Making coffee from coffee beans

by Sonal Modi
(Mumbai, India)

QUESTION:

I have coffee beans but no coffee maker machine. Can I grind the coffee beans in an ordinary grinder and just add hot milk to it to make a good cup of coffee?


ANSWER:

You could, but you would end up with a mug of coffee full of floating coffee grinds. This makes for a less than enjoyable coffee-drinking experience.

Once you have ground the coffee in a grinder, the next step is to use a filter to prevent the coffee grinds from mixing in with the water.

At its simplest, this means simply placing the ground coffee on filter paper or cloth and pouring the hot water over the coffee grinds. The water extracts the flavor from the coffee, then drips through the filter into your mug or cup.

In desperate circumstances while traveling I have even used cotton handkerchiefs as emergency coffee filters. Works just fine!