How to Make Coffee Taste Good

To make delicious coffee, the beans must be freshly roasted.

During the coffee roasting, there are many important compounds created due to a reaction between proteins and sugars. They are responsible for the coffee taste and aroma.

2 weeks after roasting, coffee quality starts to lower. After two months the taste becomes more even and less expressive. To prepare tasty coffee, you need to use the beans in the first two months after roasting.

However, too fresh coffee for making espresso is not very good. For any other method, the bean can be used the day after roasting. But if you are making espresso coffee, you should let the beans "rest" for at least 5 days after roasting.

Coffee is almost 99% water, so it is important to make it suitable for coffee.

The chemical composition of water is not only H2O, but also various salts and minerals. For coffee, the content of these substances shouldn’t be too high. The content of minerals and salts is called the mineralization of water.

Coffee on water with low mineralization acquires a sharp and bitter taste. And coffee on water with high mineralization – flat taste with notes of paper in it. The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) recommends brewing mineralization of water that equals 75-175 mg/l. It is believed that the ideal level of mineralization is 100 mg/l.

In addition to mineralization, it is important that the pH level is between 6.5 and 8.

Fresh coffee exhales very quickly. To slow down this process, it must be stored in suitable packaging and not for too long.

The ideal packaging for coffee is an opaque tight bag with a degassing valve and a zip lock. Such a package protects the grain from sunlight and contact with air. At the same time, the valve helps to remove carbon dioxide, and the zip lock helps to open and close the bag many times.

The ideal shelf life for coffee is one to two weeks, month is also acceptable. If you need to keep coffee fresh longer, you can put it in the freezer. Coffee can be stored in the freezer for up to six months, but it can only be defrosted once. After defrosting, you need to drink it during 1-2 weeks.

Quality grinding should be uniform. If the size of coffee particles in one serving of grinding varies from very small to large, the taste of coffee is unpredictable. Perfectly uniform grinding does not exist, so it is important that the variation in particle size is as small as possible.

A dirty coffee maker or coffee grinder will nullify all efforts. Dried essential oils or ground coffee left in the grinder channel and into the serving will turn the coffee rancid.

In good coffee shops, coffee grinders are cleaned daily, and coffee machines twice a day. The equipment is cleaned with water, brushes, brushes and special cleaning agents.

Coffee requires maximum precision in preparation, and scales are one of the main tools that help with this. Scales help accurately understand the reasons for bad or good coffee.

You need to weigh both the beans and the water for both alternative method and the espresso. Scales will help you maintain the proportions of 60 grams per liter for an alternative and 17–20 grams for a double espresso.


Mr. Viet produces real Vietnamese coffee. Mr. Viet coffee beans are expertly roasted in Dalat region, Vietnam. We carefully select and control coffee roasting in order to get tasty and balanced coffee. We produce it in accordance with all the traditions of Vietnam. Follow us to learn more about coffee and Vietnamese coffee culture!