For Christmas, I received a Bodum coffee maker. I was thrilled because I decided to use it at my office for coffee, which will cut back on buying coffee from the coin-operated Keurig and save me some money in the long run. In addition, I figured I’d get a better cup of coffee out of the deal.
I got my beans at the supermarket and, not having a bean grinder at home, ground them in the store’s machine, on the coarse setting. To fill the pot I used the Keurig’s hot water spout.
And the coffee was … sludgy and lukewarm. Well, the temperature could be explained by the fact that the water just wasn’t that hot so I decided to get a kettle and make the coffee with proper boiling water.
Then I did some research on the internet to find a few tips about using a Bodum, because it’s been a while for me, and learned the following:
- The beans I bought were wrong because they weren’t roasted 10 days ago.
- The beans should be kept in an airtight container and not, as I have, a brown paper bag in my desk drawer.
- The beans should be ground each time before making a pot.
- The beans should not be ground with a cheap blade grinder. It must be a conical slow grinder that costs $300, at least.
- If the beans are not evenly ground, the coffee will be terrible.
- Unrelated to press coffee but important to note just the same: I’m stupid if I use an automatic drip coffee maker, even if I bought it at Loblaw’s and put an Apple sticker on it and called it my iBrew.
Well, now. That was exhausting. Anyhow, today I boiled the water before making my coffee. That pretty much solved all my issues.
Blork
/ January 13, 2012I feel your pain. BTW, I wrote the “manual” on using a bodum almost six years ago, here:
http://www.blork.org/blorkblog/2005/03/13/how-to-use-a-french-press-bodum/