I learned a valuable tip for making good coffee this morning. I got the cannister of coffee from the top-rated coffee club off the shelf. (For various reasons, I no longer keep coffee beans in the freezer as I once did.) These were freshly roasted beans from New Guinea. I used the long-handled scoop that I keep tucked in the cannister. I have used this scoop for decades, and I am confident of the scoops of coffee beans to water ratio for my brewing techniques.

I took the top off my top-rated burr coffee grinder and put in the desired amount of coffee. I turned on the grinder, which is set to grind according to its display for 28.7 seconds. (I am a bit suspicious of a device that lets me set by the tenth of seconds.) Meanwhile, I got fresh water in the pitcher I keep next to my top-rated coffee maker and poured the desired amount of liquid into the aforementioned top-rated coffee machine.

I then got a coffee filter from the shelf. These are basket filters required by my top-rated coffee maker because, according to every knowledgeable coffee maker (or at least the manufacturer of my top-rated coffee machine) a basket filter allows for a more even and complete extraction of coffee from the beans than a cone filter. I put the filter and the basket holding it on top of the carafe of my top-rated coffee machine, placed them in the appropriate place for my top-rated machine, and turned the maker on.

I had previously programmed the machine so that it first “blooms” the ground coffee, an essential step for top-quality coffee I was first instructed about when I did single cup pour over coffee a half century ago. A little bit of water first wets the ground coffee beans to release the full potential of the beans. Then a few moments later, the full brewing takes place.

This top-rated maker, correctly so, does not allow the brew cycle to be interrupted before the cycle’s end. This, I am convinced, will bring out the best quality from the New Guinea beans from the top-rated coffee club. While all the coffee is brewing, I get dressed and do some dishwasher loading.

The top-rated machine’s brewing light turns off. All I need to do now is take the filter basket off the insulated carafe (the carafe is better for keeping the coffee warm because, I have been led to believe by the manufacturer of the top-rated coffee maker, the continual heating by a warming element degrades the freshly brewed coffee) and replace it with the carafe’s top.

It was at this point I learned the tip for the day, which you have perhaps already figured out. The precisely measured New Guinea beans from the top-rated coffee club that have been ground by the top-rated burr grinder for 28.7 seconds must be removed from the grinder’s receptacle and placed in the filter that has been placed in the basket of the top-rated coffee maker before that machine is turned on. Otherwise, you get, as I did, a carafe of hot water and a wet filter with nothing in it. And you learn, as I did, how disappointed you are when you are ready for the first cup of top-rated coffee, and it is not ready because of your own ineptitude.

[For a related post on this blog, see “The Barista is Not an Essential Worker” posted July 15, 2020.]