How To Make The Best Coffee, According To Science
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- čas přidán 13. 09. 2023
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If you drink coffee, you might wonder if you're doing the most to make your absolute best cup of coffee. And fortunately for you, science has the answers, from getting the perfect grind to finding out the best beans for you. So pull up a chair and pour yourself a cup of joe!
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If you have city water, the first thing you have to do is filter out the chlorine. Now you have chlorine free hard water. Next, you want to run your water through a softener, then a reverse osmosis (RO) filter. Now, depending on the hardness of your water, mix the RO water with the chlorine free hard water to end up with around 10 grains of hardness.
With the emergence of Death Wish coffee and other companies. It is actually being proven to be of a higher quality of both taste and smoothness. In fact, it's contradicted a lot of the coffee snobs who swear up and down about Arabica. Usually most of the time snobs in any type of thing that people enjoy they enjoy it that way for a reason I mean not a good reason but they want the more expensive tastes not that I support anyone being a snob. However, when it comes to coffee lovers, the snobs are delusional and in love with the lower quality coffee called Arabica. The association for Robusta for being a lower quality has been because they used it in instant coffee. However, if you were to make instant Arabica, it would be a whole lot worse than the Robusta. That is because there's no such thing as good instant coffee. So not only do coffee snobs act like snobs, they got it wrong, unlike other snobs and different types of things people like to enjoy.
In fact I would recommend open mindly trying it true Robusta. Not to mention like you said there's a bigger caffeine rush. So you get the best of both worlds taste quality and a better caffeine rush.
What the emergence of Death Wish coffee and other companies. The misconceptions that it's a bitter cup of coffee is just not true. Robusta beans are actually of higher quality. There's a whole lot of so-called coffee snobs out there that keeps saying Arabica is it better cup. It's simply just not true. My problem with those type of people play try to make it like it's gospel fact. I will also say that never before have I seen any type of thing people love to do be that way for no reason usually there's something there for them to have that viewpoint. However the people that are like this in the coffee hobby of life don't have a reason to be that way. However people have been misled Robusta is slowly starting to prove that it's higher quality it should be way more expensive than what it is. The Taste is actually smooth not bitter. Misconception comes from they used it in instant coffee but that's not a fair judgment. Arabica for instant coffee it'll probably be worse cuz it's instant coffee Robusta is actually higher quality in Arabic is lower. The misconception is finally being exposed because of Death Wish coffee and many other companies.
Death wish Coffee Company robusta beans should have been viewed as higher quality than Arabica the whole entire time. There's a misconception because they put it in instant coffee. Power for True Robusta is better not bitter and smooth. And Arabica comes off as harsh and more bitter. And more bitter it would be worse.
James Hoffman's fanbase has been summoned!
I was about to say the same!
I'm more of a Hames Joffman guy...
James Hoffman sent me
Yes, indeed -- although I'm already subscribed to SciShow and this immediately found my feed.
The Hoffman Huddle is here
I don’t drink coffee to wake up.
I WAKE UP TO DRINK COFFEE 😊❤
Yes
Real!
Well it is a drug
There's a Chuck Norris joke in there somewhere.
The addiction is real (same)
I've been making french press with freshly ground beans for a while now and I definitely enjoy it more than the pre-ground drip coffee I've been drinking for about 20 years
Filters take away so much taste...I drank coffee like the folk in turkey drink it. With the ground in the cup. But not such a smooth grinding. It was a shock when I first drank one from a filter.😂
Now I reached the top. Italian coffee mashine...best coffee ever. You do need to pre-head your cups though, unless you like your coffee cold
I most use the french press for my spouse (he's visually impaired & doesn't have a liquid level indicator with long enough prongs for the press; I don't drink coffee) He really likes it. Used to grind the beans every time, too.
Agreed! The press pot and freshly ground beans are my top choice. Though I still enjoy espresso when I go to a cafe. Coffee is a wonderful beverage. 💫☕☕💫
@@lisastenzel5713it's all preference. I prefer pour over filter coffee since it lets me taste the nuanced flavors of good beans. Gritty coffee is very coffee flavored. But it's pretty one note
@@lisastenzel5713 I totally agree. I never use paper coffee filters. Either a French Press or a drip maker with a screen filter.
I like this host. She has good pacing and a calm voice
Different name too
She seems like a decent person too
I love Rose she’s a great addition to the team
only because she hasn't had her cup of Joe yet
and way too many inappropriate facial expressions, & too much head movement...
As a coffee scientist, this video makes me so happy. I am constantly correcting people on the roast vs caffeine issue. Also I promise it's not always a dream job 😅
It still sounds like lots of fun and interesting work! How do you end up being a coffee scientist, and what do you actually do? Like quality measurement of roasting?
With all that coffee, I'd say is quite a dreamless job!
For the last 15 years I have been trying to explain to my father-in-law that dark roast coffee is not “stronger” than light roast.
I always thought it burns some of the caffeine away - this is what I was told by a roaster in whole foods. But also when looking at caffeine content of typical darker roasts (Nespresso, Starbucks) it seems they just happen to have less caffeine than lighter ones.
@@cabbagekitten no, caffeine is a very heat stable molecule and doesn't "burn off" or degrade at roasting temperatures. The temperatures required to degrade caffeine are much higher.
This is the density of information we need in a short video on this long-studied, ubiquitous subject - and which we are rarely presented with. Props.
Covered the chemical, genetic/horticultural, physical, energetic/temperamental, structural, kinetic, and neurochemical aspects of what all's involved. 👍👍👍
As a barista trainer and chemistry student, I approve this message. Nice to see some clean science on coffee! 😊
That’s implying that there is dirty coffee science. Where is it? For research of course!
"some say iced coffee is an abomination"
Me: *laughs in Australian*
as a latin american, can you ellaborate?
Why are you laughing in Australian?
@@diegoreckholder945in a few parts of Australia iced coffee outsells Coke. It is very popular.
@@crayfish40 as an aussie this also confused me... until i remembered that coffee flavoured milk they call iced coffee. don't think you'd actually class it as coffee, but what else would you call it
@@crayfish40 particularly near building sites
What is abomination is adding milk to it.
"Reproducibility is what you want when it comes to your morning cup."
Me: Oh yeah? *rolls AeroPress dice*
Hahah best nerd-comment😂
Aeropress is the superior brewing method.
What do you mean it's not reproducible!? Our method just isn't so fickle that 15 seconds matter.
I have no knowledge of this meme.
What stat do you need to boost your coffeemaking skill? Dexterity? Charisma? If you roll a 1, does your coffeemaker just explode? 👻😂
@Pajali the aeropress tips when inverted, spilling grounds and hot coffee all over everything.
You have the spell of sad-you-lost-a-cup ast on you for three more rolls.
The coffee I buy at the store is apparently made from the "Instant" coffee bean.
@@Watcher4361 seriously gross.
But I'm lazy. 🥺
almost all instant coffee is yucky Robusta
@@justayoutuber1906 and the rest of it isn't actually coffee
@@seanbirtwistle649 The agents don't wanna become cake. Tbh though... I would rather brew up regular coffee, boil off the water and use THAT as cake flavouring.
instant coffee is so bad because it is over extracted way beyond what you woudl be able to do at home. up to 30% of the mass of the bean is turned into liquid to be evaporated down into granules.
a better option that i have found it just to eat some whole beans
I didn’t drink coffee for 45 years of my life, now I am a coffee nerd exploring every aspect of brewing the best cup.
ditto but 47 years. My current recipe. Medium grind beans, freeze them till ready. 1/4cup of ground in a french press, 16oz of boiling water. Let brew for 4-5 minutes. Drink.
Monz, please do not start becoming reliant and addicted to coffee, its normalized but it is really horrible. It's as bad as nicotine addiction. I'm begging you, please do not contribute to this normalized reliance and addiction.
@@EagleEye-oe4xe Take your meds
Wow. I started drinking coffee 45 years ago, and now I am 60 YO.
@@EagleEye-oe4xe never! I hv one cup a day and can go without it on days I don’t need the extra anxiety in my blood stream! 😂👍
Drippers like V60, Origami, Mielitta are not fully immersion methods, there's a bit of immersion depending the mass of water poured but if it involves multiple pours they are essentially fully percolation methods. Immersion methods are like a French press, AeroPreess, Clever Dripper and Hario Switch (last ones are mixed)
The percolation method reheats and recycles water mixed with coffee, so it alters the taste. The drip method just adds hot water to filter through the coffee. The coffee is not recooked. The Italian moka pot is a simple pressure device that heats water at the bottom and forces it through coffee to an upper-chamber, so there is no reheating of the coffee itself. For me, the moka pot is the best method and the cheapest.
@@nedludd7622 Usually, when speaking of percolation vs immersion, in specialty coffee circles especially we generalise immersion brewing as "all of the coffee is mixed with all of the water" and percolation brewing as "water passes through the coffee". We're not usually talking about actual percolators.
All hail the Aeropress!
She never said those were immersion methods...
She said "infusion", not immersion
So many people are missing out on cold brew thinking it's difficult, that you need special equipment or that it makes really bitter coffee. In reality, it's as easy as putting water and coarsly ground beans in a jar and letting it sit in the fridge overnight. Then strain it through a coffee filter and voila, you have cold brew thats delicious, sweet, and still packs that caffiene punch. I make it a gallon at a time and it lasts me a week.
Also, just like pasta water, SALT YOUR COFFEE!
Aye, in the summer, I put ground coffee in the French Press pot, top with cold water, give it a good stir, put on the lid minus filter, and leave it in the fridge overnight.
Much less bitter than the regular stuff. It is the only coffee that I can drink black. And yes, I do put some salt in my coffee to mitigate the bitterness.
Pre or post filter on the salt?
@@bradjbourgeois73 I've alwyas done post-filter but have been meaning to do an experiment with the salt added at the beginning and do a side-by-side comparison with post-filter as a control. I'm curious if the salt would affect the infusion process.
@@bradjbourgeois73 post-filter for me as well. The other coffee drinker has high blood pressure so I won't add the salt pre-filter.
@@fredericapanon207I’m not a fan of coffee (I’m being polite) due to its bitterness. What ratio do you have ground beans to water in your French press? Also, probably stupid question, do you then heat up the coffee (and if so, how) or drink it cold?
I have been making the cold brew CONCENTRATE for years for the shear convenience. Time does the work of extracting those good good stimulating and flavor chemicals overnight, and a washable filter cuts the bitterness. Concentrate stores in fridge. Great hot or iced.
"extra hot" in most places doesn't change the temperature at which the coffee is brewed, rather that temperature of the milk added to the coffee after it is made. The temperature option usually isn't available on coffee-only drinks.
You're absolutely right, when you ask for your coffee to be hotter it's just the milk being steamed for longer, but there's also a change in the perceived sweetness of milk depending on temperature, cold milk is not as sweet and extra hot milk can get bitter
You're absolutely right, when you ask for your coffee to be hotter it's just the milk being steamed for longer, but there's also a change in the perceived sweetness of milk depending on temperature, cold milk is not as sweet and extra hot milk can get bitter
Partially correct. Changing the temperature on a conventional espresso machine is a pretty big ask of the barista and you would rightly be charged 5x for the extra labor cost and workflow interruption for insisting on it at a busy café, just for a cup of coffee that will probably be inferior to the barista's tuned machine if the café is also half-decent (ie not a Starbucks or roadside drivethru, and staffed by competent baristas- which, to be fair, are in short supply, not in the least because the half life of a barista is even shorter than that of a bartender).
However, fancy cafés ironically often use the cheaper manual press espresso machines (which you would think would be unreliable, or might otherwise expect to be inferior due to their lower cost, but they often come with pressure gauges so with about a week of practice a barista can learn to pull with the correct pressure consistently; for a popular and feature-complete consumer option of this type check out the Flair) because they allow you to fine-tune control over every aspect of the espresso, including water temperature and pressure used (deviating slightly from the "ideal" (traditional) 9 bars or changing pressure throughout extraction to pull some flavours more than others), making it possible to request a different water temperature and not have it be a huge issue.
It is also entirely possible and not a big ask at all to steam drip coffee or to make water for an americano hotter as long as the latter is already sub-boiling. Both will likely result in a burnt taste. While you should use water that is just a bit below boiling (about 195F is best imo; 200 or hotter will burn most coffee ground), even with a hot machine, hot glasses and hot portafilter, the liquid produced is still going to lose a lot of energy while it passes through the ground due to conduction, and usually ends up around 170 when it's in the glass. Mixing that with water that is above 200 degrees will result in some of the oils becoming scorched.
I have more to say about flavoured syrups in excessively hot drinks but if I go into it I run the risk of doubling the length of this comment solely with a rant about the scourge of using fruit-flavoured cocktail syrups in hot dairy-based drinks.
Yeah, your right. However frothing the milk extra hot is detrimental for the taste. Heating milk above 70 degrees C will hydrolise the lactose disaccharide (which means 2 sugars). The lactose will split in single sugar molecules, which makes the milk way sweeter and gives the typical boiled milk flavor. This flavor does not mix with espresso very well.
It can also mean that the cup was preheated to a higher temp. This can make a huge difference especially for small drinks like an espresso or macchiato.
Huge mistake at 5:53. Percolator isn't a steam extraction (as you described in a video, that would be the name of it). Water boils in the lower reservoir around the funnel leg. Steam increases in volume pushing hot boiling water up, through packed coffee and up the central column (which do not act as a condenser).
That's not even a standard percolator in the video, that's a stovetop espresso maker. A percolator shoots liquid from the heat chamber up a pipe, over a filtered chamber of coffee grounds, dripping back down and reboiling over and over until the auto shutoff or you turn it off.
Best camping coffee, IMO. Or cowboy it freestyle, add a bit of cold water to make the grounds sink to the back of the cup ☺️
@@DeAthWaGer It's not just for camping! The stovetop percolator gets the most use around here, with 9 coffee making devices to choose from.
That's the standard Italian coffee brewer everybody loves over here. Best coffee at home with it, fast and furious.
Probably a Fagor, made in Basauri, just a few subway stations from here.
@@DeAthWaGer technically stovetop espresso makers like the bialetti are by definition percolators.
@@nehriim3748 yes, but it's not the type defined in the audio of this video. Loose rough grounds that can be re-steeped vs compacted fine grounds that are pressure released once. The bottom chamber of an espresso maker is emptied when done.
It's obvious the person in charge of the video clips has never seen/used a standard one. It's like showing a truck when you're talking about a car.
Here's 2 things I know about making good coffee - 1) Good iced coffee comes form using coffee to make the ice. Use the last of each pot of coffee to fill ice cube trays. Thus, as your 'ice' melts, your coffee gets stronger, not weaker. 2) The French press is the best way to make good coffee at home.
Best way /for you/
I have better success with Moka and Pour-over /for me/
Correction: The French press makes coffee the way you like it. Yay!
That's an interesting take for next summer. Certainly the "bad" thing about ice coffee is that the ice dilutes the coffe and thus tastes "weaker" the longer it is with the ice cubes, your method totally counteracts that.
I agree and disagree. French press is the easiest but not always the best depending on the person. Ice coffee the easiest in cold brew but best it really I guess what is the move convenient for you
Excelent video! As a Master barista in Brazil, I'd say this video covers pretty much every minor misconception people have about coffee, even if it doesn't really go into much detail. Personally, the only issue I have is that robusta (and Canephora, the "mother" species of robusta) is much more complex than what's presented. I know it's a nerd thing but I'd be very happy to see it covered in more detail in a future video
I'm guessing the subtleties between the coffee varieties are more discussed in Brasil, since we're a producing country, than in the USA, that's just an importer. I mean, they didn't even mention the hybrid varieties!
This is something I would want to know because everything in the video pushed me away from robusta.
If only there are more people exploring specialty robusta! It is not fair to compare high quality arabica to mass produced robusta.
@@yuugatenshi Thankfully we've started producing some for the internal market recently in brazil. I don't really know if we will start exporting it in the near future since the coffee scene is evolving around here, but because of climate change we might see a lot more of it in the near future. I'm trying to build an international shop so people from all around the world can taste the new amazing beans we've been producing here in Brazil!
@@Chatoyancify Basically, most robusta is roasted for mass consumption, so there aren't many people specialized in roasting it for the specialty market. Thankfully this is changing! If you're interested, I can guide you to some sources where you can further research about Robusta and other varieties of the Coffea plant
this is one of my favorite sci show episodes now. great topic, great breakdown, super interesting the whole way through.
@12:35 “the perfect cup of coffee is THE ONE YOU LIKE THE BEST”. 👍 👍 Thanks for both the very well compiled sci info and the irrefutable conclusion.
Rose Bear Don't Walk is such a wonderful presenter, always enjoy listening to her!
You don't make a latte extra hot by brewing at a higher temperature, you make it by steaming the milk hotter.
Which makes the milk taste weird
one cheese latte please :p
Yah sure by steaming the milk will makes it extra hot
The moka pot, that was showed in the percolator section, works more building up pressure against the grounds to push the brew through
The water that passed doesn't recirculate into the grounds, so it's similar to an espresso in that
Your standard percolator heats up the water and funnels it on top of the beans where it falls back into the same reservoir via gravity, so you can keep extracting as much as you want at the cost of reheating your coffee many times through the process
things are complicated
The standard percolator became so outdated that most started using a moka pot using the percolator name.
Percolators effectively burn the coffee more the longer you leave it on.
Just like a drip coffee machine which is on standby @@EMSeeversCG
What a great video, it's amazing how you touched everything and are so accurate in such short time.
Thank you.
-Watches full video.
-Goes to the store and buys cheapest instant coffee.
-Oh yeah, that's the stuff!...🤤
Never be ashamed of what tastes good to you, or what fits in your budget. Enjoy ☕️
It doesn’t matter at lest you enjoy it
Given the difficulties coffee and cacao growers have been experiencing in recent years, which are already starting to lead to shortages of coffee and chocolate, I would be interested if you could do a video on other sources of caffeine we could cultivate. One such possibility I've heard of is cleavers, or _Galium aparine,_ a common weed that grows as an annual all across North America. It's part of the Rubiaceae family, so it's related to coffee, and its seeds do contain caffeine, but at much smaller amounts than coffee seeds.
Is yerba mate suffering shortages too?
@@Call-me-Al Good question. There was reporting in 2022 about potential shortages due to drought conditions in Argentina, but I don't know how this affected the market.
Yaupon holly leaves are high in caffeine
A relative of yerba maté, yaupon holly, is a southern underbrush plant whose leaves can be roasted to make tea. It is not used very much. It is a native North American plant with caffeine content that doesn't tend to bitterness if oversteeped. It has been used in very concentrated form as a form of emetic by the local indigenous people, which led to its latin name, Ilex vomitoria. It makes pretty good cafffeinated tea.
erm, do u realize that coffee has flavors and likely specific unique effects on the gut/chemistry which i sense is a major part of why ppl like it so much? Our species has tried many maaany many many plants over the past several hundred thousand years! So sure, i'd love to try everything but it's not likely that stuff tastes good.
Most comprehensive, yet interesting, not overwhelming. Good job! I'm archiving this for future reference.
This was an awesome video! thank you. Wonder what other coffee topics you guys could cover
Other very important factors: (1) when were your beans roasted and (2) when were they ground? Using beans that were roasted 1-3 weeks prior and grinding them fresh every day with a high quality grinder has had the single greatest impact on my morning brew. I use the Baratza Encore, which may seem like an expensive grinder, but it’s worth the money.
Or it's just 80% placebo
Personally, at six am, I can't tell the difference between coffee I ground this morning and coffee I ground last night.
Grinding the night before saves me time and noise in the morning.
If you can tell the difference, then you are more of a morning person than me.
Manual hand grinders aren't loud@@spaceracer23
Ground coffee from last night is still so much better than pre-ground coffee from the shop.
The best middle way would be going to a professional roaster and buying only a small bag of ground coffee. If you buy a large bag, the flavor is gone before you have emptied it. The roaster will ask, which type of brewing you are planning to use (filter coffee, espresso, french press...) and will choose an appropriate grind setting.
For the percolator part, on coffee, you usually need to adjust your grind size exactly, like on the espresso, so your extraction time is perfect for the method. You don't need to have a bitter drink. If you follow some good recipes like Jamess Hoffmann one -using hot water is important-, you'll most likelly get a really tasty drink. And the strenth can be solved adding some water later, for 120mls of brewed coffe, I'll add 80 - 100 mls of water. And you don't want excess of calcium or magnesium in your water. The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) has a "good and perfect" range for the minerals, for the "perfect extraction". About temperature, on lighter roasts, you want very hot water. Even starting with boiling water, since light roasts are "harder to extract" than darker roasts.
Sorry if I sound like a hater, I'm not, love you guys, just a coffee nerd.
Sharing knowledge in an emotionless and informative manner should never be considered as being a hater. In my opinion
for the percolator part, she's not talking about drip coffee. she's talking about percolated coffee, a trauma the world has forgotten because its so disgusting. percolators recycle the brewed coffee water, creating a lovely smell and losing all the taste
Yeah, that's a Moka pot that they show, which is a totally different thing from a percolator. Moka pots can make good coffee. Percolators cannot.
@@davidfuller581exactly. Moka pots produce something similar to espresso just under less pressure.
My mom always used the all glass percolator and was very picky about how her coffee was made. Always cold water to start. Heat turned off at a specific point, and she would rather pour out a pot of coffee than drink something that had been sitting on heat for for than 15 minutes so the coffee had a scorched taste - like restaurant coffee ALWAYS has. Blech. I never get coffee at a restaurant/café.
She never let anyone else wash her glass coffee pot. And she very rarely washed it with soap.
That was amazing! Thanks Rose!
Explained nicely in a way that most people can digest with relative ease!
Most parts were spot on, water chemistry, grindsize, dose adjustment, temp adjustments. All great.
But the way you classified brewing methods, it's a little different with how we do it in the specialty coffee industry.
Usually it's:
-"percolation" (water passing through coffee grounds, thus using fresh water throughout the whole brew), e.g. pour over, espresso, drip machine, etc.
-"immersion" (water and coffee, all at once, letting the water extract less as it gets more saturated over time), e.g. french press, cold brew, cowboy coffee, etc.
Trung Nguyen coffee in a Ca Phe Phin with a spoon of condensed milk at the bottom of my cup is the way I've been doing it for years with my parents back in Cali. So much nostalgia when I brew it. One cup would have me wired for about 3 hrs longer than I would a pour over just because it's VERY SLOWLY DRIPPING through the Ca Phe Phin.
It takes sooooo long, but it's worth it
@pickyyeeter Only about 10-12 mins to fully seep through, at which point, I add another container full of hot water and it may be a bit weaker the second pass but that time is usually when I heat up my Croissantwich from Jimmy Dean through Costco. When that's done and I'm ready for work, then my Caphe Nong is ready.
Add a pinch of salt to your coffee to round out the bitterness and make the coffee sweeter.
There's a little Vietnamese place in my neighborhood, serving banh mi and Vietnamese style coffee with condensed milk. It's so good!
I waited like 12 minutes wondering if _cold brew_ would get a mention. I like that right at the end they're like, "Oh yeah, and for like the 3 niche people drinking cold brew... yeah it works perfectly. But, you have to wait for it." The end.
She mentioned it 0:20 in form of ice coffee.
Which sure, if you want to be picky can say that an Americano or a left out coffee with ice is technically iced coffee. But actually iced coffee is cold brewed.
This is a great video for us coffee lovers, thank you!
This was pretty a comprehensive video. Thanks, I hope you have a nice day.
Small correction. Purests hate cold brew specifically, since that is extracted at the low temps like you explain and you lose out on all of the complex and better flavors available in the bean [sic] (nut), so they say. Iced coffee is what they suggest instead since the extraction is done in identical conditions as norm/"ideal" and its simply cooled down - though sometimes brewed at higher doses to account for dilution from the ice
Cold brew is the only way I can tolerate coffee. You are biologically designed to avoid bitter things, and I have no intention of loading my coffee with cream or sugar to just get used to it lol
@@OtterElevenI agree, it’s a whole different experience
purists just hate shortcuts that make the professionals feel irrelevant. That's how it is in every hobby and industry.
"lose in complex flavours"
Have you tried cold brew. There is a whole lot going in there, it's just different to hot brew, just like how pourovers taste different to mokapot coffee.
If there is a brewing method to be hated, it should be mokapot. Way too bitter
And I'm too broke to get a manual espresso press.
The French press is my favorite way to make coffee. I don't like it sweet but I add a little milk. I've found some flavored coffees that I also like because I can enjoy the flavors without the sweetness that flavored syrups add. I don't cold brew coffee. Since it's been so hot this summer where I am, I brew a pot of coffee, let it cool and then refrigerate it. Iced coffee with a little milk is very refreshing in the heat
My husband makes French press for himself. I have to water it down for me cause otherwise it's "teeth wiggling"/strong. (If you know where the reference to "teeth wiggling" coffee is from you win massive internet points.)
I have a cold brew coffee maker, but lately, I've just brewed coffee in my normal auto drip coffee pot and just refrigerated the brewed coffee. Cold brew is legitimately different tasting than hot brewed and cooled. Much less bitterness from true cold brew.
I'm soooo glad you touched upon the mineral content in water. Espressos and Americanos are supposed to be made with slightly mineralized/hard water, otherwise they taste extremely flat...
For the love of coffee a very good informative post , greatly appreciated !
Awesome coffee Club moment
Loved this one. I've gotten a LOT more picky about my coffee since being put on a restricted diet. I can only HAVE one cup of coffee (though at first it was one cup PER MONTH, man that sucked). So I make sure it's the best cuppa I can get. I'm one of those who much prefers arabica for those sweet notes, so fortunately it's kind of easier to find off-the-shelf coffee that I can pop into a plain machine. That said - I will always head for my local coffee shop for the really special stuff. And the most unique and astonishing coffee I've had was Viennese pour-over, but that's SO unique that it's very much a special-occasion coffee!!
I thought cuppa was tea
@@Psilomuscimol IME, in the UK, a cuppa is almost always tea. In the US, a cuppa is really often coffee.
English is a different language in different places, and sometimes one needs to move only ten miles for some words or expressions to change.
* solidarity fist bump * from Finland. Restricted medical diets are real headaches and can be costly, too.
Me: gets a blood draw.
Doc: “This is coffee.”
"Cuppa" is 'cup of' so it's either.
Almost everything the narrator says seems true, based on what I have painstakingly found out over the years.
I never liked the acrid taste of overly acidic coffee, so I bought a milligram scale and started experimenting with adding about 60 milligrams of sodium bicarbonate per 250ml of coffee. Works fantastic, been doing it for years. Second thing about the grind: Fine/coarse is only one parameter. I think more important is the 'uniformity' of the grain size 'spectrum'. What you want is even sized particles like gravel, or sand (work with me here, I'm talking about size consistency, not the size itself). If you DON'T have size consistency, you will get the low permeability of base-rock as opposed to the high permeability of gravel. Low permeability leads to 'channeling' especially in the espresso process, which is bad. Look up percolation theory. I have recently brewed and consumed coffee at slightly reduced temperatures it is harder to taste subtle flavors at super hot temperatures. The magnesium thing - I have not tried yet. I'm going to try that.
About the size consistency I would add... burr grinders are vastly better at producing even size pieces. Blade grinders can work in a pinch, but you'll need to basically constantly shake the machine while it grinds to hopefully avoid coffee dust and coffee boulders in the same pot of coffee.
Alton Brown even says blade coffee grinders are good for grinding whole spices and NOT what they're actually made for- coffee beans!
I was just wondering how to add sodium bicarbonate and magnesium to my water as well. I’ll start with what you mentioned. Thanks 😁
One thing also, serving temperature. Allowing the coffee to cool down a bit improves its taste. This has more to do with how your own taste receptors are affected by temperature. James Hoffman explains it better. Another thing James Hoffman mentioned this one time is a weird one; that is, adding a pinch of salt to particularly harsh coffee (like instant coffee for example) improves its taste!
Yes, I am quite sensitive to the bitterness so I do add just a touch of salt to my coffee.
Yup it does. Just a pinch of salt brings down the harsh bitterness while maintaining the flavor and the body. But if you go a bit more than that, then the coffee becomes slightly salty, and that texture is lost, that well defined texture it earlier had. So you gotta be really careful with this one.
Cold brew is the best. It takes patience but it's so worth it
Abomination 😂lol. Just kidding. Enjoy!
I do hot and iced coffee but my iced coffee is just refrigerated day old coffee. Still tastes amazing
Your username being "Joe" is just perfect for a comment on this topic. Do you add milk, syrup, sugar or anything else in your refrigerated coffee? I'm curious since I do just like you.
For my wife and I it is the pour over method using a Chemex container. Took a while to find a good bean. It is, for us, the best coffee! You are spot on, it’s whatever method that gives the maker/user their tastiest cup of joe.
Love the fluent dissemination of deep factual/ scientific useful information.
Sponsor for this episode should have been Awesome Coffee Club!
French presses are an easy way to make bad coffee taste good, while also needing less grounds. I also find them faster to set up overall - my only gripe is they're a little harder to clean.
Both of my French Presses are able to be taken apart and put in the dishwasher;maybe you need a new one?
Aeropress. Aeropress. The better french press. It does almost the same, uses paper filters to get a cleaner cup, and it's extra extra extra easy to clean
@@g.cosper8306Mine is dishwasher safe but there's this flat ring that holds the metal mesh filter in place which grounds get clogged in. Not that hard to clean but it requires you to pry that piece out a bit.
@@Taka.1011Never liked paper filters - usually I can taste it.
Nice job, loved it. I'm inspired to obsess over coffee again
Kudos from Singapore 🇸🇬.
An excellent clip on genuine scientific info about coffee. 👍
Can I request a similar video on tea brewing. Especially Chinese tea.
i very much greatly appreciate the stern attention and time dedicated to preceding the video with the caveat regarding technically inaccurate terminology.
this is literally one of the best SciShow episodes in the last year.
Thanks for teaching me how to enjoy my coffee better 😋☕
The water is also very important.
My favourite coffee has changed how it is composed after the fact that the local tap water (in Scania, Sweden) has changed to be less hard (lower amount of Magnesium and Calcium in the water). So to get the best coffee, you need a coffee that is adapted to the water you use.
Since I live in Sweden, with the ~15:th best tap water in the world, it is the tap water.
For me it is Zoega's _Mollberg's blanding_ (blend).
Many thanks for an excellent episode, I'll be using this as a reference!
(Personally, I prefer a good espresso, but I sure love me some iced coffee as well. 😋)
I love coffee, though I never drink black coffee. I always have arabica at home. And I do have an italian mashine, but very tiny one. This was very interesting! The different compounds and what they each do to the taste was a thing was always curious about.
After some reflexion...I am pretty good at making my coffee the way I like it. Not bitter, and not too sour. I put a little sugar in there still. I have a sweet tooth after all😅
I wish the non-dairy creamer I use had less sucrose in it, but I have to admit that I love it with loads of creamer. Just sweet enough, since sugar always makes it too sweet for me.
I couldn't stand coffee black until I tried cold brew.
Try cold brewing it. I hate bitter flavours and love sweet stuff too ❤️
Cold brew coffee is the only way I can drink it because none of acids and bitter compounds transfer to the water.
Hoffman suggested putting small pinch of salt to a coffee, supposedly it reduces bitterness, while sugar brings it up. That being said, if the plain cup without anything added to it tastes to your liking - congrats, you nailed it:)
@@trog69 i sympathize, but have u ever tried regular cream or half/half and then add a touch of sugar, maybe brown sugar? I say this bcuz couple yrs ago i bought several of the non dairy creamers that were in the cooler at the store, regular types and natural types. All were too sweet, esp the natural ones, iirc. But most importantly the ingredients were very unhealthy overall. These are the most highly processed things i've ever heard of in the realm of things to add to hot drinks.
I found the tastes not nice, but mostly it was the way the coffee felt going down or in the stomach that i didn't like. I.e i could tell it was not doing good things re how the coffee interacts w/ the gut, which btw is probably why coffee is pretty healthy in the first place (we know increasingly in medicine that gut health is the whole show!).
But coffee with actual cream or half/half is reeeally nice. Now i realize why 25 years ago i loved starbucks drip or other stores, with cream/half/half added by me after the coffee was served. Tully's and Peet's shops also were great. Starbucks cup was only $1.
Can you do one on the science of decaffeinated coffee and how that works?
Nothing beats the espresso method. It brings out the best in coffee. 😊😊
Thanks so much for sharing 😊 I love my morning coffee
I love how much work Humans put into our favourite Drink.
5:47 That's not a percolator, it's a Moka pot which uses the same pressure method as the espresso maker, just up instead of down. The Moka pot consists of a bottom chamber with water, a metal filter filled with ground coffee, and a screw-on upper chamber. It never sits directly in the boiling water. You also missed the French Press which uses the immersion method and tends to make a richer less harsh brew.
A moka pot is a percolator.
Thanks for sharing this, I Love Coffee!
If you use the infusion method "pour over", you can improve the extraction of flavorful compounds
by previously mixing one or two teaspoons of sugar to the coffee grains. Water has a rather small
molecule which may pass through the coffee without interaction. The bigger molecules of sugar (in solution)
will help drag the flavogenic compounds from the grains, besides slowing the transit (of the water)
through the grains, thus enhancing its extraction effectivity .
This was a very well written and delivered episode. Learned a lot of stuff and I was already pretty well read about coffee.
Nothing better than waking up with freeze dried Folgers in my cup with sugar and chocolate syrup and milk
The best part of waking up, is incest in your ads!
great video! very informative.
Pour over is a percolation method (literally the first example on Wikipedia for percolation)
Espresso is also percolation.
Moka pot also involves pressure; pressure is not a brewing category in that sense.
French press is actually the typical example of infusion brewing.
You didn't cover my favorite method for making coffee. A $15 french press. I have yet to find a specialty coffee shop make a better cup of coffee than i can at home with hand ground whole coffee beans and my french press.
Finally, good news for people that live at high altitudes and areas of hard water 😂 Our hard water is better for coffee and water naturally boils at around 95° C
This literally melted my brain. I've been fussing for so long making sure the water is as pure as possible (without using distilled) for better flavor.
Talk about backfiring. All this time I was making it worse. D:
@dosfisdo Yeah, that blew my mind too. Meanwhile, I was too lazy to use anything but tap water so I feel vindicated 😅 That's why cooking is science as much as an art.
For best flavor get distilled water and add your own minerals, I use third wave water minerals.
@ruserious22 I'm sorry I just don't care enough or drink that much coffee to do that. Especially when I live in a place with naturally hard water. Why bother?
Lower boiling temperature isn't desirable for brewing coffee (or cooking in general). Evaporation limits the energy transfer of the system;once at its boiling point, water consumes energy to evaporate instead of getting hotter. That consumed energy would instead be transferred to the food or ground coffee if the boiling point were higher. Brewing systems are pressurized to raise the boiling point of the water, so it can transfer more energy into the ground coffee and better extract the compounds that it's intended to.
Science: it is not actually the temperature of the water; it is the temperature in the brewing chamber. If you have a large amount of grounds, the temperature will drop much more quickly, especially combined with with a cool holder or chamber.
This encouraged me to try out finding different taste from my dripper!
I tried soaking and boiling coffee “beans” like regular beans to try to make them soft to eat. My teeth hurt.
Just buy chocolate covered coffee beans instead. They're not going to harm your teeth and they're too addictive
I don’t want roasted beans, that’s why I tried boiling them soft.
they had Gale Boetticher in for his expertise.
Ha, got to the breaking bad reference before I did 😂😂😂
Well researched, Excellent... it was funny that I was in the middle of making my cup of coffee when this video popped up in my YT feed LOL... TBH, I'm a coffee geek so most of this information I had before watching your video, and you've done such a good job of bringing a lot of the elements together! Personally I don't like the big pot of coffee makers that make 10-12 cups and sits there, I like to make my daily cup as a pour over. I have a lot of the mostly higher-end equipment to make coffee at least 6 different ways, including siphon and espresso. I think it should have an honorable mention that of course there are other species of coffee trees besides Robusta and Arabica, I found a local roaster that gets their "beans" from a few coffee farms that have Gesha Trees, these are very delicate and interesting coffees that come from them. Making another cup of coffee... Cheers!
As someone who doesn't even drink coffee, this is fascinating and fun to learn
Sorry guys - you showed a moka pot when talking about percolators. Moka pots are percolation brewers, steam pressure forces water up and through the coffee. Not the same thing as a percolator. Also, technically espresso is a percolation brew method!
Also, thank you for going into water chemistry! It's sorely under-discussed.
That's an Italian coffee brewer. Moka or mocha is when the coffee also has chocolate. The name comes from the Yemeni port of Mokha, which was famous for coffee trade (just learned while double checking it was not a misconception I might have, it's not).
It's called "Italian" or sometimes "Melita" (for a brand) but most likely the coffee brewer is made somewhere else, mine is a localy forged Fagor.
@@LuisAldamiz It's literally called a moka pot lol. Bialetti Moka Express, if you want to get brand specific.
@@davidfuller581 - It's a Fagor, identical to the one I have at home.
@@LuisAldamiz Regardless, the class of brewer is called a moka pot (or stovetop espresso maker), it's not a percolator.
@@davidfuller581 - It's a percolator depending how you define percolator. Lat. per colatorium = by colander (i.e. by filter, i.e. almost all ways to make coffee other than strict infussion).
issues here: US fads don't define universality, common names may vary from place to place (if it happens to sodas, go figure with coffee stuff), etc.
PS - I'd call your system: "repeated percolation", although to be honest I'm unfamiliar with it.
I need to see what James Hoffman says about this video before i know what to think.
"The perfect cup of coffee is the one you like best". More people should hear this. This sounds it up beautifully.
scishow is great, god bless thee!
As a barista, and a coffee snob… actually, I learned all of this when I did the “prepare and serve espresso coffee” course but it was nice to have a lil refresh ☕️
Having flashbacks to being a green apron barista
Most of the time I have to settle for drip coffee because I work so hard. Although on some weekends I experiment with different ways to make coffee. I find my favorite way to make coffee so far is Turkish brewing; which involves warming the coffee grounds directly in the water, than filtering the grounds as you pour the coffee out. Now the temperature has to be brought up slowly, but I've aeen this done over a camp fire before.
YAY! Now I see that the Coffee Rabbit Hole is even DEEPER than I had ever imagined! Now I just need a couple PhDs in Physics and Chemistry and THEN I’ll finally be able to make that PERFECT cup of coffee that everybody talks about! I am thankful that you clarify and remind us that the perfect Cup-O-Joe is what WE LIKE! I personally look for something good in every cup, and look at them all as part of teaching my tongue and brain what good coffee tastes like (or doesn’t taste like). Just enjoying the ride…
French press...i see im not the only viewer that feels the French press is the way to go to get the best out of your coffee😊
I agree. And a pour over. My pour over and French press are both Bodum. Btw, I haven’t owned an automatic coffee maker in 25 years. I prefer to make my coffee using a little work and patience.
Extra tip: salt kills bitter. Only a dash/pinch is needed per cup. The bitter compounds will be more prevalent in cold coffee, so basically never throw coffee away. Stale coffee is a myth. Add a dash of plain table salt and sweeten as you wish. Or put 1/4 teaspoon in the bottom of the pot when making it fresh if you intend to chill it later.
It isn't a myth, compounds do oxidize over time and change. Worse if it's reheated.
I just started making my own cold brew, and was doing coarse grind for it, maybe I'll stick with medium for everything. I have been liking it regardless
Pour over coffee is more commonly referred to as a percolation method instead of infusion while it is the mix of the two.
i wish i was as smart as hank
I must be doing something wrong.
Whenever I make coffee it tastes like dirt. Even if it was ground that morning.
Coffee loses some of it's aromatic and flavor compounds over time, even as whole bean, usually best to use within a couple months of being roasted max. You'll still get your caffeine hit regardless but much of the more complex flavor will be lost over time, leaving more of the earthy and bitter notes present. However too fresh is also an issue, freshly roasted coffee contains a lot of gasses from the roasting process that can interfere with the water's ability to extract the coffee, often leading to it being a bit more acidic (which some people like) and also can impart an off taste, generally it's recommended to wait until at least 1 week but often 2 weeks past roasting date before drinking. Though if you grind the coffee it'll release the gasses quicker so you could theoretically grind and let sit for a few minutes to an hour if it's a really fresh batch, but past the 1-2 week period brewing as close to immediate after grinding will ensure less of the aromatics escape.
If your coffee is too bitter, you may wish to attempt to grind your coffee a bit coarser, and if it's too acidic possibly a bit finer.
Also many of the blends from supermarkets are, okay, not great, but okay. Occasionally they may be good, but many of them have been shipped all over the place and in warehouses for possibly weeks or closer to months, which as stated above can leave the coffee tasting rather bland. Also many cheap blends are blends of the beans that weren't good enough to package for a more premium coffee. Single origin coffees can have the most pronounced difference in flavor, as all beans will share a more similar flavor profile, when beans are blended their flavors are in some ways averaged, if done well this can result in really nice flavors, when done poorly or cheaply (like most mass-produced big-brand coffees you'll find in many stored) this can result in a coffee that's just muddied, has no real discernable flavor, just middle. And some people prefer that, if you enjoy that flavor by all means continue to, it's just useful to know that it's a thing if you care to experiment.
Also, roast level, while as stated in the video roast level doesn't actually leave a discernable difference in caffeine amount (assuming same number of beans), the roast level does have a very noticeable impact on flavor. Dark roasted coffees tend towards bitter earthy notes, while light roasted coffees tend towards more floral, acidic notes. Medium roasts tend to between, some acidity to brighten up the more roasted earthy flavors, and can tend to be very slightly sweet. Note however that when I say sweet, I'm not talking about sugar, if you're expecting the coffee to taste sweetened, that's not what you'll find, the sweetness is very subtle.
If your finding your coffee too earthy/bitter, some things in your case that might be worth trying to see if you prefer it include a lighter roast, slightly coarser grind, trying a different brand of coffee, if you have control over water temperature possibly trying to reduce the temperature a couple degrees as you may be brewing too hot and extracting too much of the bitter compounds too fast. Don't try changing too many of these at once as they're effects could compound and you may overshoot.
Nice. I make cold brew (1/2 gallon refrigerated, 24 hours) and heat in the microwave. Refrigeration is important, as a room temperature soak will develop mold and it leads to bitter coffee (in my experience).
I use a vintage Corning all- glass percolator, just because it's fun to watch.
Me, when caffeine either does nothing or gives diarrhea for a whole week: "lmma just drink orange juice and pray l don't fall asleep within the hour, thanks."
Is there a scientific reason for this? I either fall into deep asleep after drinking coffee or have mini panic attacks for a day or two.
Anyone know why coffee sometimes substitutes as a laxative?
Caffiene makes my sister fall asleep, unless she's pairing it with chocolate, then her buzz is monumental.
@@broderickfall I'm not an expert, so take this comment with a grain of salt. If coffee causes you digestive issues, then there's a chance you're either allergic to it or any of it's components to some degree, orrr it could be something with your digestive system, similar to what lactose intolerant people go through with dairy products, maybe?
Beginners video. Hoped to see discussion on types of immersion like Armenian / Turkish coffee vs others
Espresso is the cut of the ground when mentioned on bag
French Press represent!
Yes. French Press notably absent!!
Yessir 🙋♀️
This video is basically all the important parts of James Hoffman's youtube channel
Not really. They only talked about possibilities of interactions but avoided drawing any conclusions.
@@Watcher4361 Yeah but they didnt really talk about _how_ the taste would change too, just if.
My perfect brew is done with an AeroPress and water at 196 degF. The extraction process is identical to a French Press in that the coffee is thoroughly steeped in the hot water so that every ground is completely surrounded by water with stirring to keep the grounds suspended in the water column so that extraction is uniform. And the brewing time can be exactly controlled by choosing when to press the brewed coffee out of the grounds. Both the AeroPress and French Press reward the use of a high precision burr grinder that produces a uniform size grind, which in turn yield a uniform level of extraction. The primary difference is that the AeroPress has a small paper filter that means that you drink the last bit of coffee in your cup rather than chew it. And because you filter out all of the grounds with an AeroPress, you can go with a finer grind than is possible with a French Press.
The best part of the AeroPress for those who travel a lot is that it is very compact and non-breakable so it goes with me on every business trip. I have a "toiletries" bag for my coffee kit with the AeroPress, a manual stainless steel burr grinder and a small vacuum "ziplock" bag (with the little hand vacuum pump to pump the air out after each time I open it) with whole beans.
Oh, and as important as the type of brewing method used, the way that beans are ground can have an even bigger impact on coffee flavor. The best flavor comes when every single ground is exactly the same size. This allows the same level of extraction from every ground. No grinder can achieve that ideal, but some are far better than others. The best are burr type grinders. In my opinion the best is one is a manual grinder with stainless steel burrs. Ceramic burr grinders are generally the least expensive. However, the ceramic can not have nearly as sharp and edge as hardened steel blade. As a result is that ceramic burr grinders at the finest level end up crushing rather than cutting the beans. This results in a higher level of fines (grounds smaller than the desired size) than metal burr grinder. And a manual grinder allows a slower speed so that friction doesn't heat up the grounds as much. Plus it takes some effort to grind a cup's worth of beans, which puts a small energy barrier between me and "just one more cup" so I don't end up super caffeinated.
The absolute worst are the flaying arms type of coffee obliterator (I won't call them "grinders"). They result in a grind with a complete range of ground sizes from dust to nearly intact beans. As such it is literally impossible to get an even level of extraction. The dust gets far too much extraction and so makes the coffee bitter and the boulders only have extraction from the surface. If this is the type of "grinder" that you have, just throw it away and buy pre-ground coffee and just bite the bullet and spend the money for a high quality burr grinder, or use the burr grinder in the store to grind the whole beans on the spot. An added benefit of coffee that is pre-ground at the factory is that the industrial burr mills are incredibly precise, and they receive frequent professional cleaning and maintenance so that all of the grounds are very uniform in size.
So with a little experimentation it isn't hard to find a grind setting for your particular grinder and the amount of steeping time that yields the perfect amount of extraction.
I'm a factory bod at a coffee machine company, will show this to my line manager tomorrow as you've given me a crazy idea :)