Fred Couzens/VIEWPania McMullan, a shift supervisor for Starbucks in Boulder City, will share the fundamentals of making a good cup of coffee on Saturday.
Fred Couzens/VIEWPania McMullan, a shift supervisor for Starbucks in Boulder City, 1048 Nevada Highway, claims there are four fundamentals to making a good cup of coffee, fundamentals she?ll talk about at brewing demonstrations being held at the store on Saturday.
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For sleepy-eyed coffee drinkers on-the-go, dumping a few cups of water into the old Mr. Coffee along with a couple of heaps of ground beans may be enough to produce that much-needed morning jolt and in short order.
However, for a good cup of java, a lot more preparation needs to go into the process, says Starbucks coffeemaster Pania McMullan.
"There are four fundamentals to making a good cup of coffee that we make here at the store," she said. "There are proportion, freshness of the coffee beans, the grind and the water. That's a big one, definitely a big one, because we drink about 98 percent water. We use filtered water."
She says when it comes to how much is the right amount of coffee to use, Starbucks goes by the old standard of two tablespoons for every six ounces of water.
The last chance to catch one of these get-togethers is this Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.
Participants are expected to smell and slurp the offerings, and not too shyly either, for as she put it, "when it comes to slurping, the harder the better."
During the course of smelling and slurping, McMullan will teach customers everything they need to know about brewing that beverage they love so much.
"We'll be teaching people about the four fundamentals and how not using the right proportion can affect the taste of coffee," she said. "It's why it can taste so different."
As for the beans themselves, they need some special attention of their own.
"Light, heat and the exposure to air are a bean's worst enemy," McMullan said. "Being exposed to air for a bean is sort of like being a slice of bread. To keep them from drying out, you should use an airtight container. If a bag is left open out on the counter, you should use it within a week or so. If not, throw it out."
She said storing coffee in the freezer to keep it fresher is a myth because it doesn't do a lot to preserve it.
Another aspect of coffee to get attention is the grind of the bean.
"If it's too fine, or it's too coarse, that will affect the flavor, too," McMullan said. "And take your time. You can't rush a good cup of coffee."
The coffeemaster, who supervises about five of the outlet's 20 employees, has been with the store going on three years.
She said she's loved coffee for as long as she could drink it, even though she grew up among tea drinkers.
McMullan, who was born in La Jolla, Calif., and raised in Encinitas, about 20 miles north, said she got quite a reputation for drinking coffee when she transferred to Boulder City High School to finish out her senior year.
"They all kidded me and voted me as the most likely to move to Colombia and marry Juan Valdez."
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