Go ahead and admit it, you're a coffee snob.

You know the coffee factoids, you know exactly how to order at a coffee shop, and you're proud of the fact that you grind your own beans.

Well, even people with high coffee standards often succumb to the mediocrity of the quick set-it-the-night-before home brew.

Can you really have the same standard of coffee at home that you find at a great coffee shop? The answer is-YES! Sometimes it can be even better.

Let's take a quick look at the key elements to a great cup of coffee.

1. Cold, fresh water. Don't tell me you buy great coffee beans and run well water through them. The truth is that a cup of coffee is composed of about 98.5 percent water. If you want a great cup of coffee, make sure you start with great water. Most filtered waters will suffice.

2. Fresh, high-quality beans. Coffee beans are best for 14 days after they're roasted. Most bags of coffee you see in the grocery store have been there weeks --- if not months. Although "high-quality" could mean a host of things depending on who you're speaking to, your own tongue is the best judge. Try purchasing some beans from a local coffee shop. You may pay more, but it is worth it.

Think of it this way: let's say you can make 38 cups of coffee out of a pound of beans. If you pay an additional $4 per pound to get the good stuff, that amounts to an 11 cents extra cost per cup. Is it worth it to you, oh coffee snob, to spend an additional 11 cents to have the best cup of coffee? Case closed.

3. Good grinder. It is ideal to have a grinder that is very consistent in its grinding ability. Whereas a whirly-blade grinder essentially mutilates a coffee bean (akin to a jackhammer on concrete), a burr grinder actually makes tiny shavings of the bean, maximizing the exposed surface area of each ground for the water to pass through.

4. Correct water temperature. Here's where most home brewers tank. In order to extract the best taste from your ground coffee, the water needs to be hot --- real hot. Ideally, the water temperature should be between 194 F and 204 F. A lot of home coffee brewers on the market today brew between 165 F and 175 F, about 30 degrees too cool.

5. Amount of ground coffee to use. This one is a personal taste factor “ use the amount of coffee that tastes best to you. Generally speaking, however, it is best to use 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per 8 ounces cup of water.

Hopefully you can apply some of these changes to make yourself a great cup of hot-brew. Next time we'll cover different methods of brewing coffee at home. Until then, may your coffee be great, and your day greater.

Matt Nikkel is a coffee aficionado and manager of Iron Horse Coffee Co. in Waterloo.

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