Coffee is a mandatory attribute of “good morning” for most. To prepare an invigorating aromatic drink, you need to have different devices and accessories in your arsenal. And what exactly – let’s figure it out.
What is the best way to make coffee
There are two fundamentally different approaches to cooking – manual cooking and automatic / semi-automatic. In any case, the ingredients are the most important, otherwise the taste of the coffee will not be what you expect. In second place are accessories and appliances, and we’ll talk about it further.
For manual brewing, a cezve is most often used – a special cone-shaped vessel with a long handle and a spout for convenient pouring of the finished drink into cups. When choosing a Turk for yourself, you should pay attention to the volume of the container. It should allow you to prepare a portion of coffee at a time for the right number of people.
It is no secret that during storage, ground coffee loses its original flavor. It is for this reason that a real coffee lover should have a coffee grinder in his arsenal in order to prepare small portions of ground coffee as needed. What will be the coffee grinder – manual or electric – a matter of personal preference. Electric will allow you to adjust the degree of grinding, and manual will add vintage and special charm to the coffee ritual. How to choose a coffee grinder is described in detail in the DNS club article .
For preparation in a Turk, coffee of the finest possible grinding is suitable.
Manual coffee grinder Aceline CG-002 brown
To be used in a French press, ground coffee must be coarse. This is how coffee beans will give the drink its aroma.
A variety of types of coffee and devices in which it is prepared better
Oriental coffee
You can’t even remember when the first portion of coffee was brewed and drunk. According to some reports, this happened in 850 AD. e. Since then, little has changed. Ground coffee beans are placed in a suitable container, filled with water and brought almost to a boil, after which they delight themselves with a fragrant drink. This recipe comes from the countries of the Middle East, so it is generally accepted to call this type of drink coffee in an oriental way.
To prepare it, you will not need many accessories: a good coffee grinder and a Turk of a suitable volume.
filter coffee
A fairly simple type of coffee in its recipe. The drink is prepared by passing hot water (almost boiling water) through the filter with a portion of ground coffee in it. The strength and aroma of the drink depend only on the quality of the original ground grain and the amount of powder put into the coffee maker.
When preparing filter coffee, the main emphasis is not on its taste, but on volume. With the preparation of this type of drink, drip-type coffee makers are most successful, using exclusively ground coffee in their work.
[used coffee – ground, 800 W, 1000 ml]
Also, a real gourmet will need a coffee grinder to prepare a fragrant drink, because we remember that ground coffee loses its aroma during storage.
To use drip coffee makers, you will need a set of disposable filters .
Espresso, americano, doppio and lungo
Espresso has played a leading role in Italian coffee culture for over 120 years. It all started with the fact that in 1901 the Italian engineer Luigi Bezzera received a patent for the first espresso machine. And thanks to the enterprising owners of coffee houses, the drink, as they say, “went” to the people. The essence of making espresso is quite simple. Hot water (90–95 ° C) is passed through a compressed tablet of ground coffee (8–12 g) under high pressure (9–19 bar). Thanks to this, a large amount of coffee oils gets into the finished drink, giving it a rich taste and aroma. A characteristic feature of the finished drink is the presence of a thick coffee-cream-colored foam.
Espresso is the base of many types of coffee and coffee drinks.
For example, an Americano contains a small amount of espresso diluted with hot water, usually in a ratio of 1:3. The recipe was adapted during the Second World War, to the tastes of American soldiers who preferred to use regular filter coffee.
Variations in the amount of ground coffee in the finished drink give connoisseurs a couple more drinks with exotic names:
doppio – double espresso. To obtain a standard volume (25–35 ml) of coffee, a double portion of ground beans (14–20 g) is used, which gives a very strong and aromatic drink at the output;
lungo is a weaker espresso. To prepare it, you will need an almost halved portion of ground coffee. The drink has a reduced caffeine content.
The most suitable for making espresso and its derivatives are carob-type coffee makers and automatic coffee machines .
The coffee maker works exclusively with ground coffee, so you will need a coffee grinder. An automatic coffee machine is often equipped with a built-in grinder, usually with a variable degree of grinding coffee beans.
In devices of this type, a portion of ground coffee is poured into the holder (horn) of the device and rammed.
After that, water and steam under pressure pass through the coffee briquette. As a result, a drink with a dense body and a thick foam flaunts in a cup.
Carob coffee maker DEXP EM-801 beige
The common denominator of most recipes is the same strong, aromatic espresso.
Among themselves, the recipes differ in the percentage of ingredients and the method of preparing milk. It can be added to the drink cold, hot or whipped into a thick milk foam. For example, in a classic cappuccino – coffee, milk and whipped milk foam are presented in equal proportions, but in a latte half of its volume is milk and another quarter of strong espresso and whipped milk foam.
As with pure espresso, you will need either a carob coffee maker or an automatic coffee machine to make coffee with milk. A prerequisite is the presence of a cappuccinatore (a device that foams milk), otherwise, it will have to be purchased separately .
Philips EP1224/00 coffee machine gray
Budget Solutions
Budget solutions are coffee makers in the price segment up to 7,000 rubles. For this money, the user will receive a drip or capsule coffee maker , as well as a simple carob . The drip one will properly prepare filter coffee, and the capsule one will prepare ready-made drinks according to the original recipe from well-known trendsetters in coffee fashion. Neither in the first nor in the second case there is no room for creativity. You just need to choose the ready-made ingredients that suit your taste preferences.
It will be possible to treat yourself and espresso for little money. The entry-level devices are not equipped with a compressor, the pressure is created by heating the water, but for starters it is a perfectly acceptable option.
Devices are harder
In the segment of 8,000 – 20,000 rubles, there are still drip coffee makers, but, as they say, a cut above their budget counterparts. They have a built-in coffee grinder, grinding regulator, delayed start and other useful features.
The main backbone of the “middle peasants” are carob-type coffee makerscapable of preparing an exemplary espresso. The main complaint about machines of this class is that they work exclusively with ground coffee, so you will either have to buy a coffee grinder separately, or choose the type of finished ground coffee that suits your preferences.
Models are equipped with both automatic and manual cappuccino, so making cappuccino will not cause any particular difficulties.
Devices of the upper price segment
Everything that you can imagine in the technology of making coffee is in automatic coffee machines. Built-in coffee grinder with a choice of grinding level, cappuccinatore, temperature and strength adjustment of the drink, pre-installed and user-created programs, their flexible adaptation to certain taste preferences.
Additionally, the functionality of the models includes the supply of hot water and milk. Prices for such devices range from 20,000 rubles to infinity .
The most equipped models have the functions of lighting the working area, heating cups, adjusting the density and height of the created foam. The only thing that cannot be done on a coffee machine of this class is to brew tasteless coffee.
