Ever wonder why your favorite coffee shop brew tastes so much better than your homemade cup? It’s not just magic – it’s science alongside a few expert tricks. We sat down with two of Pittsburgh’s finest baristas, TJ from Commonplace Coffee and Matt Marietti from De Fer Coffee & Tea, to unlock the secrets of brewing the best possible cup right in your own kitchen. From demystifying equipment to perfecting your grind and selecting the ideal beans, they’re sharing everything you need to transform your morning ritual. The two even discuss some personal tips only true coffee pros know. Get ready to elevate your home coffee game and save a buck by skipping the coffee shop every now and then.
How to Brew the Best Cup of Coffee at Home
TJ from Commonplace Coffee’s Tips
What’s Your Go-To Way to Brew Coffee at Home?
I love using the AeroPress brewer at home. You don’t need some of the extra gear, which means it’s less of a heavy upfront cost. Plus, it is so easy to take camping or on a bicycle trip. All you really need is a grinder and hot water.
How Do You Grind Your Beans?
As long as there is a burr set that the coffee travels through, it is likely going to do a good job of creating proper surface area for the water to extract solubles from. The key to grinding is to align the particle size with the contact time between water and coffee.
What Water Should You Use?
The water should have some layer of purification to address taste, odor, and chlorine. If you are brewing espresso you will want to have a deeper conversation around what the mineral content in the water is. There is such a delicate balance between needing minerals for extraction while wanting to have limited mineral content for the boiler (as the water temp gets a bit higher in the espresso machine).
What Beans Should You Buy?
The best coffee beans are those that have been carefully nurtured at every stage of the value chain. This means from the trees they grew on and the environment they thrived in, to the ripeness at harvest, the method of processing, grading, and sorting. Their journey—from origin to transport, roasting, and finally, to the precise extraction of flavor—if done with care results in the best bean. The finest beans tell a story, one of sustainability for those who cultivated them and of a meaningful experience for those who savor the final cup.
How Do You Take Your Coffee at Home?
I like to start my day with a cappuccino—it’s a perfect showcase for the barista’s craft. I also enjoy drip coffee, without additives, as it honors the work of the producers at every step of the coffee’s journey.
Matt Maretti from De Fer Coffee & Tea’s Tips
What’s Your Go-To Way to Brew Coffee at Home?
For a relaxing, thoughtful cup of coffee on a weekend, I prefer a Chemex. It’s a timeless design, looks awesome on the shelf, and comes in several sizes. I have a three-cup size and a six-cup size. Both of these use Chemex’s bonded paper, which is very thick and filters out most fine particles and many oils, for a very clean cup.
I like this brew method best for lighter, brighter coffees where you’re hoping to taste the interesting fruity and floral notes intrinsic in light, higher-end coffee. If I have family or friends over and have to serve more than a few people, I stick with a trusty Hamilton Beach drip coffee maker. In fact, it’s one that was a Wirecutter recommendation about eight years ago when I bought it for $50. Home brewers have exploded in variety, price, and the features they offer. I can’t speak to many of those. But for a nice bold cup of chocolate-y medium roast coffee from Central or South America, I think most basic brewers available these days do a great job. I think the grinder and the coffee are ultimately more important than the brew method.
I also like to recommend a french press for people who like bold coffee with big body. Nearly any medium or dark coffee with a fine to medium grind will turn out well if steeped for four minutes. I like to grind finer than most people for a french press as I don’t mind a slightly cloudy cup if it’s flavor I’m going for.
How Do You Grind Your Beans?
I rarely make coffee at home, so I typically use a Varia brand hand grinder. It has a nice set of burrs and is easy to use. A lot of our team uses and recommends Baratza Encore or Baratza Virtuoso for automatic home grinders. Both work super well and come with great customer service. Plus, they last for a long time. We sell quite a few of them in-store.
An important thing to remember is to make sure you’re grinding pretty close to when you’re brewing the coffee, while also ensuring that your coffee is not TOO fresh. Coffee stays full of CO2 after roasting and slowly degasses for the weeks and months afterward. When water comes in contact with the coffee, that CO2 comes out (in the form of bubbles) and the water flows through the coffee as a result, failing to dissolve the organic compounds that will make the coffee taste great.
Under-extracted coffee is astringent, thin, and bitter. So those bubbles you’re seeing when you’re making a pour-over? Those aren’t necessarily what you want to see. The way around that is to make sure your coffee is at least 5-7 days off the roast and if you’re making a pour-over, pour a small volume of water onto the bed of beans and let it sit for about 30 seconds before continuing. This is called the “bloom” and it should get that locked up CO2 out of there so your coffee is now ready to be extracted properly.
What Water Should You Use?
A few of my team members (and super coffee nerds i know) use distilled water with the addition of crucial minerals in the form of a specially-formulated mineral pack you dissolve into the water before heating it. The main brand for those minerals is Third Wave Water. I just use filtered water from my fridge. You don’t want your water to be “too clean” because the coffee solids need to bond to something to extract. But, I don’t think many of us have to worry about our water being “too clean” in Pittsburgh. Main thing is to make sure you’re removing chlorine with some kind of filtration, but leaving the good stuff.
What Beans Should You Buy?
Ultimately, whichever ones you like the best! I guess I could add, whichever ones you like the best and ideally were farmed, harvested, and processed responsibly. Of course that’s a loaded one but coffee (especially cheap coffee) can be pretty rough on the environment and the people further up the supply chain who create it. The farmers, harvesters, producers should all earn a fair living and not destroy the land for future generations.
I wish I could say there was a silver bullet like “fair trade” or “organic” or “rainforest alliance certified” or “bird friendly.” Those are all great things, but in my opinion, none of them are the only solution. So, choose beans you love, ideally roasted by someone you trust to source them without exploiting anyone along the supply chain. Again, this is much easier said than done. We, as roasters and importers, are still learning what that means and trying to ensure we’re doing that ourselves, every day.
How Do You Take Your Coffee at Home?
Black if it’s good coffee that’s well-roasted. But if I’m somewhere that I know that’s not going to be the case, a dash of cream goes a long way.
Story by Kylie Thomas
Photo Courtesy of Yanal Tayyem
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