Clean your coffee maker for a fresher, delicious taste!
Sometimes we forget to clean the most useful kitchen utensils. This is (usually) the coffee maker’s destiny. If your morning coffee starts to taste bitter, or if you find strange bits of an unknown origin inside of it (coffee sediments), it’s time to clean it!
Doing this attains multiple benefits: your coffee will taste fresher, hard water spots from the carafe will be removed and stains will be a forgotten story. It will also remove mineral buildup and clean out the coffee oils that get left behind and turn rancid.
White vinegar (enough to fill up half your carafe)
Hot soapy water
Sponge
Damp dish towel
Dry dish towel
How to clean your coffee maker?
Empty and rinse the carafe and dump out any coffee grounds left in the filter—actually, you must do this regularly for better maintenance.
Fill the water chamber to its full capacity with equal parts white vinegar and water. You can use the carafe to measure equal parts of each.
Start a brew cycle. Midway through the brew cycle, turn off the coffee maker and let it sit for an hour.
After an hour, turn on the coffee maker and let the brew cycle finish.
After the brew cycle has been completed, pour out the vinegar-water solution and fill the water chamber with fresh water (no vinegar). Run a whole new brew cycle just with the water. Repeat two more times, allowing your coffee maker to cool slightly between brews.
Wipe down the exterior of your coffee maker, and wash the carafe and filter basket in hot, soapy water.
Reassemble and brew a great cup of coffee!
Extra Tips!
Dhow’s writer, Donna Porter, offers some tips for better maintenance of your coffee maker:
Put a glass marble in the water chamber to attract mineral deposits from hard water. Wash it once a week.
Instead of a pitcher, you can use the sprayer from your sink to fill the coffee maker without spilling!
Does your pot have hard-to-reach areas? Use a wooden chopstick with a paper towel to get in there.
Use a baby bottle brush inside for stubborn stains.
You can put ice cubes and a little water in a pot and swirl them around, for harder stains put some table salt in a pot and swirl it around for a few minutes, and then rinse.
Heat a toothbrush by the bristles enough that you can bend it to a 90° angle. This makes a perfect brush for cleaning the filter basket.
Never use the coffee pot to pour water into the reservoir. This will transfer oils and impurities from the pot, and eventually give the coffee a nasty taste. Instead, use a pitcher that is reserved for water only.
For tough stains, scrub the pot using a paper towel or a clean (not soapy) dish towel. Rinse thoroughly.
Never wash the coffee pot with soap. This will bind with the oils deposited by the coffee and will leave a taste behind. Do not wash in the dishwasher for the same reason.
