Steps to make some exceptionally terrible coffee

We talked about the 6 steps to fresher coffee in our Banyan Coffee blog a few months ago and any one of those steps that you alter or ignore can be a great step to make bad coffee.

1-Buying pre-ground coffee with an expiration date for two years from today is just one step of making a bad coffee drink. We will not touch much on this and we also understand not everyone has a grinder at home. However, it is always encouraged to purchase even a low cost grinder because we know it’s an important coffee equipment to have. At the Bradenton Farmers Market we ran into a couple who were traveling in their sailboat. They explained that they have very little room on their sailboat for a grinder because space is limited but they are very passionate about their coffee. We told them about our hand grinder that we sell on our website because it’s travel friendly and doesn’t require power. They ended up purchasing a hand grinder for their boat. 

2-We hate to waste things in life such as our coffee because we make too much or can’t drink it in time before it cools. Rather than throw it away we try warming it in the microwave. Microwaving your coffee to reheat a cold cup is another step in making a bad cup of joe. Once you do this the coffee becomes more bitter than before. Even as your coffee cools it generally becomes more acidic than before.  Reheating your coffee or keeping it on a heat pad for more than an hour can increase the bitterness to the coffee and its overall flavor.  If you must reheat your coffee, try the following steps as offered from Kara Hawker at Dalhousie University:–Start by lowering the intensity of your power from the microwave default setting. If your cup is half full then shoot for about 45 seconds and continue to reheat with 30 second intervals until desired temperature is reached.  According to an MIT study by Christopher Hendon, as long as you slow that heating rate when you reheat your coffee you can save the coffee with less flavor lost. The natural chemical compounds in coffee react to temperature changes. And when you reheat it you jeopardize the flavor in the coffee. But in the end if you reheat your pizza and enjoy it still you may enjoy your coffee then too. But if you’re like us at Banyan Coffee Co., this is like reheating french fries in the microwave. It’s just unpleasant.

3-Temperature of brewing your coffee. Boiling water will ruin the flavor and oils in the coffee. This is why a thermometer or a kettle with a digital thermometer is a great investment for your home coffee equipment. If you don’t have the energy to get one just wait 30 seconds after boiling, and then brew. If your temperature is not hot enough your coffee will be under-extracted and weak in flavor. Every automatic coffee maker has a default setting for temperature so there is no need to adjust the heat. 

4-Never reuse your coffee grounds. After brewing a great cup of coffee, why would you reuse them for the next round?  Guilty! As college students we would reuse coffee to get us through the next day. Those days are long gone.  The second round of the same coffee ground can be very weak and dull in flavor. The coffee also becomes much more bitter and harsh. If you really want to get the most out of your coffee beans there are many ways to reuse coffee naturally such as fertilizer for your garden. Composting using your coffee grounds can provide rich nutrients. In Bradenton, Florida we have a large number of insects like mosquitoes. The good news is that coffee grounds can help repel insects due to the caffeine being toxic to some insect species.

5-Not cleaning your coffee equipment will eventually produce terrible coffee even if you’re using freshly roasted coffee beans. This sounds easy to remember, but you would be surprised how many people and restaurants don’t clean their coffee equipment. Mineral scale can also ruin your coffee machine if not properly descaled.

6-Buying coffee that says “expires on.” Why would you want coffee that has an expiration date? A “Roast Date” is much more important than an expiration date. It is so common to see a  grocery store bag of coffee with a year of expiration date on the front or back. This ensures you are bound to make a terrible cup of coffee. In some of the previous blogs we discussed 5 Steps to Fresher Coffee and the roast date is the most important information on the freshness of the coffee. At Banyan Coffee Company we pledge to have our coffee shipped out or delivered from our warehouse within 48 hours of the roast date. We don’t hold or stock our coffee in our roastery. We roast our coffee 3 days a week to offer the freshest coffee beans possible.

We can’t list everything that you can possibly do to ruin your coffee experience. Here we’ve  covered a few that people have asked us about, some common mistakes, and even some we have done in our own experience. The key is not to cut corners in your coffee!