Most people give far less attention to brewing coffee that they do when cooking dinner and as a result they get a so-so cup of coffee.  Brewing coffee is a type of cooking and the finished coffee reflects the quality and freshness of its ingredients; coffee and water. The secret of great coffee lies in the blend, the grind, the freshness of the bean and the coffee maker.   You can brew just as good a cup of coffee as any coffee shop if you follow a few rules.

1. Fresh roasted coffee is the main ingredient to brewing a good cup of coffee.  Packaged roasted coffee beans remain fresh for only 3 months before becoming stale. Freshly roasted coffee is your best choice.   Buy your coffee in beans and not ground.  Coffee starts to lose its flavor when the coffee bean is ground.  This is similar to cutting a fresh apple and after a few hours, the apple meat is turning brown.  People have been known to store your coffee in a air-tight container (smallest one) and place it in the freezer. This is not necessary and you may find that the coffee stored in a freezer may have a freezer burn taste and weak.  Coffee will stay fresh in an air tight container for months and kept in a cool dark place. Store the coffee in the back of a kitchen cabinet away from any area where heat is generated  There is no proof that keeping coffee in the refrigerator or freezer will kept the coffee fresher.  If you do not want to keep the coffee in the original package, a glass canning jar is a good choice.    Invest in a grinder.  They are not expensive and worth every penny.  A drum grinder is better that a blade grinder.  A drum grinder will grind the coffee equally.  The blade grinder chops the coffee and the coffee grounds are not equally proportion.  The size of the coffee  grounds does make a difference.

2. Ninety-eight percent of every cup of coffee is water.  The taste of the coffee is related to the taste of the water.  Avoid distilled or softened  water, which won't properly extract flavor from the grounds.  As for coffee filters, the gold cups are the best and are not expensive.  You will never need to buy coffee filters again.  Avoid the natural, brown filters because the coffee may pick up a woodsy taste.  Coffee made in a french press is becoming very popular in the coffee drinkers’ world.  The coffee is brewed fresh, the press is portable and easy to clean.  

 3.  Measure! Measure! Measure!  

 For a good cup of coffee, you must have  the correct ratio of coffee to water.   It is not hard and after you brew a few pots of coffee,   The measuring will be natural.  The formula is 2 tablespoons of coffee to 6 oz. of water for  medium/bold coffee taste.  For strong coffee or for recipes that call for strong coffee, use 2 tablespoons to 4 oz. of water.  The type of coffee should be considered when measuring the coffee.  South American coffee is strong in taste than Pacific Rim/African coffee.  One scoop of Columbian coffee may be equal in strengthen to two scoops of Indonesia Sumatra.   Today's coffee pots have the cups markings, so it is easy to measure the correct cups of water.  This may be too strong for some, so after the first pot, you can adjust the ratio of coffee and water the next time. 

Weak Coffee

                 Didn't use enough coffee, coffee was too coarsely ground or the coffee was not brewed long enough.

Bitter Coffee

                    Too little coffee, too finely ground, coffee was cooked or has been sitting on the burner too long.

When the pot has finished brewing, let the coffee sit in the pot for a few seconds before pouring and let each cup sit for 10-15 seconds.  This will allow the coffee to settle down and build up its body and aroma.  Heated coffee starts to lose its flavor after 60 minutes.

The finer the grind, the stronger the flavor.