If you buy coffee out every day, you’ve probably noticed your latte or cold brew is getting pricier.
The latest inflation report shows coffee prices are nearly 19% higher than a year ago. But these days, it’s possible and cheaper to make a tasty cup of joe in your own kitchen.
Buying whole beans has the best value for at-home brewing, said James Hoffmann, author of the books “How to Make the Best Coffee at Home” and “The World Atlas of Coffee.” He also has a YouTube channel all about coffee.
“If you can invest just a little bit one time in a grinder that’s going to unlock coffee brewing for you, you’ll be able to brew better, buy more variety, get better value for money, and it makes coffee a whole heap of fun,” Hoffman said. “The smell of freshly ground coffee is one of life’s greatest pleasures, and I think everybody deserves that in their kitchen in the morning.”
How to brew coffee at home, according to James Hoffman
What makes for a good coffee bean?
“The obvious answer is coffee that you enjoy first and foremost. So that’s the most important thing. I’m never going to advocate for someone to drink a coffee they don’t like. But in terms of what is good, I would say probably coffee that comes from a distinct place. So it has some traceability; generally speaking, that’s a pretty good ethical shortcut outside of the traditional certifications. So in much of the world, that might be a single estate or a group of producers, but I would say better coffees, so to speak, tend to come from more traceable, transparent places. If you have no idea where the coffee you’re drinking is coming from, or if you just know the origin and not sort of the specifics, then there may be better coffee available.”
Why does the roasting date matter?
“Coffee is fresh food. And I think for a long time we’ve all been conditioned not to think of it as fresh food. It is perfectly good to drink for a very, very long time, but it’s not delicious for a very, very long time. So freshness is key, and you’ll get a better coffee experience if your coffee is fresher.
“Generally speaking, I would say you want to be buying a bag for the best experience within two, three, maybe four weeks of it being roasted. A lot of the time, grocery stores can have older coffee on the shelves, and so grocery stores aren’t always the best place compared to, say, a good local neighborhood coffee shop. Or certainly, coffee online is very accessible and that’s often shipped the day after roasting.”
So if it’s within a few weeks of roasting for freshness, when should you finish the bag by?
“I would say you want to be buying something within three, four weeks max, and then using it within another three or four weeks maximum. That’s whole bean and coffee lasts a lot longer as a whole bean.
“Once you grind coffee, it’s a very different story, and to some extent, if you’re buying it pre-ground, the best is already gone. You’ll see a real big drop in flavor within 24 to 48 hours after you grind coffee. Certainly, by a week, you’ve just lost a lot of flavor and you’re starting to generate some less enjoyable flavors. So yeah, this is why people like me tend to preach about getting a coffee grinder because that unlocks so much in terms of value for money as well as better brewing at home.”
How can you make the most of pre-ground coffee?
“If you want it pre-ground, get a good local coffee shop to grind it for you for how you’re going to make the coffee.
“You need a different size of grind for different brew methods. So if you are using a classic little coffee machine at home, that’ll need something different to say, a mock-up pot or a stove-top coffee maker. If you buy just one bag of pre-ground, that’s a kind of generic grind size that’s not really perfect for anything. It’s kind of okay in everything.
“But a good local coffee shop, you can say, I want to use it like this. And they’ll help dial in your grind for you, and you’ll have a better experience. And I would also say, you’re kind of losing out on value anyway. A bag of ground coffee costs the same as a bag of the beans, but the beans taste better for longer.
“I wouldn’t be chasing value for money by trying to buy bulk, either. Buy smaller amounts; you’ll have a better experience.”
How do I look for a coffee grinder?
“What you’re looking for is a burr grinder that is adjustable and built for the brew method that you need. If you’re going to make espresso at home, you need an espresso-capable grinder. It’ll be clearly sold as such; they cost a little bit more money ’cause you’ve gotta grind a little finer. You need a more powerful motor inside that grinder. If you’re just grinding for drip, pour over, those kind of things, then those grinders can be a little bit cheaper. But you need a set of burrs, not a kind of whirly blade grinder. They’re not the best for coffee. You can’t control the size of your grinds. But with a burr grinder, it’s adjustable. And for different brew methods, you can use the appropriate grind size.”
What types of coffee can you make at home?
“There’s not really a lot of bad options here. It’s really about the kind of coffee you want to drink. If you like drip coffee, then a small domestic drip maker; they’re getting pretty good now. The cheapest of the cheap aren’t the best. They don’t have consistent brewing temperatures. They’re not bad. They’re just not as good as they could be. There are now for a little bit more money, some better options out there, but drip is perfectly acceptable as a great way to make coffee at home. If you want to brew a pour-over, that’s great. If you want to brew a French press also excellent. If you want a bit more strength and kind of richness in the coffee, then something like a stove-top, mocha pot-style brewer is also great. Ultimately, there’s no perfect or correct answer. It’s about the style of coffee you want to drink, and then you know what you want to enjoy and how you want to make it.”
How do you make coffee at home?
“I have all of the options here at work, so at home, I have a very minimal setup.
“We have everything in the world here, but at home, I just have a sort of pour-over style setup. I just drink drip coffee, something simple, something easy to make. I have a little steepen release brewer I quite like, so it’s like a pour over except the water won’t come out of the bottom until you tell it to. Makes a very delicious coffee very easily.”
And with coffee prices where they are now, is this an exciting moment for you to talk about it?
“Oh, I think it’s great value for money and it has been for a good long time to make coffee at home. And I think we saw huge growth in coffee at home during COVI,D when suddenly we couldn’t go to the coffee shop. It was taken away from us, and we brought coffee into the home in a different sort of way and engaged with it a lot more. I think we do still really value the coffee shop experience, and I think it’s important to remember that the cost of raw coffee are going up.
“There’s challenges with tariffs, but ultimately, most of the cost of drinking a coffee out is the overhead of running the business rather than the raw material itself. I’m very pro the cafe. I love to spend time in the coffee shop, but if you do want to drink great coffee at home, it’s great value for money.”
Do you add anything to your coffee?
“Not for me. I’m not arguing, it’s not delicious, but for me, it’s harder to taste the characteristics that the coffee has due to where it was grown and who grew it, and how it was processed. It’s just harder to taste those nuances with cream or with sugar in there. But, you know, it’s still a delicious thing when you add something to it.”
What is espresso?
“Espresso is a small, strong cup of coffee brewed under high pressure from finely ground coffee. So when you do it this way, you’ll tend to get a layer of sort of red, brown foam sat on top of the coffee. The Italians called this crema. And in that process, you can get then a very, very strong cup of coffee and that’s the kind of espresso experience. That then makes a great kind of flavor base for cappuccinos, lattes, all the other drinks.”
Are there reasonably good options to make an espresso at home?
“There are some great options, but I think the important sort of caveat, the thing to note is that while equipment’s pretty easy to acquire, it’s come down in price. The process of making espresso still kind of requires you want to have a hobby.
This interview was edited for clarity.
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Julia Corcoran produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Michael Scotto. Allison Hagan adapted it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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