For today’s WFMW, I decided to go back to the basics. The essentials. The “what I can’t do without” of my every morning: Coffee.

Now, I’ve had a torrid past with “the bean.” I despised it until college, when all of the sudden, the glam of freshman year and all it entailed suddenly made caffeine sparkle and shine, beckoning me into its grasp. I succombed, and I quickly became best friends with it. I had three travel mugs that rotated with me as I went from class to class. I had insane headaches if I skipped a day.

Working in the corporate world in later years slyly made me into a coffee snob: If it isn’t good quality coffee, I don’t want it. Period. I began to branch out my tastes and embraced tea. I still love tea in the afternoons. But me and coffee? We still tight. And I consider myself to be a pretty strict quality control manager of the java that flows in our home.

For the perfect cup of (home brewed) coffee each and every morning, these are the steps we take, the things we do that most definitely work for us.

~ Use filtered or distilled water. Tap water has impurities and chemicals in it. If you brew your coffee with regular tap water, your coffee will have impurities and chemicals in it. If you’re discerning, you’ll be able to taste them. We have a faucet water filter, but any filter pitcher will work, as will bottled distilled water. Pure water goes in, pure coffee comes out.

~ Keep your coffeepot and coffeemaker spotless. We don’t have a fancy coffee maker. We paid less than $50 for ours but keep it impeccably clean. Run washable filter baskets through the dishwasher every couple of days. For deep cleaning, the best way is to run a mixture of vinegar and water through it once a month (1/4th vinegar to 3/4th water). “Rinse” brew with two full pots of plain water and you’re ready to go. Every 3-4 months, do the same thing with a product like OxiClean or Dip-It to really clean out the buildup (although you may want to brew-rinse more than twice for this).

~ Temperature matters. If your coffeepot used to make good coffee but lately has been lacking, it may be that the heating element is losing its fizz. When reading consumer reports and reviews, pay close attention to the water temperature. Optimum output temp should be between 195 and 205 degrees F. Any more and the coffee will burn; any less and the flavors won’t be adequately released.

~ Fresh-grind your beans. Better yet, buy fresh beans. Even whole bean Starbucks in the grocery store has a roasted date of several months back. Buying from a local roaster or from your local Starbucks establishment ensures more recently roasted coffee beans, thus, better and fresher flavor. And when you grind the beans, make sure you grind them enough, but not too much (too fine, i.e., espresso ground, can clog and clump in a drip-type coffeepot).

~ Double the scoop, then add one more. Weak coffee is the worst. Oftentimes sub-par coffee can taste better if it’s made strong enough. For four cups of coffee, you might be using 2 scoops of coffee beans. Add one more to make 3. For ten cups, use six scoops. You can always add water or cream to tone it down, but you can’t make weak coffee stronger once it’s brewed.

~ Skip the powder. It’s almost a crime to put powdered creamer into a cup of premium coffee. It’s not only not as tasty and rich, it’s actually quite unhealthy. Use real half-and-half if you can, or at least fat-free half-and-half (though not as “natural,” if you’re counting calories, it’s actually quite good).

~ Mugs matter. My husband and I joke that our coffee tastes the best from our favorite mugs: Kiln-fired pottery ones with a long handle and perfect-shaped lip. Of course, we also drink out of other standard porcelain mugs, but we both agree that metal cups, styrofoam, and even clear glass mugs detract from our “coffee experience.” Find the perfect mug (or two) and stick with it. It’s okay to re-wash it several times a day. Your coffee (and you) deserve that little bit of pampering.

Perfect cups of coffee work for me (us)!
Thanks for dropping by!
Go check out other WFMW ideas at We are THAT Family!