Brewing Coffee

The brewing of coffee is an extraction process where by a certain percentage of the available coffee flavoring compounds of a known weight of ground coffee is removed using hot water.  The amount of hot water used in the process is directly related to the amount of coffee used so that when brewing is complete the final mixture produces a satisfying cup of coffee.

 Coffee is such a powerful flavoring compound that only a little over 1 percent coffee flavoring added to a little under 99 percent water produces a correctly brewed cup.  By weight the amount of flavoring that should be removed from the ground coffee is 18 to 22 percent.  If too little is removed the brew will be weak and under developed.  If too much is removed then the brew will be bitter and astringent.  So the brewing process is a balancing act between extracting just the right amount of coffee flavoring compounds and adding it to just the right amount of water. 

The six factors that affect the quality of brewed coffee are as follows.

1. Clean filtered water
2. Clean brewing equipment
3. Proper coffee to water ratio
4. Proper grind particle size
5. Proper water temperature
6. Proper brew time

There are a number of different designs of coffee brewing equipment and not all of them offer control over each of these brewing parameters.  In fact some types of equipment will generally produce un-satisfactory results and little or nothing can be done to achieve a properly brewed cup of coffee.  Keep this in mind when selecting brewing equipment.