1) Your water quality is poor:
“The water
you use is very important to the quality of your coffee. Use filtered or
bottled water if your tap water is not good or has a strong odor or taste, such
as chlorine. If you’re using tap water, let it run a few seconds before filling
your coffee pot, and be sure to use cold water. Avoid distilled or softened
water.”
2) Your coffee-to-water ratio is off:
“A general
guideline is called the Golden Ratio - one
to two tablespoons of ground coffee for every six ounces of water. This
can be adjusted to suit individual taste preferences. Check the cup lines or
indicators on your specific brewer to see how they actually measure. And
remember that some water is lost to evaporation in certain brewing methods.”
3) You’re using the wrong
grind:
"The finer the grind, the easier it is for the water to extract both the good and the bad from your coffee beans. If you grind it too fine, you may find you have a bad tasting cup of coffee, especially if you use some of the more specialty brewing methods. Try a courser grind of coffee. If you have a blade grind, it may still come out too much like powder. You may need to switch to a burr grinder in order to reach the desired level of coarseness in your coffee."
https://www.roastycoffee.com/coffee-tastes-bad/
4) You’re storing your coffee improperly:
"The finer the grind, the easier it is for the water to extract both the good and the bad from your coffee beans. If you grind it too fine, you may find you have a bad tasting cup of coffee, especially if you use some of the more specialty brewing methods. Try a courser grind of coffee. If you have a blade grind, it may still come out too much like powder. You may need to switch to a burr grinder in order to reach the desired level of coarseness in your coffee."
https://www.roastycoffee.com/coffee-tastes-bad/
4) You’re storing your coffee improperly:
“Roasted
coffee beans oxidize with exposure to oxygen, and this leads to them becoming
stale. You want fresh beans, so you want to make sure to keep them away from
oxygen, moisture, heat and light. That means storing beans in an airtight
container in a cool dry place; a pantry is a good spot, and your kitchen
counter in direct sunlight is not. It also means freshly grinding your beans to
ensure that you get the freshest taste possible. And no, you do not want to
store them in the refrigerator.
“Another key
thing to keeping your coffee fresh is buying whole beans. While it might take a
little extra time, buying whole beans and grinding them yourself when you want
coffee is going to lead to a better cup than pre-ground ones.”
5) You’re using
pre-ground coffee:
“The basic
goal of making coffee is to get what’s sealed inside the bean (namely, the
delicious flavor components and oils) out of the bean. The original method
involved boiling the whole roasted beans in hot water while agitating them.
With some patience and lots of time you’d eventually end up with a bitter,
high-caffeine, coffee solution.
“Luckily for
us our coffee forefathers eventually came up with a more efficient method to
extract the goodies from the coffee! By grinding the coffee beans you help the water
to extract efficiently the solubles that are responsible for the taste and
aroma in coffee….
“A roasted
whole coffee bean is a beautiful, protective package that keeps the coffee oils
exactly where we want them, namely, inside the bean.
As long as you don’t mess with the beans the flavor components, which are very
delicate, volatile and water-soluble substances, will be safe. However, break
the protective shell and all bets are off.”
6) You’re not regularly cleaning your brewing equipment:
“You would be amazing at exactly how dirty coffee makers are. While many of us do try to clean it occasionally, the coffee maker often gets ignored in our daily cleaning routines. After all, it is mostly water coming out of there anyway, right? Wrong. Old coffee and other gross leftovers can change the taste of our coffee and it isn’t too good for us either.
“You would be amazing at exactly how dirty coffee makers are. While many of us do try to clean it occasionally, the coffee maker often gets ignored in our daily cleaning routines. After all, it is mostly water coming out of there anyway, right? Wrong. Old coffee and other gross leftovers can change the taste of our coffee and it isn’t too good for us either.
“Make
cleaning your coffee maker and anything that your coffee touches a part of your
regular cleaning routine. Periodically clean out your coffee maker really well
and flush out every part of the system. After all, who wants to drink coffee
that has passed through a bunch of filth to reach your cup?”
7)
Your coffee
steeping timing is off:
“If you let
your coffee steep for too long or not long enough, you will greatly impact the
flavors in that cup of coffee. In many ways, this is a matter of taste, but no
matter who you are you should be able to find the perfect window to create a
good cup of coffee. Try adjusting how long you let your coffee steep before you
drink it. You may need to try either longer or shorter times to find just the
right amount of time for your tastes, but in the end that is part of the fun.”
8) You’re freezing your coffee:
“If you are dead-set on keeping beans in the freezer (e.g., you stocked
up on several bags of beans from your favorite far-away roaster but know you'll
only finish one of those bags in a week or two), just make sure the bag is
sealed and unopened. Then, before drinking, you'll have to let the beans thaw
to room temperature. You may have preserved some of those fresh flavors, but
you'll also have created a pain in the neck out of a beverage that's supposed
to be convenient and easy.”
9)
You’re beans
are not fresh and the coffee tastes oily:
“The bad
thing about oil is that not only does it mean the coffee likely is old (roasted
coffee ideally should be consumed within a week or two) or over-roasted (which
is a nice way of saying burnt), it tastes stale, harsh, and bitter. Once those
oils are out, they go rancid fast…..
“How do you
avoid oily beans? For one, stop buying coffee that has a one year expiry date
on it. Coffee's shelf life - no matter what brand, what package, what
certification, or what type - is not and will never be an year long.
Considering that it could be is crazy talk. Grocery stores treat it like a can
of tuna when really it should be treated like a freshly baked loaf of bread
(blog post pending). Buying it from the local roaster …. is like buying from
the local baker - get it fresh, get it often. Second, try lighter roasts. Even
if you have to hold onto that coffee longer than the optimal 1-2 weeks, the
lighter roasts will not extract oils to the same degree as darker.”
10) You purchased the darker roast:
“Dark roast flavors become intense and take the lead in
terms of the overall flavor balance quite easily. By developing a coffee to a
dark roast can mean you mask and reduce the quantity of certain flavors
available for brewing and tasting in the coffee, in favor of adding roasted,
carbonic flavors to the beans. This can be a virtue if you prefer them,
however for many it is preferential to have other flavors taking the lead in
coffee. Darker roasting can be used to cover up defects in coffees, as is
the case with a lot of commercial coffee on shelves in stores across the
country. It is advisable to check the quality of a company’s darkly roasted
coffee, particularly investigating into whether it constitutes a speciality
grade coffee, to ensure quality prior to purchase.
“Our advice to minimise drawbacks is to buy 100% Arabica
coffees where possible, as it is often found that darker roasted coffee blends
have a percentage of Robusta coffee included. It is a species of coffee that
has a much higher level of bitterness due to the higher caffeine content, along
with a heavier and often unclean earthy flavour to it, that most coffee
drinkers nowadays do not tend to enjoy, particularly those seeking quality in
their roasts. Furthermore, checking packaging for signs of ethical production
is a likely sign that you are purchasing a higher quality product.”
Related Sites
How To Store Coffee Beans The Right Way
https://coffeeabode.com/how-to-store-coffee-beans/
How To Store Coffee Beans The Right Way
https://coffeeabode.com/how-to-store-coffee-beans/
Photo: http://www.nobrowcoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/coffee-wallpaper-1306-1433-hd-wallpapers.jpg
Jerry De Luca is a Christian freelance writer who loves perusing dozens of interesting and informative publications. When he finds any useful info he summarizes it, taking the main points, and creates a (hopefully) helpful blog post.
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