How to make a good cup of coffee?


one day i need to find you at AMK and rob your hou-... i mean. meet up for a nice cup of coffee ;p

Admit it. You just wanna steal my lenses, then take my coffee too. :P
 

Admit it. You just wanna steal my lenses, then take my coffee too. :P

When that aroma wafts through the house.... aaaaaaaah. :heart:

:bheart: you broke my heart dude...

the aroma. i can... just imagine it. by the way i think there's still this old school coffee grinder at balestier.
 

:bheart: you broke my heart dude...

the aroma. i can... just imagine it. by the way i think there's still this old school coffee grinder at balestier.

And fresh roasteries too, near newton. But not too good though.

Personally, I love grinding the beans just before brewing. Best aroma ever!
 

as with any good food, it start with good and fresh ingredient.
Probably the coffee that you have been drinking comes from stale coffee beans or grind.

The volatile compound that gives the coffee its aroma and taste reacts with oxygen it comes in contact with. This is why if you see in some of the cafe immediately extract the coffee after it is just grinded thus minimizing contact with air.

1. best if you can get fresh roasted coffee beans and grind it just before you start making coffee. To check for freshness, you can gently squeeze the bag and smell the escaping gas from its degassing valve. It should have a strong and pungent coffee aroma. Looking at the manufactured date should also be a good indicator.
2. Get a coffee bean grinder
3. Either a simple drip brewer or a french press will do.....google for how to best brew coffee using either one.
 

Last edited:
And fresh roasteries too, near newton. But not too good though.

Personally, I love grinding the beans just before brewing. Best aroma ever!

you got the name and address of the roasteries near newton? I would like to try some myself. Thank you. :)
 

yes yes... the smell is so good. i'm imagining it now. brings back old memories :D
 

I tried many different brands including blue mountain but none has the ooomph to make me stay alert. I think it must be the way I prepare the coffee. Is there any way to prepare it so that the coffee smell and taste good. Also what brand of coffee are you drinking?

There are basically two main types of beans regardless of brand. Arabica and Robusta. Google for which is the better one. Each region due to its weather and soil will also produce different characteristic coffee bean regardless the type of bean. Google for different region of coffee bean produced and their characteristic. Countries like Ethiopia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Colombia...etc.

The coffee grind that you bought probably are either the straights or the blend....which you probably already know.
 

There are basically two main types of beans regardless of brand. Arabica and Robusta. Google for which is the better one. Each region due to its weather and soil will also produce different characteristic coffee bean regardless the type of bean. Google for different region of coffee bean produced and their characteristic. Countries like Ethiopia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Colombia...etc.

The coffee grind that you bought probably are either the straights or the blend....which you probably already know.

Thanks for replicating your googled info here. You can't google smell and tastes. I am seeking personal experiences on making aromatic coffee.

Do you happen to work for google? My fav search engine is Yahoo and I don't use gmail, google talk, etc. :)
 

Last edited:
I tried many different brands including blue mountain but none has the ooomph to make me stay alert. I think it must be the way I prepare the coffee. Is there any way to prepare it so that the coffee smell and taste good. Also what brand of coffee are you drinking?

You are not after a good cup of coffee... you are after one which keeps you up.

Coffee has 3 general qualities which will make them differ from one and another. Firstly, there is the body, then the aroma and lastly the acidity.

Each type of beans has their own qualities. For e.g. I like Columbia Supremo (from tcc) and the body is strong, the acidity is low and the aroma is strong enough. But this will not make it any better than the others for keeping me awake.

A double shot of expresso may be only slightly better than the above mentioned due to the fact that it has twice the amount of caffiene.

That said, I am more or less immune to the effects of the caffiene and even a triple shot latte doesn't keep me up at all.


As for the quality of the brew, grind your own beans (find one which you prefer) Go sniff the bags (there is a small valve opening) and you can check out which aroma you prefer.

Test out the coffee at the shops and see if you like the taste.

Buy a GOOD burr grinder (as opposed to a blade grinder) as the blade type will generate un-necessary heat and spoil the coffee.

Drink the coffee freshly brewed and you'll enjoy the experience better. :)
 

You are not after a good cup of coffee... you are after one which keeps you up.

Drink the coffee freshly brewed and you'll enjoy the experience better. :)

I am hyper sensitive to cafeine so is not really looking for one to perk me up by the cafeine effect. The powder always smell so fresh and power but after making the drink, lacks the punch. I want my cuppa to retain the aroma and with every sip, feel the strong thick lava slides down the throat. And better still leaves a strong coffee after taste when you say ahhh...

maybe I do need to grind my own coffee.

Anyone knows where to buy a portable conical burr grinder or is there a manual hand grinder that you can bring everywhere you go.
 

Last edited:
For a good cup of coffee, the hot water added must be freshly boiled.
 

I am hyper sensitive to cafeine so is not really looking for one to perk me up by the cafeine effect. The powder always smell so fresh and power but after making the drink, lacks the punch. I want my cuppa to retain the aroma and with every sip, feel the strong thick lava slides down the throat. And better still leaves a strong coffee after taste when you say ahhh...

maybe I do need to grind my own coffee.

Anyone knows where to buy a portable conical burr grinder or is there a manual hand grinder that you can bring everywhere you go.

manual ones are mainly blade type. As for portable burr grinder, I'm not very sure. Gotta look around for it though.

If you're talking about the punch, mebbe you can try it the old cowboy style... use a coffee sock and leave it over a open fire. :bsmilie:

Back to reality, I would say that a siphon brewed cup may give you a slight edge in the enjoyment if you are in it for the taste. And look for one with a stronger aroma and body. :)
 

For a good cup of coffee, the hot water added must be freshly boiled.

Thanks. My office boy said the same.


manual ones are mainly blade type. As for portable burr grinder, I'm not very sure. Gotta look around for it though.

If you're talking about the punch, mebbe you can try it the old cowboy style... use a coffee sock and leave it over a open fire. :bsmilie:

Back to reality, I would say that a siphon brewed cup may give you a slight edge in the enjoyment if you are in it for the taste. And look for one with a stronger aroma and body. :)

great information! Couldn't have found this if I googled. Thanks.

I think I need to go work in a coffee shop just to acquired the act of brewing coffee.

BTW, do I need to roast the beans before grinding...:)
 

Last edited:
Another few more things to note.

If you drink coffee with sugar, consider getting the raw sugar, i.e. the brownish, un-refined type. It helps in the taste too.

Also, pre-warm your cup first. A hot coffee meeting a cold cup will reduce in temp pretty fast, and thereby losing the oomph.

This is why the old-timers in coffee shops will dip the whole cup in hot water first. :)
 

u guys heard of kopi luwak ?

"it is the world's most expensive and low-production coffee. It is made from the beans of coffee berries which have been eaten by the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) and other related civets, then passed through its digestive tract.[1] A civet eats the berries for their fleshy pulp. In its stomach, proteolytic enzymes seep into the beans, making shorter peptides and more free amino acids. Passing through a civet's intestines the beans are then defecated, keeping their shape. After gathering, thorough washing, sun drying, light roasting and brewing, these beans yield an aromatic coffee with much less bitterness, widely noted as the most expensive coffee in the world."

i heard 313 got 1 cafe serving $28 per cup. anyone wanna try? i will try while i'm still living.
 

Last edited:
Try asking Kato. He might lend you his State-of-the-Art coffee maker. It makes a leaf shape on the top as well :D
 

first, coffee bean must be eaten by civet cat. next, cat must poop. then u take the bean that went through poop to make coffee

u guys heard of kopi luwak ?

"it is the world's most expensive and low-production coffee. It is made from the beans of coffee berries which have been eaten by the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) and other related civets, then passed through its digestive tract.[1] A civet eats the berries for their fleshy pulp. In its stomach, proteolytic enzymes seep into the beans, making shorter peptides and more free amino acids. Passing through a civet's intestines the beans are then defecated, keeping their shape. After gathering, thorough washing, sun drying, light roasting and brewing, these beans yield an aromatic coffee with much less bitterness, widely noted as the most expensive coffee in the world."

i heard 313 got 1 cafe serving $28 per cup. anyone wanna try? i will try while i'm still living.

So this civet cat thingy is real. And I thot Allenleonhart is being funny. :) But isn't civet cat the cause of SARS? I'll pass. There are some things that one no need to try even though it might be a delicacy.
 

Civet cat coffee beans is treated and roasted before brewing so its perfectly safe to drink lah. Just weird/strange/potentially disgusting to be consuming literally faeces of an animal.

The cheapest hassle-free way of coffee preparation is using a french press or vietnamese phin (drip filter) method. U can get a vietnamese drip filter at liang court "Trung Nguyen Coffee"... just $5.00 and can use any of your favourite bean or bean combi. Just make sure it's french press grind.

However, some people don't like drip filter method as coffee temperature decreases quite a bit.

If i'm not mistakened "Trung Nguyen" is actually owned by Singaporeans. :sweat:
 

Last edited:
Back
Top