What is the trick to making coffee that is strong, yet not bitter? I grind my own, and have found that a fine grind gives the coffee the strength I want, but it tends to be bitter (even diluting it afterward doesn’t remove the bitterness). Yet a coarser grind makes the coffee less bitter, but too weak. And using a greater quantity of coarse grounds seems to be wasteful. I’m using a standard drip coffeemaker. So what am I doing wrong?
You’ll need to use more grounds. The bitter notes in coffee come off first. If it isn’t made strong enough all you taste is the bitter. Using enough to make a decent cup of coffee isn’t wasteful, skimping on grounds and getting a cup of undrinkable slop is.
I grind my coffee very finely. Most of the time I drink it black, and I don’t find it bitter. But then, I like strong flavours. I normally use Trader Joe’s French Roast. Costco has bags of French Roast (San Francisco?) that I like even better. Maybe try a different brand of coffee?
Sometimes I’ll buy (pre-ground) French Market (brand) Coffee with Chicory. A little goes a long way, and I like it.
I’ve just ordered eight pounds of Community Coffee from New Orleans (four pounds each of French Roast and Café Special medium-dark roast). I’ve always liked that coffee every time I go to New Orleans. I’ve never had it bitter, and many places make it strong.
EDIT: Bill Door snuck in. I agree that to make strong coffee, use more grounds. It seems ‘wasteful’, but you have to decide if you want to have good coffee that you need to buy more often, or less-good coffee you can save money with.
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Try lighter or darker roasts and see if either tastes less bitter to you. Also, try different regional origins (Guatemala vs Kenya vs Sumatran vs Hawaiian Kona, etc.) and different brands, as the others have mentioned. Coffee *is *bitter, but some types are much less bitter than others. But the stronger you make it, the more bitter it will be, and the longer you steep it, the more bitter it will be.
This goes for tea, as well. If you want a strong cuppa tea, use more leaves. Over-steeping the leaves makes it bitter.
You could invest in a decent espresso maker, practice a lot, and end up being able to make a very fine shot of espresso. Intense coffee bean flavor with minimal bitterness when made right. (Do NOT judge espresso by what you get at Starbucks or most other chain espresso places in the US, what they call espresso is usually abysmal.)
More coffee, a French Press with a 4 minutes steep. It’s all you need.
If this thread was not about food, I’m assuming it would be in GQ, which would make it perfectly acceptable to ask for a cite for the bolded statement.
It is my understanding that over-extraction, which is what happens when the brew time exceeds the amount needed for a specific type of grind (e.g., coarser ground coffee requires more time to extract the full flavor than finer ground coffee), is the primary cause for bitterness. Additionally, if one is using less coffee, it might be assumed that brew time should be extended to fully extract the coffee, but this is not the case and would again result in over-extracted coffee.
Under-extraction would correlate to a weaker cup of coffee, as only some of the flavor components are removed from the grounds. To be sure, some of what is extracted may be bitter components, including caffeine. But, the fact is the longer the extraction time, the more bitter, smoky, rancid the coffee becomes. Cite.
As to eliminating bitterness, using the correct proportion of grounds to water as well as grinding the beans to the granularity required by the brew method are the first steps.
To fine-tune your cuppa:
[ul]
[li]Be sure the water is being heated to the proper temperature, or your machine will perpetually under-extract. Many of the less expensive home drip brewers do not produce hot enough water for proper brewing. It should be “just under the boil” at 196° F to 205° F.[/li][li]Try a darker roasted coffee, as the roasting process eliminates some of the caffeine and acidic components in coffee. Also, try coffees from different regions. Indonesian coffee tends to be lower in acidity, which can make the coffee seem more bitter tasting.[/li][li]Stick to Arabica beans vs. the cheaper Robusta variety, which has higher concentrations of caffeine and chlorogenic acids resulting in more bitter, astringent coffee.[/li][/ul]
The best coffee I’ve ever had was cold-steeped. Easy as hell, and so smooth and strong…very, very excellent.
-Take a mayo jar or something with a lid, glass is probably better, though.
-Do your grind <try not to grind it too long, do it in smaller batches if that makes it easier; you can ‘burn’ your beans overheating in the grinder, too, if it’s on too long> and put all the grounds into the jar, then fill the jar with water most of the way.
-Leave it overnight somewhere. I didn’t put mine in the fridge, just on the counter. I think it steeped about 12 hours or so.
-Strain the coffee for the yummiest cuppa you’ve ever had.
-Also, don’t use coffee beans from Starbucks. I swear they burn them, each and every one. I have no idea if that’s on purpose or not, but it does seem very acidic and bitter.
BTW, the cold method is great for people who have issues with the acid in the coffee; much easier on your stomach, somehow.
I find what’s wasteful is making “coffee” with too little coffee in order to save money that ends up looking like dark piss and tasting like vaguely coffee-flavored water. I mean, if you can see through it, you haven’t made coffee.
Second vote for cold brew.
I had a Toddy set up and it was huge on the counter and a bit of a pain. I recently realized I could just use my french press as the ‘brewer’ and save space and hardware.
The coffee is never bitter, and the stuff keeps for days.
i don’t measure anything because i’m a cook. i measured the coffee grounds i normally use for a cup of coffee in the french press one day out of curiosity and was shocked to find out i’m using about the equivalent of 3 cups for the bag directions.
my favorite coffee is sbux guatemala antigua. i’ve tried locally roasted stumptown’s guatemala finca, and i can’t stomach it…it tastes like tomato juice, way acidic.
i also drink my coffee black, and this coffee has a very smooth, kind of chocolately taste with low acidity.
I’ve been hyping cold-brewed coffee here for the past five years or so. I used to just make it in a big glass bowl, then strain out the grinds through a very fine sieve. It can be heated or iced, and it’s always great.
This! Pile the coffee grounds high in a mound. This lets the bitterness seep back in, giving strong, yet not bitter coffee. 
Edit: When I make coffee I use a lot of grounds, and make a mound almost too high to fit. A gentle slope, mind. Edit 2: Nope, don’t make coffee often anymore! Too expensive to do often! :eek: You can always dillute if it is too strong. Get rid of the bitterness first! If it is too much for you to finish a pot at a time, you can always store it in the fridge and warm it later.
^^ That’s using a coffee pot, either stove top or drip. Also, don’t be in a hurry either. Give it time to steep. 
I’ve always found that a pinch of salt per pot helps with bitterness.
They do. It’s their thing. All Starbucks smell like somebody left a mostly-empty pot of coffee on the burner over a holiday weekend, but when I went into the first store in Seattle the stench of 30 years of burnt coffee nearly made me hurl.
I agree about different regional coffees tasting different. Pacific rim ; ie: Indonesian & Kona, roasted dark, have a warm, earthy, strong flavor yet are not bitter.
African horn, ie: Kenyan, Ethiopian are often more thin and bright tasting, more bitter.
I usually buy Rocket Java, Sumatra Madheling or Kona, French or Italian roast and grind it medium fine.
ETA: Some of the best coffee I ever had was in Bali. Locally grown, roasted dark, hand ground and brewed in the pot with a few slices of ginger root.
I’d like to try this. Can you give some measurements or at least proportions?
Another vote for cold brew! I will never go back. I drink my coffee iced anyway. I just had a cup of regular brew (forgot to make the cold brew yesterday) followed by a cup of cold brew. The difference in taste is huge, especially in bitterness.
I use 2/3 cups finely ground beans per 1 quart water, but that’s just my WAG from Pioneer Woman’s huge recipe.