You’re probably washing your coffee maker too often, according to one expert

Up to two-thirds of adults in the United States start their morning with a fresh cup of coffee. With this level of ubiquity, you might think we’d all write off the whole coffee thing as a science. According to the expert, this is not the case.

Mastering the art of brewing requires dedication, experimentation, and attention to detail—whether you use flaskfrench press, pour over, Espresso machine Or prepare a cold drink.

I spoke with Sarina Prabhasi, founder Brown toastera small roastery with three cafés in northern Manhattan, to uncover the common mistakes people make when making coffee at home. As a small roaster and board member Specialty Coffee AssociationPrabasi shared valuable guidance on small tweaks that can dramatically improve the quality of your coffee.

Here are seven common coffee making mistakes that we often make without even realizing it. These expert tips will help you take your morning coffee from practical to truly delightful.

1. Wash the coffee maker often

Get rid of the soap for your coffee pot and Pour over immersion beer It may seem like questionable advice. In fact, your coffee equipment doesn’t need to be scrubbed every time you use it. Even small amounts of fragrant dish soap detergent residue will leave you with a foamy, substandard pot of coffee.

“It really stays there and can ruin the flavour, so a good rinse with very hot water is usually enough to make coffee black,” Brabasi said. Oils in pimples can build up over time, so fragrance-free dish soap is helpful for occasional deep cleaning. However, a simple rinse with hot water will be more than enough for daily use. Save your time and avoid any unwanted “soap suds” notes that may interrupt single-origin notes Natural grilled sidama.

2. Buy more coffee than you can prepare fresh

Buying in bulk can save time and money at the grocery store but can have disappointing results for coffee drinkers. Buying smaller quantities of beans will help avoid drinking stale, flat coffee, especially for the average drinker and one- or two-person households. You’ll know the coffee is stale because “it can taste like the shade itself,” Propasi told us.

The roaster recommends checking Coffee label For a roasting date within one month, preferably within two weeks. (Keep in mind that the “Best Buy” date is different and is not an indicator of freshness.) If you don’t like grinding at home, the roasting date should be on the fresh side.

But don’t panic about the flavor dropping like a ticking time bomb in your cupboard. “Every day after roasting does not mean it loses its freshness, but after two weeks, I would say it starts to decrease,” Prabasi said. Coffee storage In an airtight container but avoid a humid refrigerator which contains a large number of odors that can stick to the beans.

3. Adjust more than one thing at a time

You can find tutorials online that recommend brewers, scales, tampers, water filters, grinders, and various techniques for making the perfect cup. Experimentation is key to making your favorite drink, but only if you start with the basics. “So just adjust the water at first,” Prabasi said.

If you don’t have it Kitchen scaleThe roaster told us the rule of thumb is to start with 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per cup of water. The finer the grind, the stronger your coffee will taste, so you’ll need to adjust your ground coffee to water ratio accordingly. If this seems too weak or too strong, adjust it by adding more or less coffee at the same grind level.

Beyond the basics, you can get creative. “If your coffee is very acidic, you might prefer a dark roast,” Brabasi said. Coffee too bitter? You can adjust the roast type by purchasing a lower level, such as dark to medium or medium to light. “If you get an East African coffee, maybe try one from South America, you know, like switch it up,” she said. Changing a single element at once ensures that you know which step affected the outcome for better or worse.

4. Use water directly from the tap

Filling your coffee pot with tap water will produce less than ideal flavors. Filtered water, for most of us, will make a huge difference in the final flavor of your coffee. Tap water is often full of byproducts that can be easily filtered at home Water filtration system.

Almost all of the water you get from your tap in the United States is disinfected with low levels of chlorine. The EPA reports that One in five people drinks chloramineIt is a backup disinfectant made from chlorine and ammonia to kill harmful viruses and bacteria such as salmonella. These chemicals ensure that we do not get sick but will change the taste and smell of tap water. Chloramine is also known to remove lead and copper from pipes, byproducts that can affect even carefully brewed coffee.

5. Forget to stop and smell the coffee

The smell can be a dead giveaway that your coffee has gone stale. Prabhasi explains that you should immediately open the bag of beans or ground coffee and smell the roasted coffee. Aroma is the main indicator of flavour. Lack of smell means a serious lack of taste.

Stale coffee can taste muddy or flat and lack any complex tasting notes that the bag might list on its label, Brabasi said. “That’s why I think in the coffee profession, a lot of what we do is taste coffee,” she said. “From farm to café, every step of the way the coffee is tasted or cupped, in our local language.”

Old coffee is unlikely to make you sick, so there’s no need to throw it away. However, you may want to switch from drinking your coffee black. Making iced coffee is a simple way to mask a lack of tasting flavor. Using an immersion brewer also allows you to steep your ground coffee longer to add more flavor after the coffee has become dull.

6. Ignore the organic label

The large number of coffee brands in the grocery store can be overwhelming. To help sift through the masses, Prabasi explains that the organic coffee label is a sign of the important quality of the coffee.

“If you can, I think for coffee and tea, organic is really important because coffee and tea crops, especially from large farms, tend to be oversprayed,” Prabasi said. Pesticides are sprayed directly on the coffee beans, and coffee is different from an apple that you wash or a banana that you peel before eating. Tea leaves go through a similar process where anything left on the leaves is steeped into your cup.

The café owner explained that she doesn’t think coffee has to be expensive to be considered “good.” Great coffee is made for a variety of budgets. “I think the care that is given and some thought into the care that goes into sourcing it or roasting it or just presenting it, I would look for those things,” Prabasi said. The organic label is a useful place to start.

7. Always take your coffee “to go.”

Even if you don’t think coffee is just a means to an end, many of us treat coffee as just fuel. take Coffee in a travel mug Mobility is not inherently a problem. Instead, Prabasi invites coffee drinkers to take advantage of any time and ability to savor a cup of coffee. In contrast to the “hit and go” culture in the United States, drinking coffee in Ethiopia is an opportunity to slow down and connect with the people you care about. “And I would say — I’ve lived in Ethiopia for eight years — I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘I’ll have coffee,'” Barabasi said. “It was always like, ‘Let’s have coffee. Should we have coffee?'”

Even taking an extra 10 minutes to sip your drink at a coffee shop instead of ordering a to-go cup can change the energy of a hectic morning. “I think there are a lot of rituals around coffee and how one enjoys it,” Prabasi said. Taking the time to create your own ritual, whether at home or at a local store, can help you savor everything coffee has to offer beyond the caffeine.

For more coffee information, here How to read coffee labels and The best travel mugs of 2026, tested by CNET.