7 Barista-Approved Tips for Making High-Quality Coffee

There are a million reasons why learning how to make your own coffee from home is a smart idea.

From doing it to save money to the convenience (especially when most of the world is working remotely now), creating rich, flavorful coffee is a great skill to have.

But, oh, the taste of those barista-made delicacies is so tempting!

Fear not! You, too, can have a professional-tasting cup of your favorite designer joe. Just follow these seven barista-approved tips to make your own high-quality daily coffee!

1. Not Just Any Beans

Take a lesson from your childhood tale. Jack taught us at a young age to be picky with the beans we buy!

Yours undoubtedly won’t turn into a beanstalk. If you’re not careful, though, you won’t know what kind of coffee you’ll be making.

Ground beans and coffee pods are okay. If you want barista-quality, you’ll need to learn how to choose and handle actual coffee beans.

Coffee beans have different flavors depending on their origin. For instance, if you want a high quality, rich and smooth flavor, shop for your beans from the Arabica side. There are lots of varieties, and they’re found in most stores.

2. Get a French Press

The type of coffeemaker you use is almost as important as the beans. Without the right machine, you can’t maximize the flavor of your carefully chosen coffee-to-be.

Automatic coffee makers use a drip brew system. This drip coffee metes out your flavor in small pieces (drips!). The grounds are added to a filter.

Hot water drenches the grounds and pushes them down into the carafe for your final product. Along the way, as it goes through the filter, the coffee’s oils are absorbed, limiting the flavor you get.

With a French press coffee maker, the grounds are placed in the carafe instead of the filter. Hot water is added, letting the coffee steep to your preferred flavor.

Once it’s ready, you use a stainless steel plunger to pull the coffee to the top. This ready-to-drink brew keeps the oils that make your drink so rich and smooth.

3. Use a Scale

As a coffee lover, there’s not too much worse than finding the just right cup and not being able to make it again.

This is a frequent problem for people who estimate their beans and water. Before you start playing around with your coffee, invest in a kitchen scale.

Every time you experiment, measure the weight of the beans you’re using before you grind them. That way, if you’ve hit the jackpot and have the coveted perfect cup, you know what you did to make it!

4. Store Your Beans Right

Your coffee beans will likely come sealed tightly. Vacuum-sealed beans are the best because they’ve had minimal contact with air.

To keep the flavor maximized, it’s important to keep your beans away from air movement and any change in temperature. Avoid exposing them to light, too.

After you break the seal, any coffee beans you don’t use should be stored in a tightly sealed canister. Experts recommend this container to be darkly colored ceramic or glass.

You might be tempted to freeze your beans if you won’t use them for a while, but that’s not the best idea. Once they are exposed to that moisture, they can lose a lot of flavor.

5. Use the Best Water

Yes, the type of water you use in your coffee matters.

Even if you’re not a water snob, the right or wrong H2O makes a difference in the flavor of your coffee. The hardness of the liquid determines how many minerals are in it.

Most people assume that to get the best flavor, you need “soft” water without minerals so the flavor stays pure. The truth is that the magnesium and other compounds in “hard” water attract and hold the compounds in the coffee bean as they pass through.

6. Go Cautious on the Enhancements

You might have enjoyed the heavenly flavor additions of your caramel shots and hazelnut creamers (don’t forget the whipped cream!) from your coffee shop.

But now that you’re making your own, you could find you don’t need these extra enhancements.

Even mega-chain coffee retailers add flavor enhancements because they are cheap ways to add a few dollars to their drinks. With these professional tips, your coffee may be absolutely perfect without the added fillers and calories.

7. Clean Your Coffeemaker

Besides the fact that bacteria love to thrive in the kitchen, especially in moist, dark places, you have to clean your coffee maker for the taste.

When you put coffee beans in a filter or carafe and add hot water, it releases the oils. Those oils stick to the container or filter until you give it a really good wash.

Most of the time, you’ll realize you haven’t washed your pot enough if your coffee starts to taste burnt. If your palate is super-sensitive, though, you’ll notice a change much sooner than that.

A good rule of thumb is to wash the parts of the machine that come into contact with the coffee beans after each use.

Conclusion

You don’t have to spend a fortune or drive miles out of your way to get expert coffee. Give yourself the gift of learning how to create your own barista-worthy, high-quality brew with these seven tips!