For moms, the highlight of our day can be enjoying a hot cup of coffee. Whether you like yours first thing in the morning, before the kids are up or you are an afternoon java lover, coffee is a tasty friend that’s best enjoyed piping hot and made the correct way. We often hold our coffee up to the world’s most popular coffee retailer, Starbucks, and with good reason. With locations all across the globe, Starbucks has made it’s mark with it’s array of coffee blends and brews. When we want a treat, we tend to find ourselves stopping by Starbucks to meet our coffee urges (confession: I’m writing this from a Starbucks right now!). But if you find regular trips to your local coffee shop to be too pricey and time consuming, chances are you take your regular coffee at home with dreams of making a copycat at half the price. Here are a few simple tricks to make your coffee taste just as food as Starbucks!
1. Grind Fresh & The Right Way
Connoisseur coffee drinkers all agree that freshly ground coffee will yield the best brew, as opposed to pre-ground batches. As you freshly grind coffee, the grounds are exposed to oxygen and release the flavor and aroma we all know and love, making for a super fresh cup of coffee! There’s a reason why you constantly hear coffee being ground at your local Starbucks! When grinding, make sure you are using the correct method to give you the right size coffee grounds. Flat-bottom filters require a coarser grind, whereas cone filters should use a finer grind.
2. Use Proper Water and Coffee Ratio
One of the quickest ways to mess up coffee is to use an incorrect proportion of water and coffee. Too much coffee means a diluted and bland cup of coffee, while too little often results in a bitter brew. The appropriate mixture is most often 2 tablespoons of coffee for every 6 ounces of water.
3. Choose Water Carefully
As tempting as it is to just use your good old tap water, the water you choose to make your coffee actually has a huge impact on taste. You should always use clean, filtered water. Depending on where you live, tap water may not be the best choice in water so consider buying filtered water especially for coffee if you want that real Starbucks taste.
4. Use Starbucks Coffee Beans
If you already love Starbucks coffee, it makes sense that the easiest way to mimic your favorite barista-made brew is to use Starbucks coffee beans. You can buy all of your favorite roasts and blends from Starbucks stores and even the grocery store. Yes, it’s not as cheap as Folgers, but you are still going to save tons of money by making that bag of beans stretch further than just 3 trips to a Starbucks store (and it’s going to be way better waking up to Starbucks in your cup!).
5. Experiment With Different Brewing Methods
There is no one way to make coffee, as evidenced by the hundreds of coffee makers available for purchase. You can get a very good cup of coffee from a modestly priced coffee pot, or you can try other methods like a French Press, the pour over method or a Chemex. It’s an almost universal belief that coffee made from the coarse grounds used in a French Press yields the most superior cup of coffee. It’s rich, bold and very flavorful. If you like to make your coffee one cup at a time, give the pour over method a try. A Chemex works similarly, and you can’t beat it’s beautiful glass construction that makes you feel fancy just using it.
6.Use Syrups and Milks
I wouldn’t call myself a true coffee drinker because the thought of a black cup of coffee terrifies me. I personally like creamers, syrups or milks to give my coffee the flavor I enjoy and Starbucks knows how to dress up a coffee. If you like your hazelnut skinny lattes, get yourself some special syrups and try out different milk options to get the taste you’re looking for! You can buy syrups at stores like BevMo and choose from dairy milks, soy or nut milks to meet your coffee needs. You’ll be on your way to making mochas, lattes and frappuccinos in no time!
Happy Brewing!
Karly Wood
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