A Primer on Coffee Delivery Methods
"I must offer a word of caution here: don’t invest in an espresso machine at home unless you want a new hobby."
— James Hoffmann
I've written about the basics of how to make good coffee at home, in which I talked about coffee itself, and the basic equipment needed to up one's coffee game. I promised to write about the various means to actually make a cup of Joe, and here it is.
There are so many brew methods, more than I can adequately cover, so I'm going to stick to detail only on those I'm familiar with or have used myself. There are two main methods of extracting flavour from the coffee bean, those being infusion and percolation. For simplicity's sake I'm sticking with these definitions: infusion relies on a period of immersion in water, percolation is having the water move through the grounds. In the order I experienced and used them, here are the main methods.
Coffee Percolator. My parents did not drink much coffee, and when they did it was mostly instant. That said, they did own a coffee percolator. It's not a common method these days but the percolator was ubiquitous in the US and mainland Europe until the 1970s. The advent of filter coffee machines like Mr. Coffee marked the beginning of their downfall.
Most of the ones I've seen are electric, but stovetop versions are also available. They work by heating water in the bottom of the pot, which rises up an inverted funnel and through pipe into a container of coffee grounds. This coffee-infused water than drips down into the bottom. Rinse, repeat. The biggest downside is the continual heating of the liquor, which affects the taste as chemical changes happen in the flavour constituents. In my experience, it's best suited to "supermarket coffee" as any subtle flavours are pretty much either destroyed by continual reheating and the end result is a muddy-flavoured mess. Don't expect to get good results from speciality coffess; Folgers or your local equivalent is as good as anything.
The Pourover Method. Also known as "drip coffee", this is one of the cheapest and most common means of getting your coffee fix. For many, it's the next step up from urgh instant. It is very simple, being a funnel and paper filters, that's all. Think Melitta, the leader of the pack that you see in almost every grocery store (in the US, at least). There are many other manufacturers, such as Chemex and Hario that are worth looking at. The Chemex is a good-looking system that is an all-in-one glass filter cone and carafe. You stick the funnel onto a cup or carafe, load the filter into the funnel, add coffee and pour water over. It's just that easy. The main advantage is the ease of use and the cost. There are no disadvantages that I can see other than maybe having to monitor it if you start getting fancy with a pour method. This is the coffee you'll often get in the fancier cafés as it's easy to make, produces great coffee and the barista can get really good, consistent results.
This method is not only easy (and cheap, as for about $20 you can pick up a filter and a pack of papers) but lends itself to much experimentation. If you're really intent on getting the most out of coffee, a good coffee scale with a timer will enable you to use or develop recipes that will blow your mind. A number of people have developed ways to get a really good cup, and they all rely on timing of the pour. Some (and I'm one) will recommend that you wet the paper before putting your grounds in, and to add just a little water at the start to allow the coffee to "bloom". If you want to be really serious you'll pick up a goose-necked kettle that gives you better control. The most commonly recommended ratio of coffee to water seems to 55 grams of coffee to a litre of water. A good cup will be clear and clean-tasting.
Drip Machines. Of course some people want to set and forget. Enter the coffee machine, a kind of automation of the pourover. Around 1972, Mr. Coffee started to appear in American homes, quickly followed by hundreds of other manufacturers around the world. There's a big advantage here if you want to set up the night before, as most have a built-in timer and a hotplate to keep the coffee warm for you when you rise. The main disadvantage is that most domestic machines aren't that good at getting an even distribution of water over the grounds. The other downside is that the coffee is still being heated, and over time this changes the flavour. Coffee that's been continually heated gets nasty fast. The machines are relatively cheap (starting around $20) and sold everywhere. The more expensive machines enable a larger quantity and may have better hot water distribution and a nicer end result.
Espresso. In an Italian or Hungarian café, this is what you get if you ask for caffe. Espresso dates back to the late 1800s when the first forced extraction machines were developed. 1901 saw the production of the first espresso machine as we know it today. The commercial machine is big, uses a boiler to create a high water pressure that is then forced through a puck of finely-ground coffee in a special filter basket. The end result is a powerfully concentrated flavour in a demi-tasse cup, with a creamy reddish-brown foam head known as crema. This can be drunk as is, but is also often used to make other drinks, notably capucchino, latte and the colossally vast number of other drinks that made Starbucks.
A home espresso machine is where you start to spend big bucks if you're not careful. While there are machines that claim to make an espresso, the cheaper ones aren't worth bothering with. If you go down this route, read or watch some reviews and be willing to spend upward of $100. Cheaper machines simply are not worth it.
As the quotation at the beginning states, a word of caution. Tweaking espresso quickly becomes a fascinating and dangerous maze of twisty passages, none alike. If you thought the machine was enough, the aficionado will tell you it's not. There will be tampers and distribution tools, there are specialised screens and grounds baskets and before long you'll be taking half an hour to get your coffee fix. True espresso hobbyists are obsessive about their pursuit of the perfect shot. This is truly the way madness lies, but O God espresso is so good. If you're chasing espresso drinks, consider the Moka pot, which although it can't make true espresso, is getting close. I'll discuss it later. Downsides to espresso makers? Well, the cost is one, but time can be another. Most machines require you to turn the machine on in advance to boil the water for the required pressure. Depending on your machine, this can take anything from five to fifteen minutes.
French press. This infusion method is excellent for making a quick cuppa, as it needs little preparation other than boiling some water and grinding some coffee. Usually, a cylindrical glass carafe with a plunger top , the French press is easy to use. An appropriate amount of medium-coarse grounds and water, stir and let steep, rather like tea. When it's done, gently press the plunger down to push the grounds to the bottom, and pour. Simple and effective. The advantage is simplicity and ease of use, and the equipment can be found in many stores. The second advantage is that it can be used to heat and froth milk for other drinks (as I do). Disadvantages are that the coffee can be cloudy, and almost muddy at the bottom of the cup. Additionally the flavour is not well developed, the taste isn't clean and brewing lighter roasts tends not to be as good as a pourover. It is cheap to buy, starting around $15 and a good way to make coffee in quantity.
Moka pot. This is my delivery method of choice and I have two, a 1-cup and a 3-cup. Erroneously called "stovetop espresso", it nonetheless produces a strong coffee (approaching espresso strength) in about five minutes. The Moka pot is another percolation mechanic, and on the face of it appears to be similar to the percolator but it collects the finished coffee and doesn't reheat it. It's fairly quick and easy to use, taking three to five minutes before the coffee is ready and Bingo! You have a good strong coffee, which can be drunk as is, diluted or used to make a faux cappuccino or latte. A 3-cup pot is currently around $38, and is good for one or two people. In Italy and Hungary these are drunk as they are, some folk may prefer to dilute them somewhat. It's also used to make a Café Cubano. Pots are available from one to eighteen cups. Advantages include its portability, and I've used it when camping. The major disadvantage is that it seems to be quite quirky until you gain mastery over it.
Aeropress. The Aeropress is a recent invention whose development began in 2004. It looks rather like a large, fat syringe, and is a highly versatile machine. Whilst I've not used it, I've seen it used and enjoyed the results. It's attracted a lot of attention as it's highly portable and needs only boiling water, coffee and a receptacle. The base has a screw-on cap to hold a paper filter, coffee and water are added. Stir and leave to steep and then press the coffee down with a gentle pressure. It's extremely versatile, possibly even more so than the Moka, because you can add less water and tweak the timing to make stronger brews. The greatest advantage is the speed and ease of use, and portability; I've a friend who takes hers on camping trips and it does make a lovely cup. It's available for around $30 and I've seen it for sale at a couple of local roasteries. I may invest when I've a spare few bucks.
Turkish Coffee. I swear this stuff could kill you. Turkish coffee is it's own thing. Dark, rich and approaching the legendary Klatchian coffee from Discworld in its potency. It employs a little boiler known as a cezve, to which a small amount of very finely ground coffee, water, sugar and often spices, are added. It's traditionally made using a bed of heated sand, into which the cezve is placed. It's then heated almost to boiling, and poured. The grounds are drunk as a part of the experience. $15 will get a cheap cezve, but if I were going down this route I'd pay a little more and get a really fancy one because they are a thing of beauty. The (optional) bed of hot sand can be created with a wok or frying pan and some sand, but there are some kits available. The main advantage is the ease with which you can produce astonishingly strong, flavorsome and potent coffee. The disadvantage is that it produces astonishingly strong, flavorsome and potent coffee which will make you want more.
"Cowboy coffee". You've seen Western films, all the cowboys huddled around the fire, with a pan of coffee heating. That and beans gives you that famous campfire scene from Blazing Saddles. It's really Turkish coffee at scale. Cost? Nothing, you already have a pan and a hotplate. A small fistful of grounds are put into boiling water and it's infused in simmering water until you decide it's ready. Then it is drunk, black as the Devil's soul. This is truly the stuff of adventure.
Pods and other Sundries. Coffee pod machines are quite common in offices and customer service waiting areas. I've yet to see one in the home of anyone I know. The coffee comes in tiny containers which are inserted into the machine, which punctures the pod and injects hot water. The resulting coffee is dispensed into the waiting cup. The coffee is highly variable in nature. Advantages are simplicity of use, and a wide variety of coffees are available. The two biggest disadvantages are the cost of the consumable pods, and the environmental impact of the waste pod. Some manufacturers have tried to resolve the latter problem by either collecting the used pods for recycling(?) or by manufacturing from friendlier materials. At least one company is producing a machine that uses a form of compressed coffee with no waste materials. The other disadvantage is that some manufacturers are following the HP printer ink model and tagging their pods to ensure their machines cannot accept pods from other makers.
Vietnamese coffee is worth a mention, using a drip brewer known as a phin, and there are regional variations on the above methods. Finally there are other, strange machines. There's a range of machines known as siphon or vacuum pots, a two-vessel brewer that frankly baffles me. The machines I've seen look quite fragile, made of glass. According to Wikipedia, a "…vacuum coffee maker operates as a siphon, where heating and cooling the lower vessel changes the vapor pressure of water in the lower, first pushing the water up into the upper vessel, then allowing the water to fall back down into the lower vessel". They would not look out of place in a mad scientist's lab lair and they scare the bejeesus out of me. If you must know more, there is an excellent and informative video, Which I encourage you to watch.
As a footnote I should mention that there are some highly-engineered home espresso machines that rely solely on human agency to produce the required pressure. They vary hugely in price, from a hundred dollars to €19,000 (yes, nineteen thousand Euros). I'm given to understand that some of them make remarkably good coffee, but again, I've never used one nor had a chance to enjoy the outcome. James Hoffmann has reviewed a couple of them, so I don't need to go into huge amounts of detail. Look here and here for the €19k.
I am bound to have neglected something crucial, or overlooked a method of brewing a cup of delight. If I have, do please let me know so I can include it. Meanwhile, enjoy your coffee, however you make it.
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