Glen,
I do fancy myself as a bit of a kitchen wizz....but only within pretty conservative paramaters....haha yuo won't find me knocking up beetroot flavoured macaroons or frying off foie gras in truffle oil!
Suffice to say you know enough about coffee that I'm not going to be able to tell you anything overly NEW or groundbreaking. Nearly everything with coffee is a craft, rather than an exact science...hence there are very few ways that are the RIGHT way, only what works best for a % of folks.
Pod machines I've kinda covered. Delonghi's espresso machines are regarded as very average - I know a lot of folks who've bought them who've had all kinds of issues with them. They've seemed to focus on fully auto machines (which are barely a step up from pod machines IMHO) recently. Used their machines a few times, not impressed but few folks really into their coffee tend to with go with them...seem to gravitate more with Rancilio, Gaggia and then your upper level Breville/Sunbeams.
Don't get me wrong I'm not saying you have a BAD machine - but its realistic that any results you get with it may not properly reflect the reasonably hefty pricetag the 'Xmas Tree lights' Delonghi's seem to have. But I digress......
Coffee brewing is even more of a craft as there's so many ways to do it and a number of different variables will interact with each other to affect the results. What a smart chappy does is knows what they like in a brew and also some of these variables and any fixed ones (e.g the relative characteristics, roast depth of the beans used) and adjusts the other variables to get as close as possible to the desired result.
In no particular order some of the variables are:
- type of coffee used (variety, roast depth/darkness): certain bean varieties are better suited to certain brewing methods, likewise as a general rule of thumb non-espresso brewing methods tend to favour lighter roasted beans.
- Grind size of coffee: With certain brewing methods you MUST have a certain & CONSISTANT grind size - especially with espresso extraction - thats why they always say to spend as much on your machine as you do on the grinder (always funny when you see someone with a $500+ machine using a $30 blade using CHOPPER ! Hmm wonder why he's underwhelmed with the results! Must be a burr grinder of some type, no choppers.
- Water temperature used
- Amount of coffee used
- Type of beverage required e.g latte, americano, short black, ristretto
- Brewing/steeping time before extraction of 'coffee' from grounds
I'd say they're the main variables - there's a few more minor ones but if you nail those for any extraction method you'll get a great beverage.
Suffice to say regardless of your brewing methodology you should ALWAYS grind your beans ON DEMAND. This is the absolute biggest difference in the end result any home brewer can make. So never, ever, ever....buy pre-ground coffee. The rule is within several MINUTES of being ground the taste will be adversely affected. And it doesn't matter if they're vacuum packed or whatever. So grind on demand.
Personally I use a little Kyocera ceramic hand grinder, which although labourious to those who need INSTANT java I like as it gives great results, is super easy to maintain, basically bulletproof and has zero footprint + I can take with me wherever I like.
The other SIMPLE thng to do is try and find a source for freshly roasted coffee beans. Roasted beans will generally need to rest for a few days after roasting but then you've got around 2-4weeks to consume them before again the taste goes downhill fast. Supermarket beans are a very distant cousin to properly artisan roasted beans and with online retailers there's no excuse for not finding a good source. Try and go local if you can as you will not want to buy in BIG lots (as the 2-4week consumption time) so postage can be a killer on multiple small orders.
Make sure you store the beans in a cool, dark place - ideally a vacuum type container (I've even heard of folks using old wine bottles and using a lil hand pump intended for wine to remove the air via a special stopper) otherwise 1-way valve bags are available at good retailers of fresh coffee (the beans give off CO2 after roasting which the valve lets out but won't let outside air in).
Gawd this is turning in a novella.... ;-)
Umm so plunger.....okay, first pre-heat your plunger before you do anything. Like I said mine is a stainless steel one, most folks have the glass ones that tend to last a few months before managing to get broken in some way or another!
Grind your beans......this is where it gets a tad tricky as grind size - amount of coffee used - steep time all are VERY heavily related. e.g very course grind and long steep/lots of coffee might be the same as fine grind +short steep+small amount of coffee. Its very logical.
Anyway I'll generally always make coffee for 2 persons - so this uses 10-12g of whole beans per person. I'll grind this with the grinder adjusted so the coffee is around the size of white sugar granules.
We tend to go a tad frenchie at breakfast and have latte style coffees.....so I heat 1/2 our mugs of milks in the microwave (don't overheat, coffee should be ready to drink as soon as made, not needing to cool!). Very conveniently this takes 2min on timer.
Meanwhile I boil the jug.....and pour the water out of the plunger which was preheating it - and transfer the coffee into it. I use a little thermometer to check to ensure that the water is ONLY poured in at ~93degrees (90-95 is a good range). And very importantly I only put in around 100-150ml of water per person! Its important NOT to use too much water or you end up overextracting and get bitterness.
As soon as I pour the water in I'll press start on the microwave - so thats very convenient as I like to allow a maximum of 2min to steep (again most people steep their plunger for like 5min+ and wonder why it tastes muddy/bitter!)
Plunge when the 2min is up - pour into mugs of hot milk. Now here's a key bit - rather than using extra hot water in the making to get the desired volume I use the set amount ~100-150ml per person BUT at the end I top up the mug with hot water from the jug.
Hence it sounds like you drink what's referred to as Americano style....your mug might contain 400ml but you'd top up with hot water at the end. Now obviously you have to get to know how strong you make the initial brew to make this work for you e.g amount of coffee/steep time/grind size. But again its very logical.
And then finally there is one VERY important bit that plunger users very often neglect.......remove the plunger head/screen and rise/wash this off IMMEDIATELY after making while it is still hot! Most people seem to leave it there until they next come to make coffee and all the oils etc have cooled and gone stale/rancid and this is much harder to clean and thus makes a new brew tainted. Hot water straight after use will be good enough 9 out of 10 days.
Oh and try not to store the plunger bit IN the vessel/cylinder - this tends to squish the wire screen bit and so you lose that really nice tight fit.
Umm the main thing is that you have to master those few variables for the style/strength/size drink you want......but its really very easy to repeat after that. Very basic concepts but most folks just do it the one way they've only ever known (LOADS of boiling water straight into espresso size ground supermarket coffee that they steep for 5mins and then proceed to top up out of for the next 20mins) - and they can't wait to go to a proper Barista and drink better coffee!!!! Wonder why? ;-)
Hope that helps, sorry for being verbose but didn't want to shortcut you the info.
