The hobby of home coffee-making can be a little bit snobbish, and people can get waaay too far into the science and extreme lengths to make the “perfect” cup. But the truth is, a good coffee and a few quid on a low cost setup can get you a great drink consistently.
You don’t need to be measuring the grams out of your grind, the pressure of your espresso machine and the time taken to extract your drink. I mean, if you want to, go for it. Coffee is a hobby for all, and more importantly a drink for all.
With so many coffee roasters popping up around the UK, you could easily be missing out on your new favourite blend. I think, you can get a solid setup for under a tenner and you can be brewing solid coffee in no time at all.
I’ll be doing a couple of pieces on low-cost home brewing coffee setups, but the first one is the excellent Hario V60. Cheap to buy, easy to use and just sits on your cup!
Hario V60
I’ve been using a Hario V60 for literally years. It was my first foray into coffee “properly” after my trusty cafetiere.
Classed as a “pour-over” (this is important if you start to delve deeper into coffee!), the Hario V60 is genius in it’s simplicity. Ranging from glass to ceramic, to plastic, you can have a sub £10 coffee maker that will last for ages.
Make sure to buy additional filters as and when you need them, and you’re good to go!
The beauty of the Hario V60 is that you have little effort required. Because it’s a pour-over method, your grind can be between medium and coarse, which is largely where a lot of your pre-ground coffees off the shelf at the supermarket land.
So you don’t even need to buy a grinder to get started. I would always recommend that you eventually do, because fresh-ground beans are the best. But you can order coffee from a roaster and they’ll grind it to your requirement, and that’s as close as you can get.
I’ll do a proper guide on the official ninjarefinery.com method, but I would rather people found a low-cost route into coffee, and started to just learn it. The Hario V60 is absolutely the tool for the job!
Cheap kit doesn’t equal bad coffee
Don’t let the world of coffee intimidate you or overwhelm you. There’s no need at all. Get a little plastic Hario V60 and a bag of coffee from somewhere nearby and go from there.
You’ll learn what kind of roasts you like, what country of origin you prefer and start to develop your preferences all-around. No fuss, no science. Just decent coffee.
Very quick guide to get started:
- Boil the kettle;
- Place filter in the Hario V60;
- Rinse the filter lightly with boiled water to wet it;
- Place Hario V60 (with wet filter) over a mug;
- Place a levelled scoop (provided with the V60) of your coffee in the filter;
- Barely cover the scoop of coffee with water (15 seconds off the boil);
- Leave to bloom for 30 seconds (watch the gasses leave the coffee in bubbles);
- Pour steadily and clockwise around the edges of the filter paper until half full of water;
- Repeat;
- Check fill level of the mug;
- Pour extra where required;
- Otherwise remove the Hario V60, dispose of the filter and coffee.
Add milk/sugar to your tastes, and you’re good to go!
You’ll learn how much water you need the more you use it, but you’re good to go from there!
Choose your coffee and go for it!
Get out there and find a local roaster, or go to a nearby shop and find some ground coffee on offer. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve taken some first steps into the world of coffee, and stepped away from instant coffee.
I have a lot of favourites, and I’m always searching for others. With the Hario V60 you could get the most expensive beans in the world and you wouldn’t be mis-treating them. Check out my friends at Cannonball Coffee for high-caffeine beans, or see the wonderful Baytown Coffee blends.
If you’re here because you love gaming, why not try some gaming coffee from the guys at Crackd Coffee.
Coffee is becoming more accessible and enjoyable than ever before. There’s a whole world of it out there for tasting. Take your trust Hario V60 with you, and you’ll never be let down. For less than a tenner to get started!
Let me know how you get on.