Coffee Criteria - part one

I was talking to @zombabejoy about the "perfect cup of coffee" earlier in the comments to my introduceyourself post https://steemit.com/newyear/@tobus/new-to-steemit. I don't think there is a perfect cup of coffee objectively. We're all different and looking for different things in our brew. But my steady accumulation of coffee making apparatus has taken me on a journey and is starting to make the section of kitchen worktop near the kettle resemble a laboratory.

Two pieces of equipment that I have grown particularly fond of are my Aeropress and my Handground grinder. I first got my Aeropress a year ago after talking to a devotee in my cycling club. At the time I was baulking at the prospect of various machines and devices having recently moved house at a time when my coffee habit was developing into something more serious. It really is a great piece of kit. Reasonably cheap and reliable and able to brew coffee with a surprising number of different outcomes. I started out with ground coffee, either from an online roaster or from the supermarket, usually opting for Lavazza's Espresso grind.

I was impressed with the Aeropress's ability to bring out acidic, sweet notes, even in a roast that was more dark and intensely flavoured. A visit to a local restaurant http://cartersofmoseley.co.uk and their use of a pour over method also got me thinking about lighter, fruitier coffees. Then I got my Handground https://www.coffeehit.co.uk/handground-coffee-grinder-black.html and I fell into the rabbit hole.

The various combinations of different roasts at different grind sizes, brewed at different temperatures is quite astounding;
https://handground.com/grind/66-recipes-for-amazing-aeropress-coffee
Once I had experimented a bit, I decided that I want to settle on a particuar brew that I could repeat with the minimum of equipment and fuss and to do that I would need some simple criteria to make this acheivable. I will describe my formula in a future post. I think its time for a coffee!