This Simple Trick Makes Better Coffee, Study Says

One step helps you get the most out of your beans.
This Simple Trick Makes Better Coffee, Study Says
If you grind your own coffee beans, there’s a simple trick to getting the best flavor from them: adding just a drop or two of water before grinding. Dreamstime/TNS
Tribune News Service
Updated:
0:00
By Ebony Williams From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A great cup of coffee starts with delicious beans, minimum grounds and the perfect brewing temperature. And, according to a new study from the University of Oregon, it involves getting the most from your beans.

If you grind your own coffee beans, there’s a simple trick to getting the best flavor from them: adding just a drop or two of water before grinding. And if you don’t grind your own beans, well, you should start.

Story continues below advertisement

The revelation of this perfect brew trick came from cleaning coffee grinders.

“Dust comes out of the grinder; it’s like a plume that covers everything,” explained study coauthor Christopher Hendon, an associate professor of computational materials chemistry at the University of Oregon. “But if you add a little water, it seems not to go everywhere. It’s cleaner.”

While Hendon and his colleagues were looking for ways to keep the grinder and its surroundings clean, they noticed that adding a small amount of water into the grinder—also known as the Ross droplet technique—also has an effect on the grinding process.

“If you add a sufficient amount of water, you can also remove the formation of the clumps,” he explained. “You will, in principle, achieve higher extractions or less waste. That’s exactly what this does because you’re now providing more available surface area for the same amount of water.”

Of course, each bean is different, so there’s no clear-cut way to measure the amount of water you should add to your grinder. But with a little trial and error, you may be able to increase flavor extraction by 10 percent.

Story continues below advertisement

“What I would recommend for the home user is to start with a single drop of water and build up from there—there is a substantial amount of nuance in this process,” Hendon said.

Copyright 2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Dear Readers: We would love to hear from you. What topics would you like to read about? Please send your feedback and tips to features@epochtimes.nyc
Related Topics