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I stopped drinking coffee for a while but recently picked it back up, mainly because I enjoy the scent. Previously I had a Keurig machine; convenient, but produces almost no smell during brewing. Until I broke it a couple days ago, I was trying out a french press. Again, very little of that heavenly wakeup scent.

What method of coffee making will best fill the house with coffee scent?

MTSan
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Kal_Torak
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    With the way volatile aroma compounds work, the more coffee flavor is in the air, the less flavor will be in the drink. Maybe you just need a home coffee roaster, they usually make your whole house smell like coffee. – Netduke Mar 01 '19 at 20:53

2 Answers2

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If you want a lot of scent, you will want to make sure that nothing stops evaporation - so no lid and a large surface area are paramount.

The classic method would be hand-filtered pour-over, which system you choose is up to you, famous examples are Melitta, Chemex or Hario (which all follow the same principle). And as an additional benefit you get to enjoy the aroma right there while you are brewing the coffee.

An alternative could be Turkish mocca, where super-fine grounds are boiled. The boiling process will likely create more steam, on the other hand, the surface area of a cezve is a lot smaller than that of a filter. You will also have a quite different end product and have to decide for yourself whether that fits your expectation or not.

And in any case, I recommend grinding your beans fresh just before brewing, you’ll be surprised at how much of a difference that alone will be. And grinding also releases the coffee smell you are aiming for.

Stephie
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I believe coffee lovers consume coffee to be able to drink that smell. I just want to add to Stephie's answer where that smell comes from.

While roasting, during Maillard reaction, the little pores in the coffee bean fills out with the emittted CO2 together with traces of products of the Maillard reaction. These products are partially trapped within the bean together with CO2. Partially trapped means that they can still find cracks within the bean and going through the cracks they can go out of the bean~. Put this is limited*. Still, some flavor is trapped inside.

Then, when you grind the bean, you crack open all the holes and let the flavors carried together with CO2. CO2 molecule has a very small molecular mass^, so it really travels fast through the air to your nose.

Based on this story we can conclude that:

  • bean characteristics
  • fresher roast
  • finer ground

positively affect the amount of smell. Then, you can extract more flavors and evaporate them during brewing. I assume this part has already been answered.

  • (~) This is what you smell from the little valve of packed coffee beans
  • (*) This is what happens during degassing.
  • (^) 44.0095 g/mol. See Physics SE.
MTSan
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