www.caffination.com
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4 Responses to “Coffee for Company – 5 Quick Tips”
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“Cheap grinders” usually denotes a blade grinder. Problem with blade grinders are:
(1) It is difficult to produce a consistent grind. Beans vary in hardness due to the altitude they’re are grown at. Therefore simply grinding for 20 seconds may be fine for a bean grown at 3500′ ASL, while another bean grown at 6000′ ASL (harder) will grind coarser in just 20 seconds.
(2) They produce a lot of friction heat as the blade chops the beans and can result in a coffee with a burnt taste.
If you are that concerned about the grind consistency, buy a burr grinder. Burr grinder aren’t necesarilly expensive either. Bodum makes an inexpensive ($99) bur grinder.
Toomers Coffee Company sells the Bodum burr grinder by the way
Hi there.
I’m glad you liked my article on how to better serve your guests coffee. I understand that a burr grinder is much better for grinding coffee to perfection, but the idea of the article and the rest of those I write is to espouse a low cost of entry. 99 dollars isn’t a lot of money but it is signifcantly more than 10 dollars, which is what a decent blade grinder costs. As long as you are not brewing espresso or using a french press you should be fine with a blade grinder.
If you like the content of the article then there is plenty more where that came from at both The CaffiNation Podcast and IneedCoffee.com
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