You may think that making a cup of coffee is a straightforward task, and it is, but you can always improve your process to maximize efficiency and flavor. Unfortunately, many people rely on coffee shops and instant coffee to get their daily fix. This is expensive and can force you to miss out on making a truly great cup of java. To help you with this, consider the three tips below to make a better cup of coffee:

Buy Whole Beans

When it comes to making the perfect cup of coffee, you need to avoid buying bags of preground coffee and opt for freshly produced whole beans. This is because there is really no way to identify exactly how long preground coffee has been sitting on the shelf for. In the vast majority of cases, coffee companies don't put the date the coffee was roasted on the packaging; therefore, the preground coffee you buy off the shelf could have been sitting there for a few months, if not longer.

Rather than opting for the easy option, you should try to buy whole beans in order to maximize the taste of your coffee. Yes, this can be time consuming – you need to grind beans every day – but the difference in taste will more than justify the additional effort.

Make Sure You Grind Correctly

The taste of fresh coffee is miles apart from stale coffee that has been sitting for a couple of months. Therefore, you need to make sure you grind your whole beans at the right time in order to maximize the flavor of the coffee. For the majority of coffee strands available on the market, the optimum time for grinding is around 30-to-60 minutes before brewing a batch.

When grinding your beans, you must also consider the size of the granules and the consistency of the coffee. On coffee grinders, there are a number of settings at your disposal, but each setting will fall into one ofo the following categories based on the size of the grind:

• Coarse: A coarse grind is consists of large, distinct granules that look a little like potted soil. This type of grind typically produces a weaker taste and is great for making french press coffee.

• Medium: This grind has a particle size that is just slightly smaller than table salt and is used in coffee machines with cone-shaped filters.

• Fine: Fine grinds produce particles with a much smoother feel than the above with a consistency that is similar to sugar. This is the type of grind used for espresso and will often be the most used setting on your grinder.

Consider Using K-cups

If you don't know what K-cups are, don't worry – you're not the only one! However, K-cups offer an extremely efficient way of getting your daily fix of coffee so it definitely worth considering if you are short on time.

Simply put, K-cups, like donut shop K-cups, are a one-stop shop for a fresh cup of coffee. Each individual K-cup consists of a single serving of coffee grounds and a filter. All of this is then put inside a special brewing device (known as a Keurig) that pumps hot water into the cup to produce fresh coffee.

The main benefit of using K-cups is the efficiency of the entire process. You are able to purchase a wide range of different flavors and strands of coffee yet don't have to spend time grinding, measuring and cleaning. The entire process can be completed in a few minutes and you don't have to worry about waste – each cup contains exactly one serving, so you can simply pop in your next K-cup when you are needing a fix!