Why Your Coffee at Home Sucks

Optimizing your home brews with minimal effort

Since I launched Octopod Premium Coffee ~18 months ago I get pretty consistent questions from home coffee enthusiasts about brewing methods and variations in tasting notes versus what I get from the coffees I’m sending out.

While I’ve had friends write guest posts on coffee before and also wrote a longer post about the flavor wheel of coffee, I figured it was time to update a few things and give you a no B.S. quick-reference to the easiest ways you can optimize your coffee making at home… with minimal effort.

I say minimal effort because it’s possible to go down some serious rabbit holes with the (3) topics I’m going to discuss below. You can by all means go down those yourself but most people just want to make a great cup of coffee at home without having to dive into hours of books and videos to sift for knowledge.

This as an efficiency distillation.

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The Big 3 of Coffee

These are the three areas we are going to tackle that are currently affecting your coffee the most when you make at home.

-Water

-Grind

-Beans

Notice I didn’t list “brew method”.. which is what everyone online is chirping and obsessing over.

So why didn’t I mention?

Because a) Bernard and I already wrote on different methods and b) more importantly, if you control the Big 3 above it’s almost impossible to brew a crappy cup of coffee at home.

I’ll finish at the end with a couple of brewing methods I use a lot these days that I don’t see many people talk about so that will be a fun way to conclude.

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Water

Did you know that 98.5% of the coffee you drink is water?

Yup… this is a fact.

So before we start obsessing about beans and grinders… how about we look at the ingredient that is largest in volume… water.

This is EASILY the most overlooked component when people brew coffee at home.

Worst case scenario Joe Schmo is just opening his kitchen faucet when making his morning coffee. Pretty much every city now has chlorinated, flourinated water at a minimum. Not to mention different trace minerals that are present all of which affect the end flavor of your coffee. You can have the best beans in the world and if you’re boiling crappy tap water to brew it… you’re kicking yourself in the shins as far as outcome, literally.

You’ll see some people using brita or carbon filters. These are ok but still far from ideal. I’d call this a step up from the tap.

Then you have the RO (Reverse Osmosis) crowd which is using water that has been stripped of all trace minerals. At first thought this was be a good thing but when you realize that water can have a distinctive “taste” this is based on the trace minerals, especially magnesium and calcium, present. Using RO water to make your coffee is going to leave you with a flat expression of what you could be really drinking.

Just as any hobby artist can copy a Renior or Cezanne, nothing compares to the depth and soul of the original… and that’s what’s happening with RO. Your coffee is lacking the potential soul, and expressive flavor possibilities.

I’ll spare the details but calcium and magnesium (among others) havea. drastic effect on the body, flavor and perception of water on the palate.

So what’s the answer?

Now it’s never been easier to get the perfect water to make your coffee with. A few companies now sell water-remineralizing kits that when added to a clean water source, yield a perfect blend of minerals in the water to showcase and compliment your coffee.

How does this work?

Usually you buy a powder that is then added to RO or distilled water. Sometimes the remineralizer is a liquid concentrate that is, like above, added to RO or distilled water. This is a 30-60 second process… then you’re ready to go for brewing on demand.

I make this 1 gallon at a time and keep in the cabinet by my coffee station counter setup

If you’re interested in upping your water game my absolute favorite is GC Water Perfect Cup which comes with enough solution for 30 gallons of water. Yeah, 30 gallons… and the flavor is amazing. Only issue is they aren’t sold on Amazon.

For a more convenient but also high quality alternative, check the Third Wave product out on Amazon. Get the Classic blend… they’ve started rolling out “Light” and “Dark” profile packets which I think is kind of gimmicky. Tried them all and the classic remains their best effort IMO.

Either option will instantly upgrade your coffee experience by maximizing the ingredient that occupies 98.5% of your cup of coffee… water 💧

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Grind

You’ve got perfect water now and it’s time to brew.

How are you going to grind those beans friend?

I ask “how” because buying pre-ground coffee is a literal sin. The volatile compounds and oils present in coffee beans begin to immediately dissipate as soon as the beans are ground.

The grounds are exposed to air which starts the oxidation and degradation process. Long story short… pre-ground coffee is a scam. If you can’t grind your own beans, start drinking tea.

Again, there’s a lot to discuss here about grinders but generally speaking, which is good enough for 99% of people aren’t autistic about coffee, the following apply.

Blade grinders are bottom tier.

The chief concern of grinding your coffee is, “are my coffee ground similar size?”. This makes complete and logical sense because if we are going to pour hot water through the coffee grounds to extract flavor then smaller grounds will extract faster that larger grounds.

This makes uniformity very important and this is near possible to achieve with a blade grinder.

In a blade grinder you are pouring whole beans over a swivel blade that is fitted to a base. The coffee beans will probably stack 2-3 inches in the grinder and when you turn it on all the beans in the bottom will grind faster than the layer sitting on top. (And no, shaking the grinder won’t this grinder a good option 😆)

Burr grinders are the best choice.

In a burr grinder the coffee beans all pass through a chamber where a grinding burr wheel crushes the beans against a non-moving burr grinder plate. Thus, giving a far greater and consistent uniformity.

You’ll see two styles: flat burr and conical burr styles.

The specifics aren’t important but generally flat burrs will give a greater clarity and a wider range of tasting notes which is extremely desirable in pour overs.

On the other hand conical burrs will generally give a more textured and viscous brew accentuating more middle-notes of the coffee bell curve (like your chocolatey notes) which makes this very good for espresso.

Conical burrs are by far the most produced grinders on the market, with flat burrs gaining more popularity in the last 15 years or so as the coffee nerd niche has grown exponentially.

There are some very expensive burr grinders on the market but you don’t have to re-mortgage your house to get a good setup.

So what’s the go-to starter option to get into grinding better coffee?

The La Barratza Encore

I can personally vouch for this grinder. It was the first burr grinder I ever purchased that my coffee mentor recommended. It’s a conical burr, well made, the company has been around forever, the customer service is impeccable if you ever have an issue (I never did) and it has a good warranty. All for <$149

The hopper will fit enough for a few cups of coffee which is good, since you want to keep your coffee beans in the bag and not out in light with air around them for weeks at a time. The grind adjustment is also very intuitive, has a nice range, and easy to use (adjust from coarse (#40) to fine (#1) on the scale).

There are plenty of premium options out there I can recommend, but for starting out and getting used to working with a burr grinder… this will last you years and heck, you may the grinder and coffee you’re making so much you never feel the need to upgrade. That’s fine too.

Hand Grinders:

This has been a niche that has grown a lot in popularity for a few reasons. 1) a fair number of people think that motorized vs hand cranked grinders yield different flavor profiles on the same beans. 2) people who travel frequently want a top notch grinder without having to box up a counter top appliance to ship or check on an airline everytime they fly out.

These are both fair points and there a glut of options on the market now.

Comanche is extremely popular and I’ve used their hand grinders numerous times. Well constructed and good quality but there has been a new-comer that I feel has delivered a top-notch, Grade A hand grinding experience.

The “K-Ultra” from 1Zpresso. It’s a small cylinder which breaks down into individual parts that fit into a hand-held carrying, including a foldable grind handle.

The burr quality is excellent but what really sets this hand grinder apart from the rest is the range of motion to grind the coffee is very comfortable. Some handles are not ergonomic and have an uncomfortable motion path while grinding. Not the K-Ultra.

Further, the grind settings are more intuitive and consistent than Comanche which is another big deal. If you’re serious about exploring hand grinders… this one is the all around king IMO 👑

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Beans

This is the final part of the Big 3 equation.

It’s really self explanatory and yet I’m still confounded on a daily basis by the overall apathy people display about coffee beans.

I’m pretty sure it’s because people haven’t ever had coffee beans that you can literally taste black currant, grapefruit and molasses, or fresh cherry, honey and dark chocolate… or blackberry, strawberry and fruit punch…

Most people are like “I want a light roast”… or “I only drink dark roasts”… or “I want espresso roast” (which isn’t even a “thing” by the way)… Light and dark aren’t even flavors… 😑

Rant over

As a general rule of thumb you want coffee that is roasted within 3-4 days. That will give you 30-ish days of optimal drinking quality (this is why I roast and ship monthly).

Storing in the freezer does nothing to extend and preserve coffee beans. In fact, pulling beans in and out of the freezer will cause the beans to sweat and hold condensation which is a whole other conversation 😂

Long and short of it is that coffee beans all have different sugar and water contents which means the optimal roast isn’t “light” or “dark” but rather.. the amount of roasting which lets the coffee show off its best natural flavors. 🙌

This is when coffee gets exciting and fun. Your chances of experiencing this kind of coffee are exponentially boosted by controlling the Big 3.

Are you looking to get your hands on coffee beans that can deliver the flavors described above?

I’m roasting and shipping out the April Octopod Premium Coffees next week so you don’t want to miss out on these 2 coffees:

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Guatemala 🇬🇹 (Honey Process):

Tasting Notes:  Pear 🍐 , Star Fruit, Cocoa 🍫   

Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (Washed Process):

Tasting Notes:  White Grape 🍇, Lime, Cocoa 🍫 

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And you get to try them both! 🙌

Order now to get your coffees reserved and for more info on the micro-lots and farmers growing these amazing coffees.

I look forward to hearing back on your coffee at home experiences after implementing some of the suggestions above 🤝