#SpillTheBeans: Beginner’s Guide To Brewing The Perfect Coffee From An Expert

A Moka pot is best suited for beginners and it is also the closest to espresso when it comes to manual brewing. You don’t have to worry about the water-to-coffee ratio here as it's a natural measure. The pot will also last you a long time as it's not made of glass. You can add milk to this coffee as well.

How To Use: The pot has three parts; the top, bottom and the funnel. You have to fill the bottom with hot water, the funnel with coffee grounds (level with your fingers, don't tamp) and screw seal the moka pot. Make sure you don’t ground your coffee too fine, as it may cause clogging. Put it on a stove and you'll find that in no time the coffee will start brewing. The gurgling sound is your sign to turn off your stove. 

One of the easiest ways to brew coffee is through a French press. It's such a simple tool that makes excellent coffee. Usually, milk is not added to a coffee brewed through this method. The coffee-to-water ratio is somewhere around 1g:12ml. The coffee is quite watery too. This one's again great for beginners or for people who like black coffee.

How To Use: Add hot water to your French press to ensure that the flask becomes nice and warm, you can remove this water then. The coffee needs to be grounded medium coarse (you'll easily be able to find grounded coffee specifically for French press). Add your coffee grounds, pour in boiling hot water, stir and close the lid. You have to let it brew for exactly four minutes (any longer might result in a bitter taste) and then press it slowly. Coffee's ready, pour and enjoy.

The Pourover method is a little more advanced, it yields a finer taste as the extraction of the coffee is much finer. This method can get quite technical as well. It's best for people who want their coffee a certain way and like the process of making their coffee as much as they like to drink it. You can play around with the coffee-to-water ratio (1g:15.5ml is good to start with). A medium-grind coffee can be used for this.

How To Use: Assemble your pour over kit and pre-wet the filter with hot water, and then you can dump that water out. Add your coffee grounds, and shake them around a little to make sure they're flat. Use piping hot water and start pouring, your first pour needs to be to only let all the coffee grounds wet (usually called blooming) and wait for 30-45 seconds after, pour slowly starting at the centre and going in concentric circles. After pouring, you can give it a very gentle stir. The whole process now should take about 3-5 minutes. Take out the filter paper, pour it into a cup and it's ready to drink.

An Aeropress is where things get a little interesting. It's somewhere between a French press and a pourover coffee. If you're looking to experiment with your coffee, and spend time finding different recipes (there's no standard recipe) then this is probably the tool you should go for. The coffee you get from this method isn’t too watery but isn’t thick either. Note that this tool makes one cup of coffee at a time only.

How To Use: Place the filter on the cap and screw the lid, place that on a cup. Wet the filter and dump the water that has collected in your cup. Place your coffee grounds in the aeropress and fill it with hot water, give it a gentle stir, place the plunger and let it brew for about one and a half to 2 minutes. Slowly start plunging till the end and, you're done.

There are many fancy machines to make an espresso out there, starting at INR 5,000 and going up to a few lakhs for the professional ones. An espresso's coffee-to-water ratio is somewhere around 1g:4ml, which is what makes it so much stronger. Once you master making espresso for yourself, there are many ways to experiment with the type of drink you like, whether it's a latte, cappuccino, iced coffee and more. 

How To Use: Each machine may have different instructions, and these are semi-automatic. The basic way is to add water to the tank is to load your pot with finely ground coffee and tamp it, attach it to the machine and press a button for fresh espresso. Ususally there's a frother attached to aerate and froth milk for hot coffees.

LBB-Tip: Nespresso machines that you keep seeing everywhere are espresso machines, only that you have to add coffee pods (that come in different flavours) instead of grounding fresh coffee.