These are a few suggested methods for preparing your 7 Roasters Coffee Beans. Use these directions as a guide only. Your tastes will differ and you should honor that. Play around with the variables – time, temperature, grind to fine-tune your coffee.
THE PRESS:
[1] Use three generous tablespoons of coffee per 8 oz [2 cups] of water. The average press is 32 0z. [8 cups].
[2] Heat a little more water than needed.
[3] Grind the coffee. The ground coffee should be of the consistency of coarse black pepper. Grind should be fairly coarse compared to a filter or espresso grind– a good general rule is the longer the extraction time, the coarser the coffee should be. If your coffee is pre-ground for drip or just a finer grind, just use a little more coffee and shorter extraction time. Just remember that the finer grind will pass through the mesh in the press and ultimately land in your cup – not necessarily a bad thing!
[4] Bring water to a normal boil [212°F]. Then let water either set in the pot for 20 seconds or pour water into the measuring cup – lowering the temperature to around 200°F [the proper extraction temperature].
[5] Add ground coffee to the press, and pour water slowly over the coffee. With any sized press, you want the maximum level of the slew to be around an inch from the top of the press. You need room for the plunger to get in there.
[6] Gently stir the coffee.
[7] Place the plunger on the press with the plunger slightly above the slew of coffee and hot water. The cover will trap in heat that would otherwise escape.
[8] Wait four minutes for the coffee to steep.
[9] Gently push the grounds down to the bottom of the pot. It should take around 10 seconds with minimal force to get to the bottom. If the plunger goes down too quickly, you probably used too coarse of a grind. Too slowly – too fine of a grind. **Be careful here! It’s easy to push so hard, the slew of hot water and coffee come spewing out.
[10] When you have pushed the plunger as far down as it will go, the coffee is ready to be served. If you need to let it sit, displace coffee into a thermos. Even pressed all the way down – the coffee will continue to extract in the hot water.
THE FILTER:
This is an easy way to get an excellent cup of coffee with minimal cleanup. The filter tends to bring about a clean, bright cup of coffee. The distinctive flavors of the coffee will definitely be highlighted. That’s why the filter remains as one of the best ways to taste single origin coffees!
[1] Directions pertain to the single cup style coffee filter with a #4 size filter.
[2] Use three and a half generous tablespoons of coffee per 8 oz [2 cups] of water.
[3] Heat a little more water than needed.
[4] Grind the coffee. The grind should be just a little coarser than an espresso grind. Think table salt.
[5] Bring water to a boil [212°F]. Then let water either set in the pot for 20 seconds or pour water into the measuring cup – lowering the temperature to around 200°F [the proper extraction temperature].
[6] Open up the paper filter and put it in the filter holder. Pour a couple spoonfuls of hot water into the filter to rinse the paper filter. With ground coffee placed in the paper filter slowly pour water. Stir the slew as you do this, allowing all the coffee to be exposed to water.
[7] It should take about a minute for most of the coffee to extract with slight drips still occurring toward the end. That’s ok. When the coffee has formed a pit in the middle or when the drops are fewer and far between, the coffee is ready to be served.