Fortunately for coffee-lovers, there are many different and easy ways to make coffee at home. Each method creates a certain type of coffee and one, if not several, methods will be the right one for you. Method 1: Plunger (also known as French Press) Best Grind: Coarse is best but Filter grind also works well. This super easy method involves putting the appropriate amount of ground coffee (such as 2-4 tablespoons depending on the size of the plunger and how strong you like it) in the plunger flask; filling the flask with hot water; waiting 4 minutes; placing the plunger on top and pushing it down to the bottom. What’s left on top is delicious, filtered coffee! Method 2: Pour over/Drip using a Coffee Cone and Paper Filter Best Grind: Filter Using any brand of plastic or glass coffee cone, put a paper filter into the cone, then add the coffee grounds and pour hot water over coffee grounds. Keep pouring water, stopping, if necessary, so that the coffee does not over-flow beyond the paper filter and into the cone. The brewed coffee then drips through the paper filter and into the bottom of the receiving flask, thermos, jar or cup, depending on the quantity you want. Method 3: Moka Pot. Best Grind: Fine This method requires a stove top. Fill the lower chamber with water and the middle chamber with ground coffee. Place the middle chamber on top of the lower chamber then screw the top section on to the lower. Place the pot on the stove at medium to high heat. The water in the lower chamber will boil and bubble up through the coffee in the middle chamber, up the “chimney,” and into and stay in the upper section. After a few minutes the upper section is filled with delicious, intense espresso-like coffee! Method 4: Filter (Drip) Coffee Machine. Best Grind: Filter This is based on the same principle as the pour over method except done by a machine instead of by you! Place the ground coffee (quantity depends on the amount of coffee you want to make – usually between 2 and 10 cups) in the filter section. Most models have a plastic filter, so you don’t have to use paper filters. Fill the water tank with same amount of water as the amount of coffee you want to make. Turn on the machine and it does the rest. Hot water will drip from the top into the ground coffee, pass through it and drip again into the carafe at the bottom. Delicious filter coffee will be ready in little time for you to enjoy! Method 5: Home Espresso Machine Best Grind: Fine There are many levels of quality of Espresso Machine, but cost is not always indicative of good, or poor, quality. Each machine is a bit different; some are more automatic than others. For manual home machines, once the machine has been on for a while and water has heated sufficiently, you fill the filter basket with the recommended amount of finely ground coffee (the level of grind is especially important to adhere to with this method), tamp down the coffee with the tamper, affix the basket to the machine, and then press the brew button (or switch). When your espresso cup is filled at the level you want, turn off the brewing process and enjoy! Many other methods: many believe that there are just a few acceptable methods to make coffee. Those we previously listed on this page are generally the more common ones, but coffee is made around the world in many, many other ways, as well. Other methods include • Filling a cloth “sock” with ground coffee and pouring over the coffee in it and into a cup or dipping the sock into hot water and letting it steep • Simply pouring hot water directly into the grounds in a cup (you can mix with a spoon or not), removing the grounds still floating at the top, if any, and sipping at the top, avoiding reaching the grounds at the bottom of the cup. • Doing a pour over, but with a kitchen paper towel or cloth (such as a dinner napkin) in a funnel instead of a paper filter in a cone. Other tips: • Always use clean, filtered/pure drinking water • For filter machines and moka pot methods, always start with cool water, that then gets heated during the brewing process. • For the pour-over methods, employ a slow and steady pour of hot water in a spiral motion from the center outwards to thoroughly saturate all the coffee grounds evenly, which ensures optimal extraction. • Some trial and error are to be expected when experimenting with new brew methods. Everyone’s taste preference varies, so don’t be afraid to adjust the grind or amount of coffee to suit your palette. HAPPY BREWING!