Brewing coffee like the pros do requires a bit of science. The golden ratio is the ideal balance of coffee to water and a great place to start from if your current strategy is just to wing it.
Beyond nailing the measurements, there are some essential pieces of hardware that help extract the most flavor from your beans.
If you grind at home, as most experts suggest, using whatever grinder you have in your kitchen could compromise the final product. Getting the right machine for evenly ground beans gives you greater control and helps achieve a more balanced brew.
A burr grinder gives you maximum control over the beans you use to make a cup of coffee -- it's one of the most important coffee tools you can own. Patrick Holland/CNET
"A burr grinder gives you maximum control," Kaleena Teoh stresses. Teoh is co-founder and director of education for Coffee Project New York, and praises burr grinders for "giving you the power to brew the coffee exactly the way you want it to be."
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What is a burr grinder and how does it work?
Unlike a blade grinder, which grinds coffee beans by slicing them, burr coffee grinders crush them. Burr grinders use two abrasive or notched discs or plates, known as burrs, that rotate either parallel to one another or concentrically.
Burr grinders are able to grind beans evenly and to a precise coarseness. Kuzmik_A/Getty
As the coffee beans are squeezed between them, they're crushed to a preset size determined by the distance between the two burrs, which is adjustable to suit both the type of coffee being made and personal preference.
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