We've all been there, haven't we? Someone offers you a coffee, maybe you see a premium-looking bag of delicious-smelling coffee grounds near the kettle and your mouth starts to water. Then you're handed your mug, take a sip and...eurgh...it's nothing like as flavoursome as you were expecting.
What went wrong? Was the coffee not as good as the packet looked or the aroma of the grounds suggested? Or did something else go awry with the brew? Often, it can be the latter, and it's all to do with getting the ingredients and process right when you make the cuppa.
And that's because, like all food and drink products, creating a great-tasting cup of coffee is all about getting the recipe right. And when it comes to the perfect recipe, there are three things to consider - the right ingredients, the right quantities and the right process.
Firstly, the ingredients. You only need two basic ingredients to make a great cup of coffee - coffee and water. (You might want to add milk and sugar or sweetener to taste but we'll leave that bit to you)
If you want a good-quality cup of coffee, you need to start with good-quality coffee grounds. Sure, you could pick up a jar of cheap instant coffee from a discount store but the result will reflect the ingredients you use.
As you're here, chances are, you might already have some New Eden coffee in your cupboard. If you have, you've already ticked one big box. If you haven't, you might be interested in our sample pack.
The other ingredient you need is hot (ideally just-boiled) water. (You knew that already, didn't you?) And this is where quantity comes in. You see, no matter how good your ingredients are, if you want the perfect dish, you have to get the quantities just right. You might really like garlic but throw in a whole bulb and your Bolognese might not turn out the best. The same goes for coffee. Too little water and the cuppa will be too strong. Too much water and you might end up with something that tastes a bit like well-used dishwater.
So what's are the optimal quantities of coffee grounds and water? For filter coffee machines of the kind that most churches use, the best rule of thumb is 60g of coffee to one litre of water. So, if you're making 500ml, you want 30g. For 1.5l it'll be 90g. And so on.
The same ratios apply to cafetieres, percolators and V60s too, so if you're using a little cafetiere to make enough for a 250ml mug, you'd use 15g of coffee, brew for three to four minutes, then plunge.
All our coffee blends have been created for that water-to-coffee ratio and we're confident that following that rule of thumb will result in a brew your coffee-loving church members will look forward to week in, week out.