HOW TO MAKE THE PERFECT CUP OF COFFEE

You don't have to hit the high street to get the most out of your cuppa

- JACK PARSONS

Many of us need our daily dose of caffeine in the morning, but many people don't realise you can make yourself that perfect steaming cup of coffee just the way you like it in your own home. There's a way to get your ideal cup on every budget, too - you don't have to import some crazy Italian-made coffee-shop machine just to get the most out of your beans. But different devices yield very different results for different kinds of coffee - from a short, sharp espresso to the ever-impressive latte heart. So how does coffee get its complex, rich and bitter flavours?

Brewing coffee is a scientific process: when you push water through ground beans, you dissolve soluble flavours into the water, and the end result is affected by many factors, such as the ratio of coffee to water that's passed through it, the amount of coffee that actually gets dissolved into the brew and the weight of the coffee in the brewer. This is why you get such varied tastes and consistencies from different machines. It's also the explanation of why an AeroPress can provide such good espresso in a relatively small machine, and also how Nespresso machines can consistently deliver an even, measured brew.