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If you’re like me, you’ve tried to make the perfect cup of coffee at home but you can get overwhelmed (read: lazy) once scales and tampers get involved. I reached out to Sarina Prabasi, the founder Buunni roastery and three coffee shops in Northern Manhattan. His mission was to eliminate the small mistakes that people overlook when making coffee at home.
Buunni specializes in fine edible beans from the growing regions of Ethiopia, where coffee is fruity, floral, and sometimes tea-like. Prabasi immigrated with her husband and business partner from Ethiopia, bringing with them the country’s culture of hospitality and high-quality coffee. The group also produces Buunni blends and selected beans from around the world.
As a small roaster who serves on the board of the Specialty Coffee Association, Prabasi provided insight on how to improve the quality of a cup of coffee. He is also not one to sweat the small stuff. “You know, we love coffee, but we don’t want to take it to ourselves too honestly,” said Prabasi. “So it has to be something fun, otherwise, why would you do it?”
1. Clean the coffee maker often with detergent
Even a small film of soap residue can ruin your next cup.
Adding soap to your coffee pot is one who pours beer may seem like questionable advice. In fact, your coffee equipment does not need to be cleaned every time you use it. Even small particles left over from scented dish soap or detergent will leave you with sudsy and subpar coffee.
“It stays in there; it can affect the taste, so, in most cases, a good wash with very hot water is enough for black coffee,” said Prabasi. The oil from the beans can build up over time, so unscented soaps are useful for occasional cleaning. A simple wash with hot water is sufficient for daily use, however. Save yourself some time and avoid all the unnecessary “soap scum” that clutters your source code. Sidama natural roast.
2. Buying more coffee than you can make fresh
Coffee beans are one food you should not buy in bulk.
Buying in bulk can save time and money at the grocery store but can have frustrating consequences for coffee drinkers. Buying fewer beans helps avoid drinking stale, bland coffee, especially for drinkers and families with two or one person. Probasi told us that you’ll know the coffee is done because it “can taste like its shadow.”
Burner recommends checking a roasting date on the coffee brand within a month or better within two weeks. (Remember, the “best buy” date is different and, unfortunately, is not a sign of recovery.) If you are someone who does not like to grind at home, the roasting date should be new. sides.
All that being said, you don’t need to panic about the lack of flavor like a ticking time bomb in your cupboard. “Every day after the burn doesn’t mean they’re shedding new, but after two weeks, I’d say they’ll start to drop,” Prabasi said. Save the coffee in an airtight container, but avoid a humid refrigerator with too much odor that can stick to the beans.
3. Changing several things at once
You can find online tutorials on brewers, scales, tampers, water filters, strainers and various techniques for making the perfect cup. Experimentation is key to making your favorite beer, but only if you start with the basics. “So, just change the water to begin with,” said Prabasi.
If you don’t have a kitchen kitchen scalethe roaster told us the first rule is to start with two spoons of coffee poured into one cup of water. The finer the grind, the stronger your coffee will taste, so you need to adjust the ratio of water to water. If it seems too weak or too strong, then adjust it by adding less coffee at the same grind level.
Beyond the basics, you can get creative. “If your coffee is too bitter, you probably like to roast it,” Prabasi said. Very bitter coffee? You can change the color of the burners by purchasing a lighter shade, such as dark or medium or light. “If you have coffee from East Africa, maybe try some from South America, you know, as an exchange,” he said. Changing one thing at a time ensures that you know which step has had a positive or negative effect.
4. Taking water directly from the tap
Filtered water makes better coffee.
Filling your coffee pot with tap water will give you less than ideal flavors. Filtered water, for most of us, will make a big difference in the final taste of your coffee. Tap water is often full of substances that can be filtered by buildings water filtration system.
Almost all the tap water you get in the US contains disinfectants and low levels of chlorine. EPA states that 1 in 5 people drink chloraminesdisinfectants made with chlorine and ammonia, kill dangerous viruses and bacteria such as salmonella. These chemicals make sure we don’t get sick, but they change the taste and smell of tap water. Chloramine is also known to strip lead and copper from pipes, which can affect even the most well-prepared coffee.
5. Ignoring the smell of coffee
The smell can be a dead giveaway that your coffee is gone. Prabasi explains that the moment you open a bag of beans or ground coffee, you can smell the aroma of roasting coffee. Aroma is a great indicator of taste. No flavor means a huge lack of flavor.
Prabasi said black coffee can taste muddy or flat and doesn’t have any flavor notes that a bag can write on its label. “That’s why I think about coffee work, a lot of what we do is tasting coffee,” he said. “From the farm to the coffee shop, every way the coffee is tasted or fainted, in our languages.”
Old coffee won’t make you sick, so there’s no need to throw it away. You may want to, however, stop drinking your coffee black. Making iced coffee is an easy way to cover up the lack of sweet notes. Using a brewer also allows you to have a slope to add extra flavor after the coffee is finished.
6. Skipping the organic mark
Don’t sleep on organic coffee even if it costs less.
Most grocery store coffee can be overwhelming. In support of mass analysis, Prabasi explains that organic coffee is an indicator of quality that is important to coffee.
“If you can, then I think coffee and tea, organic is very important because coffee and tea plants, especially from large farms, are very oppressed,” said Prabasi. Pesticides are sprayed on coffee cherries, and coffee is different from an apple that you can wash or a banana that you peel before eating. The tea leaves go through a similar process where whatever is left of the leaves goes into your teapot.
The owner of the coffee shop made it clear that he does not believe that coffee has to be expensive to be considered “good.” Great coffee is made for different amounts. “I think the care that goes into it and thinking about the care that goes into finding it, burning it, or just serving it, I’ll be looking at those things,” Prabasi said. Organic content is a useful starting point.
7. Always take your coffee ‘to go’
Coffee is not your morning fat, it’s a good reason to worry.
Even if you don’t think of coffee as a solution to a problem, many of us see coffee as just fuel. Taking coffee in a travel mug drinking as part of a trip is not inherently a problem. Prabasi instead asks coffee drinkers to use it whenever they can and enjoy a cup of coffee. Unlike the grab-and-go culture in the US, drinking coffee in Ethiopia is an opportunity to slow down and connect with the people you love. “And I like to say — like, I’ve been in Ethiopia for eight years — I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘I’m going to get coffee,'” Prabasi said. “It was always, ‘Let’s have coffee. Shall we have coffee?’
Even taking 10 minutes to drink your beer at the cafe instead of asking for a cup to go can change the energy of the morning. “I think there’s a lot of tradition around coffee and how you enjoy it,” Prabasi said. Taking the time to brew your own, whether at home or at a local coffee shop, can help you enjoy all that coffee has to offer beyond caffeine.
To learn more about coffee Intel, click here how to read coffee labels and the best travel mugs of 2025, tested by CNET.
