Tips for Better-Tasting Coffee

Brewing the best cup of coffee possible is not brain surgery, but it’s a bit more complicated than just buying the priciest pound around--a $60 bag of Jamaica Blue Mountain from Bloomingdale’s.

Some tips from Jay Isais, Coffee People’s director of coffee, who declares that “there is an optimum way to brew coffee; all else is compromise”:

* Do not use boiling water or you risk scalding the ground coffee. Just under a boil is the appropriate temperature.

* Brew the maximum amount of coffee that your coffee maker will hold. If it’s a 12-cup, don’t make four.

* Never, ever slide your cup under and steal the first cup as it bubbles out of the coffee maker. The flavor of the whole pot relies on the first (strongest) cup and the last (weakest) cup together.

* Don’t grind the beans until you’re ready to use them. Ground coffee oxidizes and changes taste faster than whole beans.

* Don’t buy too much at one time--Americans’ most common coffee error.

* Store your coffee in an airtight container to combat moisture-related flavor loss.

* Don’t freeze it unless you’re going on an extended trip.

* And grind it right: coarse for French press; medium for drip machines that use a flat-bottom filter, like a Mr. Coffee or a Krups; fine for cone filters.