Improving your coffee experience
I am very picky about how my coffee is prepared. I roast my own coffee. I am a coffee geek. It is very hard to get decent coffee in Finland. The standard coffee smells sour, tastes sour and is generally undrinkable. Thus I have to make it at home. Like any decent coffee geek I have a french press and a hand-mill (Hario Skerton). There are some things you have to think about if you want to improve your coffee experience:
Use fresh beans
This is the most important factor of all. If you don’t have fresh beans you cannot make good coffee. With fresh beans I mean beans that have been roasted less than 1 month ago.Minimize exposure to air
Try to minimize the time between grinding the beans and brewing. I would start by boiling the water and when the water is to boil start grinding the beans.Try different variations
Don’t always use the same kind of coffee. Try some exotic African or Indonesian coffees. Adjust the grind setting, brew time, temperature, etc.Roast your own beans
This will bring you into a new world. There are so many more variables that you can adjust if you roast your own coffee. Also it is much cheaper to buy green beans than roasted beans. Although it takes some work it is well worth it.