I love coffee and always keen on trying new sorts of beans, brewing methods or recipes.
Here I'll try to tell essential things I know about coffee and give some recommendations on how to choose beans or ground coffee and brew it right.
Let's start with the beans: their quality and the taste of final product varies due to many different factors. But for simplicity, let's say you can guess what your coffee will taste like based on 2 main factors: country of origin and processing method (Natural or Washed)
The picture on the right shows flavor profiles of coffee based on their country of origin. I usually drink coffee from Ethiopia, Kenya, Costa Rica or Honduras: it's bright, fruity or citrusy.
The picture illustrates the difference between processing methods:
During the natural process coffee cherries are dried under the sun for 3-6 weeks, so the fruit pulp affects the seed all this time and it results in more fruity, sweety, berry-like flavour and fuller body. You can also see that the core of such bean is dark due to the long affect of sweet pulp on the seed.
During the washed process coffee seeds are separated from the fruit and then the remaining sweet / fruity shell is thoroughly washed and it results in more bright, acid flavour and lighter body. In this case the core of a bean is very light due to the limited affect of fruit sugar on the seed.
Coffee is a whole wonderful world full of discoveries, yet it might be challenging to find your favourite flavour or achieve consistency in brewing process.
Here I'd like to share with you my favourite brewing techniques that I use almost everyday (performed by the most famous coffee expert in the world - James Hoffman).