Men’s Health Editor Clint Carter experienced that perfect cup, prepared for him by 2014 U.S. Brewers Cup winner Todd Goldsworthy. “It was so good that I felt tingly nerve impulses relax my jaw muscles to let the hot nectar reach more of my mouth,” Carter writes. But how to duplicate that recipe at home? He went on a Search For the Elusive Perfect Cup of Joe, and learned some surprising things about the ritual of preparing coffee. It’s about patience, he writes, and an attentiveness to detail that few of us bother with in the rush to prepare our morning java. “Once I’d mastered the technique, it really didn’t demand much of my time,” he writes. “If you can cook a burger, you can make a great cup of coffee.” Here are 8 steps that will help you make better coffee than you ever imagined.

  1. Get Fresh Choose coffee beans with roast dates (not “best by” dates) within the past two weeks. For mail-order beans, try bluebottlecoffee.com. MORE: Roast Your Own Coffee Beans at Home
  2. Use a Burr Grinder Buy a manual Hario Min Mill Slim ($32, prima-coffee.com) or electric Baratza Encore ($129, amazon.com). Why? See the bean photos here.
  3. Count Your Beans On a digital kitchen scale, weigh 25 grams whole beans and 350 grams water per mug. Grind them. No scale? Get one online for $20.
  4. Take Its Temp Your brewing water temp should be 195° to 205°F. Water boils at 212°F, so boil a kettle, take it off the heat, and let it sit for 30 seconds.
  5. Start the Bath Set a cup with a pour-over cone on the scale. Add a filter; rinse it with hot water. Dump the water, zero the scale, and add the grounds.
  6. Watch It Bloom Pour with a slow, circular motion until you add 25 to 50 grams of water. If the coffee’s fresh, the bed of grounds will “puff” as if it’s inhaling. MORE: The RIght TIme For Your Cup of Joe
  7. Fill the Cup Once the grounds settle back down, resaturate them until you’ve poured in all the water. The whole process takes 2½ to 3 minutes. MORE: How to Make Your Coffee Truly Healthy
  8. Fine-Tune Now sip your brew. If the coffee tastes bitter, try grinding your beans a bit coarser next time. Bland? Go with a finer setting on your grinder. The article “Make the Best Coffee You’ll Ever Drink” originally ran on MensHealth.com.