Brewed coffee, drip coffee, espresso, cappuccino – all these different coffee styles and terms, but what do they all mean? You can use the same beans for all of them, but true coffee aficionados are very particular about the types of beans and roasts used for specific coffee drinks.
This quick guide can help you differentiate among various coffee drinks – and their preparation.
What Can You Make With Hawaiian Ka’u Coffee?
- A) A satisfying cuppa Joe
- B) A shot of espresso
- C) A caramel macchiato
- D) All of the above.
Hopefully, you answered D. As mentioned above, the same Hawaiian Ka’u coffee bean can be used to make any coffee drink, but you’ll want to pay attention to the roast and to how the beans are ground.
- Coffee: This concoction requires any type of roasted coffee bean, chosen for your preference of light, medium, or dark roast coffees. Brewed coffee can be made in a French press, an “automatic drip” machine (with a filter), or as a “pour-over”, and the choice of grind will be dependent on the method you use to brew it. Automatic drip machines, single-serve machines and pour-overs all require an “all-purpose grind” (relatively fine). Other preparation methods use grinds ranging from very course for a French press to super fine for a Turkish coffee.
- Espresso: Most people don’t realize you can use any level of roast, from very light to very dark, for espresso, but the grind needs to be very fine. Because the use of pressurized steam extracts every bit of flavor out of those tightly compressed coffee grounds, you want to use a high-quality coffee with superb flavor. The espresso you’re used to drinking in an American coffee shop is usually made using a very dark roast. It requires an espresso machine to brew a perfect shot, and it’s consumed straight or with sweetener.
- Other types of “coffee shop” drinks usually start with a base of espresso and then add steamed milk, milk “foam”, and sometimes flavored syrups to create drinks like Cappuccinos, Macchiatos and Lattes.
What’s your method for brewing a perfect cup of coffee? Hawaii’s Local Buzz would love to know.