It’s time to experiment with different roasters and coffees. There’s not much point researching the best way to make coffee at home, and not finding the coffee you like.

Do you prefer a washed Brazilian coffee with a chocolatey mouth feel and nutty undertones? Or an Ethiopian natural with big fruity flavours and light acidic notes?

You won’t know until you try. Browse social media and it won’t take you long to find plenty of speciality roasteries with good selections of coffees to try.

There is no end to the contraptions available for brewing coffee. There are dual-chambered glass coffee vacuums; platinum machines that look like futuristic robots prepared to ingest your freshly ground beans; and there's the Eva Solo "CafeSolo"--a coffee maker that wears a neoprene jacket. Many baristas stand by the Eva Solo, but here at Bon Appetit, we stand by the old-school Chemex brewer or a French press to get the job done.

Once you have the right tools, follow these steps.

Step 1: Purchase your beans weekly from a local roaster or shop you trust. Counter Culture tells us to "Store whole-bean coffee in an airtight container and keep it out of direct sunlight and away from heat, cold, and moisture. Avoid storing your beans in the fridge or freezer, as these places can facilitate odor contamination and damaging condensation." This is why you should only buy as much as you can drink in a week.

Step 2: Buy a burr grinderimmediately if you are grinding your own beans. Grinding with a blade grinder results in uneven bean particles, which affects coffee extraction and ultimately muddles the flavor.

Step 3: Try to grind your beans only right before you brew them.

Step 4: This is where the Chemex or the French Press comes in...

For

Step 4 using a Chemex, we turn to Chicago's Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea, famed roaster and coffee purveyor. They've sent quite a number of their baristas to the World Barista Championships (four in the last four years to be exact), so they know what they're talking about.

You'll Need:

24 fluid oz of water at 206F or 97C

55g of ground coffee

pre-wet Chemex paper filter (preferably bleached)

Place pre-wet filter in the Chemex brewer.

Add ground coffee.

Place 24 fluid oz of hot water into an insulated pitcher or vessel.

Begin pre-infusion of the coffee by pouring 4 oz of water onto the grounds as evenly as possible.

Allow the grounds to "bloom", expanding as the water is absorbed.

Once the "bloom" begins to fall, evenly pour the water over the grounds in a spiral fashion starting in the center of the chamber working your way to the outer edge.

As the water in the top chamber begins to transfer into the bottom chamber, maintain a consistent water level in the top chamber. This will require multiple pours.

Once all of the pre-dosed water has been distributed to the top chamber, allow 1 - 2 minutes for the brew to complete and the coffee to transfer into the bottom chamber.

Remove the filter.