Brewing 101

Brewing Coffee the Terra Verde Way


You have tasted how rich and delicious Terra Verde’s coffees are, now you are ready to enjoy them at your home, office, or wherever. But in order to have the full experience, you must brew the coffee correctly.
Your decision to follow all or any of these instructions will depend on your desire, and love of fantastic coffee. Remember, we are coffee fanatics at Terra Verde, so we treat our coffee with the same passion that it is grown with.


Water

If you do not have a coffee brewer that is connected to a water line or you use a non-commercial brewer, well you need to get one… No, it’s not actually required, so you can still achieve a delicious cup of coffee before you head out the door. Coffee is 99% water and 1% deliciousness, so it is important to always use good water. You can: buy 5 gallon water coolers from a local hardware store or attach a Brita filter to your faucet. At your shop, office, or church buy an inline filter for your commercial coffee maker.

IMPORTANT! Your water brewing temperature needs to be at least 190ᵒF coming out of the machine. If it is cooler, then your machine needs servicing, or you need a better one. Water over 200ᵒF, especially boiling water is also NOT desirable. It will scald the oils in the coffee producing a metallic burnt flavor. Use a clean, instant read thermometer to check the temperature.


COFFEE MEASUREMENTS

The quantity of coffee you use to brew your coffee is as important as the grind.
The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) has guidelines for water to coffee ratios. All the coffee ratios are measured in weight and not volume. Why? A measuring cup of medium roast coffee will weigh more than measuring cup of dark roast coffee! The darker the bean, the less moisture it contains and the lighter it is. So, weigh your coffee whenever possible.

However as a very general rule:
Light to medium roasts: 1 level measuring cup of coffee = 2.75 oz. ground coffee.
Mt. water Decaf: 1 level measuring cup of coffee = 2.5 oz. ground coffee.
Dark or french roasts: 1 level measuring cup of coffee = 2 oz. ground coffee.

Below are our recommendations, but feel free to adjust to taste. We doubt you will want to add more coffee, you might need a little less.

DRIP BREWERS: (BUNN, FETCO, NEWCO, GRINDMASTER, CURTIS)

Home Brewer:

60 ounces of brewed coffee (12 cup pot) = 2-2.5 oz. of coffee
Commercial coffee brewer (Bunn glass bottom decanter):
66 ounces of brewed coffee (12 cup pot) = 1.75-2 oz. of coffee
Commercial airpot brewer:
76 ounces (2.2 liter) of brewed coffee = 3.75-4 ounces of coffee

Commercial thermal brewer:

• 1 gallon = 7.5 ounces of coffee
• 1.5 gallon = 11 ounces of coffee
• 3 gallon = 20 ounces of coffee

Percolator:

• (50 cup): 14-16 ounces of coffee
• (100 cup): 24-28 ounces of coffee


GRINDING COFFEE

Whenever possible, grind your own beans. Coffee stays fresh longer in whole bean form.
There are two types of grinders, a blade grinder and burr grinder. Blade grinders cut the coffee, so you will find that your coffee grinds are of different sizes (bad!). Burr grinders are adjustable and give you a much more accurate grind (good!).
Percolators and french press need the coarsest possible grind so that the grinds do not fall through the metal tray into your coffee, and so you do not over extract the coffee.

Drip Brewers need a medium grind, often called a #4 grind. At Terra Verde Coffeehouse we call this house or regular grind.