First, you have the coffee. Your need top quality coffee. This means the coffee beans must be 100% Arabica. Robusta is the other species of coffee that is available and is most often used in cheaper coffees and at best, contains a mix of Robusta and Arabica. Robusta beans lack the complexity of flavors afforded by Arabica and it often has bitter or flat notes.

For the absolute best gourmet coffee you need to get whole beans and grind them fresh yourself.

Make sure you use the right kind of packaging to store your beans because coffee beans are similar to spices in the fact that they can quickly lose essential oils.

Begin making your cup by using very cold water. Grind up just enough beans to fill your pot. Then brew your coffee in the pot in the normal manner.

For true coffee gourmets, you may even want to do the actual roasting of the beans yourself. True gourmet coffee fans believe that beans that have been roasted for a while have already lost a lot of flavor, even if you do the grinding yourself.

All this may seem like a lot of trouble, but for the best cup of gourmet coffee, the above tips will prove indispensible.