1. Use freshly roasted coffee - there's a saying, "fresher is better." Coffee is very susceptible to time; after 3 months from the roast date, the negative influence of oxygen and light on coffee quality is already very noticeable. Always look for freshly roasted coffee, preferably bought directly from a coffee roaster.

2. Always use filtered water - the water from a home filter is excellent. Mineral waters tend to have many minerals (solid particles), which makes them "hard water" and prevents proper coffee extraction. In the case of tap water, even if boiling makes the water safe to drink, it doesn't remove chlorine like filters do, and chlorine negatively affects both the quality and flavor of the coffee.

3. Always pre-rinse the filter - when using methods that involve paper or cloth filters, it's very important to pre-rinse the filter, both to saturate the filter with liquid (so it doesn't absorb the extracted coffee) and to remove the cellulose taste from the paper, which makes the coffee astringent.

4. Don't let the water boil too much - the ideal temperature for making good coffee is 92ºC to 94ºC, according to international SCA protocols. Boiling the water too much not only raises the temperature to extremely high degrees for coffee, but also causes the water to evaporate, reducing the amount of liquid and increasing the proportion of natural salt particles per milliliter of water, which makes it "hard water" that will not extract correctly and results in a "flat," more bitter coffee with little flavor.

5. Store coffee while maintaining its quality - because it is very sensitive to oxygen and light, it is very important to store coffee correctly. The ideal is to store the coffee in its original packaging (it must be one with aluminum on the inside). When we put coffee in other containers or in the refrigerator, we expose it to external odors and a large amount of oxygen and light, which will reduce the shelf life of the coffee and, consequently, its quality.