If you’re like me, you might strive to make the best cup of coffee possible at home, but you might feel overwhelmed (read: lazy) once the scale and tampons get involved. I contacted Sarina Prabasi, who founded the Buunni roasting and trio of cafes in northern Manhattan. The mission was to eliminate the simple mistakes people overlook when brewing coffee at home.
Buunni specializes in ethically sourced beans from growing regions of Ethiopia, where the coffee is fruity, floral and sometimes fragrant like tea. La Prabasi moved from Ethiopia with her husband and business partner, bringing with them the country’s philosophy of hospitality and high-quality coffee. The team also creates custom Buunni blends with select grains from around the world.
As a micro-roaster on the Specialty Coffee Association board of directors, Prabasi provided insight into how to make simple adjustments to achieve a better cup of coffee. She’s also not the type to worry about the little things. “You know, we take coffee seriously, but we don’t want to take ourselves Also seriously,” Prabasi said. “So it must be something enjoyable, otherwise why would you do it?”
1. Washing your coffee maker too often with detergent
Even the slightest film of soap scum can ruin your next cup.
Ditching soap for your coffee maker and immersion coffee maker may seem like questionable advice. In reality, your coffee equipment doesn’t need to be cleaned every time you use it. Even small layers of scented dish soap or laundry detergent residue will leave you with a soapy, substandard coffee maker.
“It really sits there; it can ruin the flavor, and so usually a good rinse with very hot water is enough for black coffee,” Prabasi said. Oils from beans can build up over time, so an unscented dish soap comes in handy for occasional deep cleaning. However, a simple rinse with hot water will be more than sufficient for daily use. Save time and avoid any unwanted “soap scum” essence interrupting the notes of your single-origin Sidama natural roast.
2. Buy more coffee than you can brew fresh
Coffee beans are a commodity that you shouldn’t buy in bulk.
Buying in bulk can save time and money at the grocery store, but can have disappointing results for coffee drinkers. Purchasing smaller quantities of beans will help avoid drinking stale, flat coffee, especially for the average drinker and two- or one-person households. Probasi told us that you’ll know the coffee has gone stale because it “may taste like a shadow of its former self.”
The roaster recommends looking for a roast date on the coffee label within a month or ideally within two weeks. (Keep in mind that the “best buy” date is different and, unfortunately, is not an indicator of freshness.) If you don’t like to grind at home, the roast date should be the freshest . side.
That said, you don’t need to panic about flavor fading like a time bomb in your cupboard. “Every day after roasting doesn’t mean it loses its freshness, but after two weeks I would say it starts to diminish,” Prabasi said. Store coffee in an airtight container, but avoid the humid refrigerator and its plethora of odors that can stick to the beans.
3. Adjust more than one thing at a time
You can find tutorials online recommending coffee makers, scales, tampers, water filters, grinders, and various techniques for creating the perfect cup. Experimentation is key to creating your favorite drink, but only if you start with the basics. “So just adjust the water at first,” Prabasi explained.
If you don’t have a kitchen kitchen scalethe roaster told us that the general rule is to start with two tablespoons of ground coffee per cup of water. The finer the grind, the stronger your coffee will taste, so you will need to adjust the grounds to water ratio accordingly. If it seems too weak or too strong, adjust by adding more or less coffee at the same grind level.
Beyond the basics, you can get creative. “If your coffee is too acidic, you might prefer a dark roast,” says Prabasi. Too bitter coffee? You can adjust the roast type by purchasing a lower level, such as dark to medium or medium to light roast. “If you have an East African coffee, try one from South America, you know, like Switch [it] ” she said. Changing one element at a time ensures that you know which step affected the outcome for better or worse.
4. Take water directly from the tap
Filtered water makes better coffee.
Filling your coffee maker with tap water will result in less than ideal flavors. Filtered water, for most of us, will make a big difference in the final flavor of your coffee. Tap water is often full of byproducts that can easily be filtered with a home water filtration system.
In the United States, almost all tap water is disinfected with low levels of chlorine. The EPA reports that one in five people drink chloraminesa supplemental disinfectant based on chlorine and ammonia, to kill harmful viruses and bacteria such as salmonella. These chemicals ensure that we don’t get sick, but change the taste and smell of tap water. Chloramines are also known to remove lead and copper from pipes, byproducts that can affect even the most carefully brewed coffee.
5. Ignore the aroma of coffee
The smell can be a telltale sign that your coffee has gone stale. Prabasi explains that you should immediately open a bag of beans or ground coffee and be able to smell the roasted coffee. Aroma is a key indicator of flavor. No flavoring means a serious lack of taste.
Prabasi said stale coffee can taste muddy or flat and contains no complex tasting notes that a bag might list on its label. “That’s why I think in the coffee profession, a lot of what we do is taste coffee,” she said. “From farm to coffee, every step of the coffee tasting or tasting process, in our vernacular.”
Old coffee isn’t likely to make you sick, so there’s no need to throw it away. You may, however, want to stop having your coffee black. Making iced coffee is an easy way to mask the lack of tasting notes. Using an immersion coffee maker also allows you to steep the grounds longer to add a little more flavor once the coffee is blunted.
6. Pass the organic label
Don’t sleep on organic coffee even if it costs a few dollars more.
The multitude of coffee brands at the grocery store can seem overwhelming. To help sift through the masses, Prabasi explains that the organic coffee label is an important quality sign for coffee.
“If you can, then I think for coffee and tea, organic is really important because coffee and tea crops, especially from large farms, tend to be oversprayed,” said Prabasi. Pesticides are sprayed directly on the coffee cherries, and coffee is no different than an apple that you can wash or a banana that you peel before eating it. Tea leaves undergo a similar process: whatever is left on the leaves will then be brewed into your cup.
The owner of the cafe made it clear that she didn’t think coffee had to be expensive to be considered “good.” Excellent coffee is prepared for a variety of budgets. “I think the care that goes into it and some thought about the care that goes into sourcing it, roasting it or just serving it, I would look for those things,” Prabasi said. The organic label is a good starting point.
7. Always take your coffee “to go”
Coffee isn’t just fuel for your morning, it’s the perfect excuse to engage and unwind.
Even if you don’t think of coffee as just a means to an end, many of us think of coffee as just fuel. Having coffee in a travel mug to drink on a commute is not in itself a problem. Rather, Prabasi invites coffee drinkers to take advantage of any time and opportunity to enjoy a cup of coffee. Unlike the grab-and-go culture in the United States, drinking coffee in Ethiopia is an opportunity to slow down and connect with the people you care about. “And I like to say – for example, I lived in Ethiopia for eight years – I never heard anyone say, ‘I’m going to get coffee,’” Prabasi said. “It was always, ‘Let’s have coffee. Shall we have coffee?'”
Even taking an extra 10 minutes to drink your brew at a coffee shop instead of asking for a to-go cup can change the energy of a frenetic morning. “I think there are a lot of rituals around coffee and how we enjoy it,” Prabasi said. Taking the time to create your own ritual, whether at home or at a local store, can help you savor everything coffee has to offer beyond its caffeine content.
For more information on coffee, here how to read coffee labels And the best travel mugs of 2025, tested by CNET.
