5 ways to up your coffee game at home

Coffee tastes best within the first three months of being roasted. More and more products are displaying roast dates or best before dates, so it is becoming easier for consumers to brew up their favourite coffee at optimum freshness. That’s not to say fresh coffee will go off or turn bad, it will simply lose some of its flavour and taste bland and flat instead.

A great way to start your quest to making better coffee is to try a new piece of brewing equipment. Some great and very accessible examples to try are the Aeropress and the Clever Dripper – both a big upgrade on your regular Cafetiere/French Press. The addition of a paper filter creates a much more evenly extracted, less bitter coffee. Many other new-fangled gadgets exist, try each to see which you prefer the most!

Beans are best! Domestic coffee grinders are becoming cheaper and more available, making it much easier to freshly grind your own coffee beans at home. If the smell alone of freshly ground coffee in the morning isn’t enough then this step will create the most noticeable change in the flavour of your coffee.

Probably the best kept secret to a better brew. Filter jugs such as those made by Brita or Aqua are easy to use and available in most supermarkets. They strip away unwanted hardness from the water and leave behind the essential minerals needed to enhance flavour. If keeping your kettle free from limescale isn’t enough to persuade you, then the brighter, cleaner coffee flavour might.

A seemingly faffy step but a great way to ensure precision and consistency in your brew. Invest in an inexpensive set of gram scales to weigh out your coffee and you’ll be able to replicate the same recipe over and over. This is when the real coffee geekery starts and you can work out the best ratio of coffee to water for you.

Coffee bags are a great way to have an easy brew at home. Our generic range consists of a house blend, single origin & decaf option, now available from our online portal.