The Importance of Time and Temp

When making a cup of coffee there are two aspects that are often over looked that have a huge impact on how our cup of coffee turns out.  They are time and temperature.  These two elements are rarely thought about because a vast majority of us use automatic machines and we don’t have control of these two things.  I want to take a look at each of them briefly.

First let’s look at time.  What we are talking about here is how long the water stays in contact with the grounds.  The ideal time is 3 minutes.  Once you get past the 3 minute mark you begin to extract the bitter compounds from the coffee grounds.  Of course you can go past this 3 minute mark a little and still brew a good cup of coffee.  So get out our timers this Saturday and when that first drop of water hits the grounds start the timer.  See how long your coffee maker takes to brew coffee.  A lot of them take 7 minutes or more.  I once had a coffee maker that took almost 15 minutes to brew.  Of course this was before I knew much about coffee and I do remember the coffee that came out of that brewer was very bitter. 

OK on to temperature.  The second thing you want to control is the temp of the water.  The optimal brewing temp is between 195-205°F.  Along with time the temp of your water will also affect the compounds that are extracted in the brewing process.  If your water is too cold it will under extract the coffee and you will get a weak brew.  Think cold brew here.  To properly cold brew coffee you need 3 hours or more.  Yet if you’re brewing at the proper time you are only allowing the water to come in contact with the grounds for 3 minutes.  This is not enough time to yield a good brew.  Conversely if the water is too hot it will extract the bitter compounds that we are trying to avoid.  So the temp of the water is important when we are trying to brew that perfect cup of coffee.

So there it is two more factors that contribute to a better cup of coffee.  In a future post I will talk about brewing methods that will give you complete control over both of these factors.  Until then, don’t settle for a mediocre cup of Joe always strive for perfection.