Brew Coffee At Home | Morning Jolts Coffee

Brew Coffee At Home

If you're accustomed to standing in line at your neighborhood Starbucks® or Tim Hortons® just to get your morning cup of coffee, you're missing out on one of the most enjoyable experiences one can have in life.

Here are five major reasons to brew coffee at home... plus a couple of caveats.

1. It Saves Money - In North America people spend thousands of dollars per person every year just to savor the taste of a cup of coffee. Have you ever calculated how much your cup of coffee costs you daily? On average, how much are you spending per year? I'll bet it's a lot. Think of how much money you could save by brewing your own coffee at home. Do the math and most people will put a lot of money back in their wallets by choosing to brew coffee at home.

2. It's Convenient - How much time would you save by not having to travel to your local coffee shop? When you choose to brew coffee at home, there is no standing in line. You get to have your coffee FIRST... each and every time. Nobody else is in front of you and when you're done you can sit down and enjoy it right away or put it in a go cup and take it on the road with you. Plus you get to share your morning coffee with your loved ones instead of a bunch of strangers. Or you can in some cases enjoy your coffee while you work. In fact, I'm enjoying a delicious cup of coffee as I'm writing this blog post.

3. It Tastes Great! - There's nothing like the flavor of freshly brewed coffee… especially if you grind your own beans too. If you brew your own coffee, you'll never have to suffer another stale,bitter tasting brew again. You'll enjoy the freshest, tastiest cup of coffee every time. Starbucks® or Tim Hortons® doesn't even come close to the taste of your own home brewed coffee. Your taste buds will thank you.

4. It's Fun! - Once you get used to making your own heavenly tasting brew at home, you'll begin to enjoy the entire coffee making process. In fact, I very often find myself making a couple of extra cups during the day just because I enjoy it so much. There's something about the smell of newly ground and freshly brewed coffee that makes my entire house smell fantastic. It's a very inviting and homey aroma. There's also a real sense of accomplishment in knowing that I made the coffee I'm drinking myself. It's akin to cooking your own meal instead of relying on somebody else to do it for you. Plus it's very comforting to be aware of exactly what is in that cup of coffee that you're drinking.

5. You're In Control - When you brew coffee at home you know EXACTLY what's going into your cup. You're in control, not some underpaid coffee jockey that just does whatever their supervisor tells them to do. You control the beans, the water, the grind, the temperature, the brewing method and the amount of time it takes to steep the coffee to your own personal specifications. If you do all this, what are the odds that your cup of coffee will taste just right to your taste buds?

Additional Benefits - Brewing coffee produces leftover coffee grounds. Coffee grounds are organic and can be re-purposed. This  includes making iced coffee cubes, exfoliating skin, freshening the air, perfuming smelly hands, scrubbing dishes, repelling bugs, shining hair and a myriad of other uses that I will go into in some future blog post. As you can see if you brew your coffee at home there are a lot of things you can do that might not be possible if you buy your coffee premade at a coffee shop.

It helps you pace your day - I work at home and it's easy to occasionally get tired and bored with my work. A lot of writing is very repetitive and my eyes get tired from looking so long at my laptop screen. Fingers get tired too after an hour or so. I lose focus after awhile and start to feel restless.

When I need a change of pace, I just brew a cup of coffee or wash some coffee dishes and it refreshes my mind. I sometimes get new ideas when I'm doing things other than writing, so for me it helps me with the creative process. Sometimes when I'm stuck with a problem the answer comes to me when I'm focused on activities that don't involve thinking and writing.

If you work outside the home a coffee break can break up your day and help get you back on track again with your work. Jobs can get tedious especially if they're very repetitive. A coffee break is a chance to change it up a bit and maybe shoot the breeze with some coworkers. Afterwards you'll feel refreshed and be able to carry on with your work.

It's Healthier - Because you control all aspects of what goes into your coffee, you can be sure that you're putting nothing but the best of everything into your body if you so choose.

And if you cold brew your coffee it will retain certain enzymes and vitamins contained in the coffee bean that can actually protect your body from harm and enhance your immune system.

It may be hard to believe but coffee plants grow in some of the richest soil in the world. As such the coffee plant absorbs those nutrients as it grows and produces fruit that ends up as your coffee. Heat destroys these nutrients in a regular cup of coffee but cold brewing preserves them. A lot of people (including myself) are enjoying improved health thanks to a daily dose of cold-brewed coffee.

Some Drawbacks - Even though you can brew coffee at home, there are a couple of drawbacks that need to be mentioned.

1. You have to wash all your own dirty dishes - That means all your cups and brewing gear. Plus you are responsible for the maintenance and repair.

If your equipment breaks down or gets too dirty it's on you you to sort it out.

The simple solution to this problem is not to get too fancy and complicated with your coffee brewing equipment. A pour over cup, a kettle, a coffee filter and a coffee cup (and of course coffee) are all you really need to make a great cup of coffee. So keep it  as simple and as cheap as possible and breakdowns shouldn't really become a problem.

2. It's not great for meeting new people - You're probably not going to meet anyone new at home. One thing that public coffee shops have going for them is that you have the opportunity to meet new people. Just bear in mind that you might also rub shoulders with some pretty creepy and obnoxious people from time to time.

Even though you can't meet new people at home, you can invite friends and neighbors over for some freshly brewed coffee at your place and maybe start or renew some relationships. It makes a great excuse to have people over you haven't seen for awhile. This way you can turn it into a social event if you want to. It's up to you.

When It's Not So Great To Brew Coffee At Home

If you're frequently out of town and on the road, it may not be easy to take advantage of being able to brew coffee at home. Since home brewed coffee tastes so good, you most likely won't relish the taste of coffee shop coffee anymore.

There are portable brewing kits that make a fine cup of coffee when on the road. They will cost you some additional money. Even though I've never used one, from what I understand it's worth it to have a great cup of coffee on the go instead of having to shell out for every cup at local coffee shops.

Conclusion:

Once you've experienced the benefits of being able to brew coffee at home, you'll begin to appreciate a totally different side of coffee that you probably never knew existed. Brewing your own coffee will open up interesting new avenues of knowledge about the vast world of coffee.

With more time and increased knowledge, you'll learn to manipulate all the various aspects of brewing coffee in order to get the best tasting coffee possible.

From bean to cup is quite a journey for a humble coffee bean. As you become more familiar, you'll start looking at coffee in entirely different ways. You'll come to appreciate the coffee bean for what it really is and what it can be, if you know how to take advantage of it. It's a healthy and delicious past time enjoyed by billions each and every day.

I now enjoy the best coffee I've ever had in my life simply because I started to really look at coffee and how best to brew coffee at home instead of just buying it ready made.

I'm so glad that I began to brew coffee at home and I think you will be too once you get started.