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When my husband and I were first dating we used to sit up all night and talk over a great cup of coffee. Once we were married and on a tighter budget we quickly learned that we didn't have the cash for those three and five dollar cups of coffee. We stopped by a local kitchen supply store and invested in a good coffee maker as well as a grinder for beans, and the owner of a local coffee shop was kind enough to teach us how to make it ourselves. There are three important ingredients to a great cup of coffee.

Clean Machine:

A clean coffee maker is essential to making great coffee. If your coffee maker is dirty, your coffee will taste dirty. If your coffee maker is old, or you suspect that it is dirty, cleaning it is simple.

A cup of white vinegar and a gallon of distilled water is all you need to spruce it right up. Run the vinegar through the coffee maker first and follow it up with the distilled water. You may want to run a couple of cycles of clear water before you attempt to put the coffee maker back in use. The vinegar is going to break up the mineral deposits in your machine.

Fresh Coffee Beans:

Great coffee starts with great coffee beans. Great coffee beans do not have to be expensive, but they do need to be fresh and well cared for.

Coffee grows from a plant, which means it has an expiration date. You want to buy coffee in an airtight bag and check the freshness date on the package, the fresher the better.

Check the freshness date even in a pricey coffee shop, and paid fifteen dollars for a pound of coffee only to find stale beans when I arrived home. You can spot a stale bean very quickly it will look dry and it will not smell fresh.

I have ordered directly from coffee roasters and purchased at specialty stores, and although these coffees were delicious, there are some really great brands on the store shelf as well. If you look at the package carefully it will tell you the boldness of the particular beans.

An inexpensive grinder can be purchased at a discount store, and then you can find a variety of beans at your local grocery.

Filtered Water:

Another important ingredient, to a great cup of coffee, is filtered water. The better the water tastes, the better your coffee will taste. Filtered water not only tastes better, it keeps your machine cleaner and a clean machine is ingredient number one.
I have found that the ratio of coffee to water is much more of a personal preference. Just like you have to try different preparation methods of eggs, you have to try different types and strengths of coffee. Experimenting is part of the fun.

The ratio of water to coffee also depends upon the type of coffee that you choose. Coffees are usually classified as mild, medium, bold and extra bold just like salsa. There are also many different flavor combinations within these categories. I personally prefer extra bold flavors. I have also found that certain flavors, like Kona, are better over ice than others.

A final tip for those of you who enjoy espresso, when we purchased our first espresso machine, we stopped by that local coffee shop again where they taught us how to use it. They also gave us a recipe for a fancy drink as well. They didn't mind doing this because they new that we would return to buy more coffee. It never hurts to ask, many of the coffee retailers love to talk about their coffees. Each shop manager or owner is the best one to describe the different tastes and flavors that the coffees have to offer.

Learn more about this author, Catherine Fuller.
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