Grinding your own coffee is an easy way to ensure a fresher cup of coffee. A good grinder is an important investment for a coffee lover, but, with the wide variety of brands and models available today, choosing a grinder might seem difficult. Here is some information to keep in mind when shopping for a new grinder.

Usually the least expensive type of grinder, blade grinders literally use blades to chop up (not grind) the coffee beans. The fineness of the grind depends on how long the grinder is running and produces an inconsistent grind size. This leads to varying brew quality even from the best coffees. Also, if you grind the coffee extremely fine, the blades may actually heat up enough to burn the grounds.

Burr grinders tend to be more expensive, but produce a consistent and accurate grind and ultimately, a better cup of coffee. These work by grinding the beans between a rotating grinding wheel and a non-moving surface. The distance between wheels dictates the size of the grind, giving you more control over the size of the grind and guarantees a more consistent grind. Since the beans are being ground, instead of chopped, the wheel will not heat up enough to burn the grounds. We recommend the Solis Maestro Plus Burr Grinder, which is available on our online store at http://www.terroircoffee.com/store/.

You have a great coffee and a great grinder, but are get the best results when you brew? In order to get the best flavor from a coffee in a regular drip brewer, the temperature of the water needs to be at least 198F. Colder water will not extract the essential oils and compounds from coffee and will result in a weaker tasting cup. Beware: most home brewers only reach about 190F and sometimes even colder temperatures. We recommend the Technivorm as one of the few home brewers that offers a consistent brewing temperature over 198F. Its design, while simple, ensures that the water temperature does not drop before the coffee is saturated. And, as a matter of fact, Food and Wine Magazine recommends the Technivorm this month, too. In 2002, Wine Spectator also found it to be the best brewer.

You can get a great cup of coffee with other brewing techniques, too, as long as you are careful about the water temperature. When brewing in a French press, or when using various other non-mechanical brewing methods (eg. Chemex or vacuum brewing), it is important to make sure the water temperature is at least 205F. Preheating the vessels also improves results.

For more information about brewing techniques, visit our website or call us at 866-GHH-JAVA.

You may have noticed that the coffee industry has been increasingly supporting freshness standards with roasted coffee. Many companies have even started displaying the roast date on their packages. However, most roasters are still not considering the freshness of unroasted (green) coffee. Light, oxygen, moisture and heat cause the degradation of the unique flavors and aromas of coffee. While this happens most noticeably in roasted coffee, green coffee can age and stale as well.

Coffee, once imported is usually left in its original jute bag on the roaster's warehouse floor. Over time, even in a climate controlled warehouse, the coffee naturally ages and becomes stale. Since coffee is porous, it also absorbs other odors in the warehouse, like the smell of jute bags. Since most coffee- producing regions harvest only once or twice a year, the coffee has usually been staling for months or even years before it is roasted.

So, remember, freshness starts with the transport, packaging and storage of the green coffee. To ensure that Terroir® coffees retain their unique qualities and freshness, we always repackage, vacuum-seal and freeze all green coffee we receive immediately before the coffee has a chance to degrade. Freezing the coffee effectively halts the aging process, keeping each coffee at its peak of flavor and aroma for months.

There are 2 main varieties of drip filters. Most American drip machines use a flat bottom filter, while the majority of European brewers use a cone shaped filter. Check the shape of the basket on your machine to see what shape to use.

Now that you've learned which type, flat-bottomed or cone, you still have a variety of options before you. First, paper filters, the most common filter used, are available in both bleached and un-bleached; our experience has shown that environment-friendly oxygen-bleached filters affect the flavor of coffee far less than the brown un-bleached. While paper filters are more common, permanent gold-meshed cone filters have become popular over the years. They work well and can be environmentally friendly, but tend to be messier than paper filters. And the taste of the coffee? The flavor differs slightly between the gold and paper filters; the gold filters produce more body and diminish somewhat the liveliness of the cup. This is because of the added sediment and oils while the paper filters create a 'cleaner', more nuanced cup.