Can you make coffee? Apparently there is a right way to do it and I didn’t know it till last month!!!

How have I lived  32 years (shameless referral to my birthday yesterday) and not know the right way to make coffee? Because no one showed me that’s how. Yes I can make coffee with instant granules and I can use the capsule coffee maker. The coffee I’ve been messing up is the filter kind.

Robin and I are BIG COFFEE LOVERS anyone who follows me on Instagram already knows that. I also like to make recipes with coffee like milkshakes and chocolate covered coffee beans.

So when Mastertons invited us to learn about the different ways to brew coffee we jumped at the chance.

Mastertons’ coffee genius Marc Botha showed us that there are four basic ways to make filter coffee (I’m referring to manual non plugged in ways). The most amazing part was that with each brewing technique you get different tasting coffee even when you use the same exact quantity of the same blend. (you can click on the headings to get your own from Mastertons)

One Cup filter

This is the one you might be taking to work with you, it’s usually plastic and fits on top of your cup, using a disposable filter you can make a nice brew right at your desk. Naturally Mastertons goes one step further, their one cup filter is ceramic and is used with a wooden brew stand.

Chemex Coffee Maker

This is the one James Bond uses, BOND! James flippen Bond…when his drinks aren’t shaken or stirred it’s filtered through this beautiful glass coffee maker which would not look out of place as a centerpiece at a fancy brunch. This machine uses a big circle filter that is folded and fit into the top of the glass container.

Aeropress

This nifty little machine makes single cups of coffee. It looks very futuristic and takes 20 seconds to brew. It  uses immersion brewing which results in uniform extraction for full coffee flavour.

French Press

This is one of the most common ways to brew coffee. A glass coffee pot with a plunger which  when used right can give you a amazing home brew (It turns out it’s the one I’ve been  using the most wrong.)

Marc gave me some great tips for making good coffee. You might know these things but I didn’t so just in case…read below:

• When making coffee with disposable filters first wet the filter

I have never done this before now. Wetting the filter makes it stick better to the funnel and makes the whole brewing process easier.

• Wait 30 seconds before adding water from the kettle

Putting boiling water straight onto the coffee grounds burns the grounds and can result in bitter coffee. With this one Marc actually said, “as you know” and quite frankly I did not know, hahaha

• Brew grounds in filter first

By this I mean do not throw water in one go through the filter, first wet the grounds and let it stand a little to brew

• Slow pour your water through the filter

Apparently you are supposed to pour water slowly in a circular motion to extract the best flavour from you blend. Have I been doing this? no , never

• Heat glass containers first

Pour a little hot water into the glass coffee pot and pour it out. This protects glass pots from cracking and keeps your coffee at a nice temperature

• Give your coffee time to brew

When you use a french press, let your coffee sit for 4 minutes before plunging

• Slower is better

When plunging go slow, this results in less grounds in your brew and never do a double plunge

To go with all these awesome tips Mastertons is giving away a great hamper WHOOP WHOOP!!!

You can win a one cup filter and Mastertons filter coffee

I have added a bunch of ways to enter so you have no excuse!!!