How to get the most from your home-brewed coffee: tips from Hong Kong baristas and roasters
If you like making your own coffee at home, but want a higher quality brew, we have everything you need to know about pour-overs, Vietnamese drippers, how to choose and store your beans and when to grind them
Picking up a morning cup of coffee from a neighbourhood cafe on the way to work is a habit that many of us have developed. But there’s also growing interest in brewing the best coffee possible at home.
Home (coffee) brewers don’t have to be specially trained, nor do they necessarily need expensive equipment. Katie Ho, who sources coffee for Olympia Graeco Egyptian Coffee, one of Hong Kong’s oldest roasters, says, “The easiest way is to put a couple of spoons of ground coffee in a cup, add hot water, cover it, and after the grounds are immersed in water, they’ll sink to the bottom so you can drink the top.”
“You can also filter it with a sieve or pour it into another cup. If you’re happy to spend a bit of money, you can try the Vietnamese dripper, a Clever dripper [a filter cone that has a valve to control how long to keep the grounds immersed], or a French press.”
Carole Ho [not related to Katie Ho], founder of Sinbad Coffee Roasters, is a fan of the AeroPress, a simple, tight fitting plastic plunger invented in the US. “The AeroPress is quite versatile. There are a number of ways you can brew with it, so it’s a good place to start,” she says.
