4 Ways to Brew Coffee at Home Like a Barista
Here’s something interesting for those of you who love to have a Starbucks cuppa: an average American spends over $2000 a year buying coffees and their derivatives. One might argue that I can save this huge sum and just learn the real trick of brewing coffee at home and enjoy the cup. That’s a win-win because who knows my flavors better than me, and who gets all that money? Me. Ergo, the best way to make coffee and the best way to keep your wallet happyconverges to brewing a cup for yourself. But we realize that you may mess things up, not being a barista, and we need to save you from making bad expenses.
So, what are the cheapest coffee brewing methods that won’t hurt anybody? The 4 simple methods include Coffee Cone, Chemex, French Press, and AeroPress. The following section covers details on each of the brews.
4 Cheapest Coffee Brewing Methods
1. Coffee Cone
One of the traditional coffee brewing methods that have inspired people like us to do this at home is the coffee cone method of drip coffee that comes pretty cheap and easy. It basically delivers by taking only two tough-sounding inputs: a filter made of paper and a coffee cone.
Requirements and Procedure
You will require fine/medium coffee grounds, boiling water, paper filter, and coffee cones. The coffee cone can be made of any material, such as ceramic, steel, glass, or plastic. The filter is usually made of paper, but you may see changes. The flavor that you get from this technique varies with the material of the filter and the cone, as well as their respective sizes.
Need to do here is put the coffee grounds on the filter. Next, you need to pour boiling water on the grounds as gravity causes the coffee-flavored water to seep down to the container below.
Results
This is one of the most efficient coffee brewing methods that take only one to three minutes of brewing, and you get a smooth flavor. Here, three tbsps of coffee can easily be translated into one single cup at a time.
Cost
The cost will range anywhere from 8 to 70 dollars depending on what kind of filters you are choosing. The filter has to always match what the material of the cone allows.
2. Chemex
The Chemex method uses the method of infusion to give you a cup of coffee as fragrant as you like it. You will find the pour-over method to be very elegant and appealing, from the beautifully-made glass structure that has been satisfying coffee fanatics since 1941. It differs from the coffee cone method because it uses its own carafe and its own paper filter called Chemex filter, which is 20-30 percent thicker than what’s available.
Requirements and Procedure
The requirements are the same as the above cone method. You need around 6 tbsps of medium-coarse coffee grounds to produce six cups of coffee, hot water, and the Chemex system.
Simply, pour hot water onto the paper filter as the flavored water drips to the Chemex carafe.
Results
Due to the thicker filter papers, the brew time is four minutes or so in this method. Also, you get as many as six cups at a time of the balanced, non-acidic, sweet-toned, and refined flavor in one making, implying that this is also one of the fastest ways to make coffee.
Cost
It will cost you anything between 45 to 80 dollars, depending on the cost of filters and the variety you pick.
3. French Press
Believe us? If we told you that something invented almost a hundred years back still continues to be one of the most superior ways of extracting complex coffee flavors from coffee grounds? Of course, you have to, when it comes to the French Press style. The brewed coffee flavors are always top-notch and consistent when you are adopting the French Press technique.
Requirements and Procedure
You will need about 2 tbsp of coarse coffee grounds and a french press coffee maker, minus any filters and hot water.
On the circular screen of the french press maker, you will find a piston and a lid. You have to start with pouring the grounds on the bottom of the glass cylinder and pour boiling water on top of it. You will need to sit for a couple of minutes until the gritty coffee flavors are entirely out and mixed with the water. Now, you will push down the plunger to push the grounds down and pour out the coffee!
Results
3 tbsp of coffee rounds will give you 8 cups from the French press. The most efficient way to make coffee, it is and is brimming with complex flavors, oils, antioxidants, and the caffeine you love so much. It will give you the most expressive cups of coffee in about 4 minutes of brew time.
Cost
You may have to pay anything between 8-120 dollars based on what you get as your French Press.
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4. AeroPress
This is one of the filtered coffee, making options that you will notice with most other methods. The AeroPress came into existence in 2005, created by Alan Adler. This is basically a three-part plastic coffee maker. In its brew chamber situated at the bottom of the machine, there is a coffee basket. You do this because you place the filter in the coffee basket, which is where your coffee gets filtered before you get to drink it.
Requirements and Procedure
You will need to grind fine-medium coffee beans and take 2.5 tbsp of the ground coffee for this. You will also need the Aeropress with its filter and some hot water to make the coffee. If you do not have an Aeropress filter, you can make DIY coffee filters by yourself. When you are ready with these, you will need to place the coffee grounds in the brew chamber.
On this, you will have to pour hot water such that the coffee grounds become completely immersed. The flavored coffee water will seep through the filter and collect at the bottom. In order to aid the extraction, you have to push the plunger, which will create air pressure to make the coffee.
Results
You get one cup of sweet, espresso-style coffee from 2.5 tbsp of coffee grounds, ready in about 2 minutes’ time!
Cost
It will cost you between 40-50 dollars to make yourself this coffee at home.
Advance Tips You Should Know
You learned about the cheapest ways to make coffee from the methods above. Here are two of our best tips on making those cups:
Self-grind
Coffee grinders can range you anything from 20-200 dollars. But if you ask us, there is no point in buying a grinder worth 500 dollars if you have no money left to buy the coffee beans. So, invest in whole beans and get a decent enough coffee grinder for some freshly ground powders when you need them.
Store
Don’t make your coffee stale and bitter by storing it forever if you’re not going to consume it anytime soon, better not ground too much and suck out the flavors.
Conclusion
You learned what the cheapest coffee brewing methods are from our easy-to-understand guide. But is there even a point of it if you wouldn’t be using them?
We don’t encourage cutting down on Starbucks entirely; you’ll find us there too. But we also know how to make a cup at home and nail it. Try it for yourself; for the personal touch, no coffee bar can deliver!