How to Make Decent Coffee at Work
Screw those Starbucks lattes! You can make delicious joe with the beat-up old Mr. Coffee in the break room. Here are the four key elements for brewing your own tasty cuppa:
1. Beans Buy freshly roasted whole beans and grind before each use. If you must make do with subpar grounds, add an extra tablespoon per cup (this will cut down on over-extraction of flavor throughout the grind, thus avoiding MOST of the bitter, acidy taste). Store coffee in an airtight container in a cool, dark place (not the fridge).
2. Water Coffee oil residue produces that familiar rancid tang, so rinse the machine thoroughly with hot water after each use. Also, wet the paper filter under the tap before you add the grounds, and Brew with cold, purified water for better flavor.
3. Vinegar Eliminate hard-water deposits: Once a month, add 8 ounces of white vinegar to the water reservoir and run the coffee-maker (sans filter) until half the liquid is in the pot. Switch off and let stand for an hour. Dump the vinegar, then run the machine twice with water only.
4. Remove From Heat As soon as the brew cycle is finished, turn the coffee maker off and quickly transfer fresh coffee into an insulated carafe for serving. Doing so will provide hot coffee with a fresh flavor for hours. Leaving the coffee on the heat will produce a strong burned flavor after about 15 minutes.
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Photo Credit: Condé Nast Digital Studio
