Pro Chefs Make Their Favorite Coffee _ Test Kitchen Talks @ Home _ Bon Appétit

It makes it a lot easier to be like trapped in the house with these little monsters because they keep me busy .

Right .

What's going , what's going on , Vita ?

You cool .

Here we go .

You want the full view coffee ?

Hey , everyone .

I am not in the test kitchen .

I am in my home kitchen .

I'm in the desert .

I'm here at home .

Still at my parents' kitchen in South Jersey .

We're working from home these days and I'm gonna show you my coffee routine .

This is the first thing I do in the morning .

Ok .

It's very important .

I'm gonna show you how I make mine at home .

Yeah , that's better coffee .

How do I make coffee ?

I have to put the knife down .

So little agro as the kids say today , what we're gonna be doing is making my perfect coffee .

Just so happens .

I've recently invented .

You might , I don't know .

Someone must have done it for God's sakes .

But I'm gonna just say I recently invented a coffee drink called I call it the Cafe .

Ok ?

I only drink coffee in the morning .

Ok .

I'm not an afternoon drinker every now and then , but I like my two cups in the morning .

So I usually do a drip but then I got this little machine here , a little espresso machine and I don't really drink too much espresso .

But I really love is the , is the um , is the steam bread makes it happen ?

No big deal .

So the cafe is just drip .

Coffee steamed whole milk and then I get brown sugar , dark brown sugar or like whatever you're into and a shave .

I get a little shavings and I just drop it onto the steamed milk on top of the coffee .

Yeah , we're gonna make it Dan .

I got the drip coffee .

You already made , check this out .

This thing's great .

Gonna steam some milk and fill this up about you know uh a little bit over halfway .

OK ?

Lactose free my one kid lactose intolerant .

What are you gonna do ?

And we're just gonna steam it .

I'm gonna go on a little angle just that .

Here we go .

Warehouse .

You don't wanna go get all bubble .

You wanna , you wanna frothy , right ?

Not big bubbles but like Moose .

I don't know if you're supposed to use cold milk or uh oh All right .

I think I did it .

Look at that nice .

Look at that nice frothy .

This is great guys .

Look at that beautiful , nice froth .

So here we go .

Got my cafe la la mug .

OK ?

My coffee fill that up .

Oh leave a little room for our OK .

This is how this is where I always screw it up .

It's getting a nice , oh , I nailed it .

Oh , my God .

I did such a good job .

So , what I do sometimes everybody does this .

I don't care unless you're really good .

And look , I just , oh , look at that .

Oh , my God .

And then the little brown sugar .

Oh my God .

That's it .

Right there .

Little brown sugar just sits in there .

Little pillows .

Ok .

Good angle .

Huh ?

I'm a good camera guy .

Oh Take two .

Look at that .

That's the stuff .

It's like a dessert .

You can't have this for breakfast .

That's like eating .

That's like eating candy for breakfast .

Look at this .

This is a dessert .

This is a dessert .

A delicacy .

I like this , you know , take your first there .

Yeah .

Look at these guys .

Uh you guys working hard or what we're watching .

You work hard but I did a good job too .

Oh man .

It's heavenly suitable for a king .

That's it .

Perfect .

Perfect .

Mine perfect coffee .

Cafe camera cuts if you know me .

You know , I don't drink coffee .

I drink our national drink from Argentina .

That is I love the smell .

I really do is a traditional tea .

Uh drinking a special cup and mate is something that is made in South America , the south of Brazil , Argentina , Uruguay and in some parts of Chile .

See my collection , they are very interesting looking covered with silver with very intricate work .

This one is made of glass and covered in leather with like cute little doggies around .

This guy is the one I love .

So the has two holes .

One is that where you're gonna drink like any other straw and the other , it has all these tiny holes like the tea baskets you will use when you make loose tea .

It's the same idea .

So if you were going to compare it to something , I will compare it to like a green tea .

It does have caffeine , but it doesn't have the same amount of octane that coffee does .

So to make the , you are not supposed to fill up this cup all the way to the top .

So I put four of these because you're gonna be adding the water and the mat is gonna expand .

You don't want it to overflow .

The one thing that we like to do in Argentina is shake it to remove any excess powder .

If you can see it on my hand and then you're ready , you have to tell them a little bit .

So you have a little diagonal and then you insert this raw slow stream .

You don't boil the water .

I put it at 100 and 80 degrees in one side and then you're ready to rock and roll .

The dry matte goes up and the wet stays in one corner .

It's not that you put the water and you drink it once .

Perfect .

You continue to drink throughout until the leaves just don't give flavor anymore .

This is the mood guys .

You don't know it .

Oh , I'm still shooting .

My coffee routine is actually my husband's coffee routine .

I drink black tea in the morning um , with milk and my very nice husband often brings it to me while I'm still in bed because I'm the queen of the house and that's how that goes .

So when I want to be really nice to him and repay some of this tea in bed that I've been getting .

I make him a really nice aero press .

We've been making coffee with this thing for many , many years .

And it's also amazing if you're ever on the road or camping .

And I actually take a lot of pleasure in doing it with the timer and the scale and the whole kit and Caboodle .

It's got the kind of main chamber thing .

They sell paper filters , but we switched over to this like fine mesh stainless steel filter and that sits on top of this .

So you put the filter into the bottom tray , you attach that to that .

And then the other piece is a plunger and it's got like a hard rubber stopper majiggy .

And then the other piece is this paddle which you use for stirring the grounds into the water .

I feel like I read something about the inventor , like , is he like an aeronautical engineer type of guy ?

Yeah , I keep thinking , I'm gonna come up with some great invention .

I just haven't come up with it yet .

Ok .

So the first thing I'm gonna do is preheat the cup .

Preheating .

The cup makes a huge difference in how hot your coffee is when it hits the cup and how hot it stays .

I'm just gonna fill that cup up .

So now I need 18 g of coffee nailed it .

The cup feels hot on the outside .

Dump out the water , set , the thing of the jabber on top of the cup .

I , I'm gonna start the timer .

So the first thing is just a little bit of water to bloom the grounds .

It's important .

That's been about 10 seconds .

I'm gonna pour .

This is supposed to take about 30 seconds .

It gets stirred for five .

And then you use your little stopper bopper to just create like a vacuum seal .

So now we wait 90 seconds .

No one's really timing me .

But I think that was about 90 seconds .

Take the plunger off but keep it nearby .

Take the stir guy .

Give it another stir that's done .

And then you plunge .

One thing to look for is that the coffee grounds form a mound when you get to the bottom and then listen for the hiss .

As soon as you hear the hiss you're done .

All right .

So that's it .

Regular cow's milk .

A delicious cup of coffee .

It's the color he likes Fred .

Fred .

He's on a call .

Should I drink his coffee ?

What are you gonna do .

I truly believe that once you experience truly exceptional coffee , it's very hard to ever go back .

And I'm not saying that I won't happily get some Dunkin Donuts on a road trip .

That's a beautiful experience .

And I don't mean to minimize that for anybody .

When I left my apartment in New York City , I had to choose the things that were very important to me , things that I felt very passionately about and clearly my entire pore over set up was one of those things .

So I make my coffee with a little ceramic , pour over a cone .

This is a V 60 ceramic filter holder .

I like a Jao V 60 .

They make a glass version .

I've been traveling around Mexico for the last six months .

So I found this a silicone collapsible V 60 .

Here's the thing about great coffee .

It's a little bit about the coffee .

Well , it's a lot about the coffee , beautiful , lovely coffee .

Never buy pre ground coffee .

The minute you grind a coffee bean , the flavor is essentially leaking out and it's a little bit about the equipment .

But actually , it's a lot about the equipment .

This is my kettle .

I do find it really important to use a kettle that has this particularly thin kind of spout that is very hot .

I don't have my kettle at home .

So right , right now , I have my kettle set to 207 degrees .

Let's call it 206 a little bit below boiling .

I am going to grind my coffee beans .

This is a burr grinder .

A bird grinder means that there are actual circular burrs that turn in opposition to each other .

Think of it like a pepper grinder .

This is actually Chris Morocco's old grinder , which he gave to me because he didn't want it anymore .

He probably bought some like much fancier one .

I have a Greve be grinder even this is key when it comes to coffee .

I don't have an electric grinder .

I have this guy .

You could grind other things in here if you wanted to .

But this has only been used for coffee .

I would like to go on record .

I generally use about three tablespoons .

I'm going to measure my beans by weight by using a scale .

I keep a little scoop in my jar .

Two of these is roughly like 21 g .

I'm not a fanatic about my coffee in the way that some other people are .

I know like Delaney and Chris Morocco would freak out if they knew I wasn't using a scale .

I'm using 20 g of beans .

So anyway , that's how you grind the beans .

This guy just comes off .

There's a bunch of ground coffee .

It's not super fine , it's not super coarse , so good .

OK .

Back in my coffee cabinet , this is also where I keep my coffee filters .

I like these ones .

They're the brown ones .

So I love pre wetting my filter .

Sometimes the filter can have a little bit of a papery taste which is not pleasant .

It kind of just flushes it out .

So beans are going into the filter holder , pop my beans in here .

So now I'm going to bloom the coffee .

I want to wet the grounds , but without actually pouring water through them , it basically opens up the coffee and gets it ready to actually be brewed .

This I usually let hang out anywhere between 40 seconds to a minute .

And now I'm gonna start my first pore .

We want to go to 352 g .

22 times 16 is 352 I guess in total .

I feel like this takes about two minutes .

Try and go in a circular motion .

Although there are mornings where I just kind of dump it in .

It's sort of a nice meditative time and it's nice to just normally , I guess what I would be doing is not , not staring into my coffee .

I would be like frantically emptying the dish rack or unloading the dishwasher or something , but almost there .

Oh , nailed it .

352 .

The touch of a pro .

All right .

So our extraction went to about three minutes .

10 seconds inclusive of the blue .

Oh , it smells so good .

It smells like morning , even though it's noon , it's 5 20 .

If I drink this right now , I am not going to bed until like 3 a.m. Ok .

All the water's through the most important step when it comes to coffee is drinking it out of a mug that you like .

And that's for me , like a novelty mug , something you'd buy at a souvenir shop or the airport or whatever .

Uh or your local public radio station .

My director informs me that Delaney said something about the best mug being like a shitty novelty mug with something stupid on it .

Delaney , this is a Lale ceramic mug .

Uh It's from upstate New York um in the kind of greater Kingston area .

I hate a fancy coffee mug .

Look at that perfect amount .

This size is perfect for a 320 g pour over , but it smells so good and I cannot drink it right now .

It would be so bad .

It's 5 20 .

I'm gonna drink a little bit .

That is so good and I'm gonna have to stop drinking that kind of green apple flavor with a little bit of milk chocolate .

This shit tastes like fucking blueberries and it's incredible .

Oh , so good .

That's a perfect cup of coffee .

Today .

We're making one of my favorite morning beverages .

I'm not much of a coffee drinker , but I love chai .

This is kind of the shortcut way that my mom makes it at home because when we're in the morning and we need our boost of energy .

We like it fast .

It usually involves black tea , milk , spices , the spices vary but the way that we make it at home , we focus on one spice , which I think is the star of chai and that's cardamom .

So you're gonna start with black tea and then you're gonna just crush cardamom pods .

You don't need to remove the shell or anything .

You're just gonna give them a nice pounding so that they've released the seeds .

So I just put these shells in all chai is traditionally sweetened .

We add quite a bit of sugar like a heaping heaping teaspoon .

But you do you some boiling water on top .

It's nice and steamy .

So we're gonna let that steep for like a minute .

This is like that weird down time in the videos where I say stupid things that end up in the video .

So maybe I should not say anything .

What's on your mouth ?

We're done steeping just top it off with as much milk as you want .

That's what it's supposed to be a dark tan but you can make it more or less milky .

This is probably not anything the aunties back in India would approve of .

It's a very short cut version but I think it's delicious .

It's a nice little alternative to coffee and yeah , I drink it every day .

Mm I use fresh card among people .

Mm I like to start every day off with a cup of coffee .

I'm pretty particular about it .

I don't really love espresso unless it's like a cappuccino .

Um But that's to me more of an afternoon coffee .

I like my first morning coffee to be American drip coffee with hot whole milk in it .

Sometimes half and half .

Depending on the coffee .

This tiny corner of my kitchen is the coffee and tea area .

This is my chem .

It just makes a drip coffee .

This cone I like because it's metal with tiny perforations .

And so I don't have to reuse a paper .

I don't have to use a paper filter every single time I can just wash this and reuse it , which is wonderful .

And then I have crock of tools all of that on the way .

A bird grinder .

I just eyeball this part and in fact , I am guilty of making coffee .

That's too strong .

Constantly .

I bought this part too .

I do a couple of tablespoons .

This is how much I filled it .

I can't imagine what Chris Morocco's coffee routine is at home .

But one of the most endearing , most Chris Morocco things ever was when he brought his whole coffee set up to Cape Cod when we shot making .

Perfect .

And then opened like a little coffee bar in the morning in the hotel .

I like to heat up the milk so that the milk doesn't bring down the temperature of the coffee .

I'm always shooting for this very particular temperature of coffee where you can , it's really hot , but you can kind of gulp it .

It's just perfect .

So I'm going to pop this in the microwave for maybe 30 seconds .

And while that's heating I'll start to pour the water .

One thing I've learned from watching people in fancy coffee shops is that it's good to sort of moisten all the coffee grounds first in a circle .

I don't know why I've just seen people do it , whatever my thing is , like who has the coherence and clarity of mind to do all that in the morning before you've had coffee to do all the weighing and the proportions .

That seems crazy .

That's plenty for one cup .

I'm going to grab my milk and then I slowly pour , I love this little pour spout in the chem that makes it very precise .

I'll hold this up so you can see .

And then I like pouring the coffee into the milk because then I stop .

Once I get the right kind of color , I like it to be pretty light .

I love milk .

I've always been a milk drinker that looks perfect .

And then that's it .

I'm gonna drink this whole cup of coffee because I have been waiting until I've had to show you to have my coffee this morning even though it's almost two o'clock .

But this is the life of self isolating .

So you can drink coffee any time of day .

Perfect temperature .

All right , when I'm at home , I have an espresso machine and every morning I make an almond cappuccino .

I'm not home .

There's no espresso machine here .

It's also a little bit warmer here because I'm in the desert .

So today I'm gonna make a cold brew soda , which is basically equal parts cold brew coffee and tonic water with a squeeze of lime over ice .

Got my tonic , got a lemon and then this has just been straining cold brew for the last couple of hours .

It's concentrate , it's really intense .

I'm cutting one lemon into wedges because I'll have that as a garnish and then squeezing the juice of half a lemon into this cup of ice , catching the seeds and then I'm gonna fill it about halfway with my cold brew .

And if you can't find tonic water right now , what you can do instead is top it with soda water .

Seltzer sparkling water and then just sweeten it a little bit with like agave or honey or simple syrup to balance the acidity of the citrus .

So there it is .

My coffee soda tastes just like the test kitchen .

Miss your test kitchen .

I really do .

We are all demonstrating our favorite ways to make coffee , but I don't really drink coffee .

So I'm gonna make a white Russian .

Nowadays , I'm drinking a lot more .

So a white Russian in the morning doesn't seem totally out of reason .

My working from home drinking rules is I still don't start until like maybe instead of five like four .

I'm one of those people when I have a lot to drink .

I seem exactly the same but nothing in there is working .

So I don't really like to drink and work , but I like to know that it's here for me .

So a white Russian is usually kalua vodka and cream .

I think all of those things are disgusting .

So now I'm gonna show you how I like to make a white Russian with coffee craft coffee that then they turn into booze , like how can that be bad ?

And then in place of the vodka , I prefer to use bourbon , equal parts of both and then a splash of cream .

This is an antique jigger .

It's completely inaccurate .

I just like using it makes me feel old timey .

I think this might be an ounce .

So I'm gonna crack my ice cube a bit before I throw it in there .

So it kind of melts a little bit while it's chilling the drink .

So I'm gonna stir that up .

You wanna stir your drink ?

So the spoon moves along the outside of your glass .

So you're kind of just pushing the ice through the drink and we're just gonna do that until the mixing glass feels cold .

That's how you know that your drink is cold .

Now , I need a second giant ice cube once again .

Oh My dogs are really into this .

There we go .

So I'm gonna strain this into this glass now and then finish it with a little bit of cream , just a little drizzle on top .

So this is not your classic white Russian .

I'm sure people will get mad at me , but it's the one that I want to drink .

It's the coffee drink I want .

It's really tasty .

The coffee liqueur is so , so good .

It just tastes like cold brew whiskey .

The cold version of an Irish coffee .

My normal coffee routine is very , very simple .

I just do eight cups of water in the base cover that the filter over here just goes on top like that .

I'll do eight scoops , one scoop per cup , put the top on , slide that in , lock it and then just turn it on and then we wait , this is Goldie .

She's perfect .

She's beautiful and she has a natural smoky eye .

Hm .

Ok .

I would say the biggest difference between the coffee drink back in New York and at home is that I usually drink it with like a splash of oat .

If I don't have oat , I'll do almond .

Um This is a half and half house .

So I've been drinking half and half and I have absolutely no regrets and it feels fucking fantastic .

So , uh-huh , it wasn't that hot .

OK .

Coffee time .

Everybody .

Uh So I'm going everybody , I'm in my home , everybody .

I'm in my home kitchen and I'm gonna make a pot of coffee .

The way that I do pretty much every morning and every afternoon , the thing that I care about the most is making sure my coffee stays hot for as long as possible .

So here I have like a vacuum insulated kara because I like to drink like a little cup of coffee and then like , wait a half an hour and then drink another little cup of coffee .

Just filled that with like nearly boiling water .

One of my biggest pet peeves is making coffee into a cold kara because then it's just sucking all the heat out of your coffee .

And like your first cup is lukewarm .

So I've got a little brown paper number four filter .

My trusty moli dripper .

I used to have the like fancy ceramic or glass ones , but they all broke .

So I'm gonna rinse that .

Dump this hot water .

We're going to grind our beans .

I really think the biggest thing is just making sure that you're grinding your coffee fresh every day .

Ok ?

Cool sling that into our clean filter .

The first thing I'm gonna do is just pour a little bit and kind of like bloom them .

Ok .

So now we're just gonna keep on refilling this right around the sides .

Keep on adding water as it drains out .

Oh , I'm gonna take this time to preheat my mug .

This is non negotiable .

I love having really hot tap water for this reason .

I'll just fill this up and let it sit until I'm ready to pour into it .

So our grounds are dry .

Now , all the coffee is dripped off , close the lid , dump the water from my preheated cup ?

Oh .

And that is how I make a pot and that is how I make a pot of coffee .

Yeah , that's ok .

That's a cut .

Hm .

Me cut .

I'm , like , waiting for someone to cut for me .