For many of us, the morning just isn’t complete without a cup of coffee and the little hit of caffeine and the comforting warmth of the mug in your hand. And while coffee is often seen as something one should eliminate from one’s diet, there are several studies that show it offers some health benefits. Greek coffee could be a factor in living a long life, says one study published in 2013 in Vascular Medicine, and another study, this one published in Cancer Causes and Control this year, found that high coffee intake may help protect against prostate cancer.
AmongMen recently had the chance to meet up with one of the founders of Ethical Bean Coffee, Lloyd Bernhardt, and their director of coffee, Aaron de Lazzer. While de Lazzer brewed us a bespoke cup of coffee using a Chemex (which involved carefully weighing the coffee grounds and the water), since most of us have your average drip coffee maker in our kitchens, we got tips from him on how to brew a better cup of coffee at home.
Use the right water
“You want water with some minerality in it, and make sure to filter it to remove chlorine and other elements,” he says. (Yes, your Brita filter will do the job just fine).
Try to stick to just-ground beans and enough of them
If you use beans that have just been ground, you’ll get a fresher, better tasting coffee. Also, you don’t want to scrimp on how much coffee you use. An easy way to do this is to use less water—so put the amount of coffee you would for a full pot, for example, but only add 10 cups versus the 12 cups your machine will brew. “This will give your coffee some shoulders and make one handsome cup of coffee,” says de Lazzer. (In case you’re wondering, in coffee speak, this is called “shortpotting.”)
Stir up the grounds mid-brew
“When your coffee is about halfway through brewing, carefully lift the top so you can give the grounds in the basket a stir to create some turbidity,” says de Lazzer. This movement will result in better extraction from the grounds.
