Good coffee is a relative term. Everyone has different taste and a great coffee for me might not be so great for some. That being said, fresh coffee that was carefully grown, processed and roasted always is better than coffee that had not care whatsoever during the whole chain.

To brew fresh coffee properly you need some tools to have the best experience. In this post I’ll go over the essential tools you need to start your specialty coffee journey - hopefully you will never go back to stale coffee.

Quality fresh coffee beans

This is the most important item in this list - you need great coffee beans to get great coffee. There is just no way around it. The best advice I can get you is to get coffee beans from local specialty coffee shops. Get on google and search for specialty coffee shops / roasters nearby. Most have online stores so it’s really easy to order great coffee. However, do not be shy to go in the coffee shop and try some brews from their baristas - you will most likely taste something great that will serve as benchmark for your future home coffee brews.

A decent grinder

You should strive for using whole bean coffee whenever that’s possible - grinding your beans as you brew will preserve a lot of the coffee aromas. You don’t want to lose those!

You can still ask the coffee shop / online store to grind it for you but I fully recommend you to get the whole bean and grind the coffee as you brew.

Grinding your coffee as you brew will also give you the flexibility to experiment and find out how you like your coffee to be ground.

Each brewing method requires different grinding settings on your grinder. On broader terms, the coarser the grind, the less extracted your coffee will be and the more acidic it will be; on the other hand, the finer the grind, the more extracted your coffee will be and the acidity will be less present.

A good starting point for a grinder is a decent hand grinder like the Hario Skerton - not expensive and does the job well until you get stuck in the coffee rabbit hole and want to upgrade to a more expensive grinder.

About electric grinders: I would really recommend you to start with a nice hand grinder instead since electric grinders are more expensive for the same grind quality. Cheap electric grinders will not give you the consistency you need. If you really want an electric grinder go for one with burrs instead of blades.

A kettle

You need hot water. Depending on your recipe, you might need boiling water or close to boiling water. Either way, you need a kettle. I would recommend a gooseneck kettle that measures the water temperature. However, you can just use a regular kettle and be creative on measuring the temperature. Actually you can chose to not measure temperature at all and just go with close to boiling water - your coffee will still be great if you are using great beans.

A scale

A scale with a timer is ideal but whatever scale will also work. You will most likely be brewing using time and weight so it is ideal that your scale measures both. You can also track time with the Sipster app so any kitchen scale will work. Try to stick to a scale with 0.1g precision for best results and future flexibility.

A brewer

To brew coffee you need… a brewer. There are a ton of options ranging from espresso to filter coffee. My recommendation is to start with filter coffee and work your way to espresso since the later requires way more dedication and most likely a bigger investment.

Some examples of good brewers to start with filter coffee are Hario V60, Aeropress, Chemex or any kind of french press. If you go with a coffee brewer that requires paper filters, do not forget to buy those.

You are almost ready!

Now tht you’ve got all the tools you are almost ready to start your coffee brewing journey at home! The only thing missing is your friendly companion - the Sipster coffee app. The app will help you keep track of all your brews (coffee journal), store your recipes and give you insights on your coffee consumption. Download the app now from the App Store or Google Play and kickstart your specialty coffee journey!