Coffee Brewing Methods Comparison: How to Make Coffee at Home?

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Do you want to enjoy a cup of home-brewed coffee quietly at home? Have you found the ideal brewing equipment? Each equipment has a unique style and performance, and the difficulty is different. Just like finding a coffee bean you like, you may need to keep trying and comparing until one day, you can easily brew a cup of coffee that satisfies you at home.

Today, the editor summarizes some of the current mainstream brewing utensils and equipment, as well as simple brewing suggestions.

Start with filter extraction:

Hario V60

The inventor of the Hario V60 drip cup combines chemistry, glassware and coffee. The name V60 comes from its 60° cone angle, and the materials used have been ceramic, glass, plastic and metal. The final version of the V60 uses a copper filter cup, which is designed for high thermal conductivity to achieve better extraction with better heat retention.

The V60 caters to the many variables in coffee making, mainly in the following three aspects:

1. 60-degree cone: This prolongs the time it takes for water to flow through the coffee grounds to the center.

2. A large filter hole: This allows us to control the flavor of the coffee by changing the flow rate of water.

3. Spiral pattern: This allows air to escape upward from all sides to maximize the expansion of the coffee powder.

Recommendation: V60 has a fast water filtering speed, so it is recommended to grind it in medium to fine. You can pour water in any way you want, as long as it is even enough. Flavor characteristics: Bright, clean and refreshing.

Kalita Wave

【Kalita Wave】 is a flat-bottomed hand brewing filter cup from Japan. The flat-bottom design allows for more complete extraction. The difference between KalitaWave and the familiar HarioV60 is that the bottom is flat. Although the aroma and flavor changes of hand brewing with a cake cup are not as strong as those of a conical filter cup, the overall flavor of the beans and the solid taste and sweetness are always great. Combined with the Kalita filter paper, a wave filter paper specially designed for cake cups, and the specially deepened side drainage grooves, you will have a better hand brewing experience.

Recommendation: The Kalita Wave drip filter is suitable for medium grinding. It is recommended to grind it a little coarser than the grind you use with the v60. This filter is slow to drain water. Although there are three drip holes, they are very small. If the coffee powder is ground too fine, the extraction rate will increase, and it will not make the flavor more prominent. Instead, it will easily over-extract, and the end of the drink will be astringent.

Chemex

This classic Chemex Coffeemake coffee maker with an elegant, smooth and beautiful body has a history of 74 years.

The Chemex coffee maker uses the high temperature and corrosion resistant glass flasks in the chemical laboratory as its foundation. It is resistant to high temperatures and chemical corrosion. The entire process does not involve any plastics, so the coffee tastes clearer and cleaner. The overall shape of the Chemex is like a combination of a triangular flask and a funnel, which minimizes the unfavorable factors in hand brewing and fully demonstrates the ultimate flavor of boutique coffee. Even novices can brew delicious coffee.

Since Chemex filter paper is 20% - 30% thicker than the average style, and unlike the Japanese filter cup wall with many exhaust ribs, the air flow only relies on the single exhaust groove on the front, so it is normal for the resistance to be larger and the flow rate to be slower. Of course, thick and high-quality filter paper is definitely a major focus of Chemex, because it makes the coffee it brews taste cleaner.

Suggestion: Chemex extraction is actually a method between pourover and immersion. The reason why American coffee shops like to use it so much is that this feature allows Chemex to be operated in a fool-proof manner without requiring difficult skills. Therefore, you can steam with Chemex, but you don’t need to cut off the water supply. Just add water all at once.

American drip filter

Advantages: Easy to clean and use.

Disadvantages: The water temperature of the machine is unstable, and the spray head is not wide enough, resulting in the coffee powder not being properly extracted. Good machines are usually more expensive.

Recommendation: If you are busy or the environment does not allow much operating space, you can choose a simple and fast American machine, because its output can actually be very stable.

The following is an immersion extraction:

Smart Cup

Clever Coffee Dripper——Clever Coffee Dripper combines the advantages of French press and hand brewing pot, which is simple, convenient and easy to use. If you find it difficult to master the stable water flow and cannot accept the fine powder of French press, then Clever Coffee Dripper is an easy-to-use and flavorful choice.

The secret of the smart cup is that there is a piston at the bottom of the cup. The middle part is usually in a submerged state (there are four legs underneath, keeping it suspended in the air). After pouring water into it, it is closed under pressure, and the piston firmly blocks the water flow. When it is placed on a container, the piston below is lifted up and the coffee flows out.

Suggestion: In fact, it should be called "fool cup" or "rookie cup" because even rookies can easily get started. There are only a few points to note:

1. The powder volume reaches 1/3 of the filter cup.

2. Except when adding water, you need to cover the lid and soak it during steaming and after steaming.

3. Don't fill the tank too full with water, leave an inch of space at the top.

French Press

Advantages: Super simple! The error tolerance is very high, which means you can easily brew a cup of professional-grade coffee. As long as you have good coffee beans, freshly ground coffee powder, and the right water temperature, you can fully present the original appearance of the coffee. And it can release oil to a great extent, so that we have a smoother taste when we drink it.

Disadvantages: There will be some fine powder, some people may feel that the coffee is not clear enough, but for others, this original, rough flavor is the charm. Another serious disadvantage: you must use very good coffee beans...

Advice: Use good beans, use good beans, use good beans, and soak them casually.

AeroPress

AeroPress is not only a creative product with great ingenuity, but also a practical product. It combines the immersion extraction method of the French press, the filter paper filtration of hand-brewed coffee, and the fast, pressurized extraction principle of Italian coffee. So in theory, the coffee brewed by AeroPress can have the richness of Italian coffee, the purity of hand-brewed coffee, and the smoothness of the French press.

AeroPress has many different ways of playing, its operability, and the controllability of coffee extraction factors are varied, and there are no absolute rules, so it is deeply loved by many senior coffee lovers.

Recommendations: Water temperature: 74℃-85℃; Powder-water ratio: 1:8～1:15; Grinding degree: Very coarse～medium-fine grinding; Extraction time: 1 minute～3 minutes. AeroPress is very playable, so there is basically no standard tutorial.

Finally, the espresso:

Italian Machine

Advantages: It looks very professional. In addition to being able to make familiar drinks such as latte and cappuccino, the most important thing is that drinking espresso will give you a superior feeling~

Disadvantages: Too many variables, difficult to produce stable products. And it needs complete maintenance every day. The point is that the price of grinders and coffee machines is more than ten times that of hand brewing equipment!

Recommendation: Enthusiasts with a certain economic foundation and simple operating experience can choose it. Although the price is really expensive, there are many ways to play, enough for you to play for a long time.

Moka Pot

The Moka pot allows pressurized steam to pass directly through the coffee powder, extracting the inner essence of the coffee. It is then brewed with dark roasted coffee beans, so the brewed coffee has a strong aroma and intense bitterness, with a thin layer of coffee oil on the surface. This layer of oil is the source of the attractive and delicious Italian coffee.

Advantages: It can brew very strong coffee. Also, the moka pot has various shapes and can be collected as a decoration.

Disadvantages: It is difficult to control the temperature, the time it takes for water to pass through the coffee powder, and it is difficult to brew good coffee stably.

Suggestion: This is really not recommended...

Siphon pot

Siphon coffee can best express the original flavor, aroma, sourness and bitterness of coffee, highlighting the taste differences between different single-origin coffees. It has a richer, mellower taste and a higher aroma.

The taste of siphon coffee is not only different in the beans themselves, but also due to the heating of the fire source, it will produce high, medium and low temperatures during brewing, thus creating a rich flavor variation.

The first thing you feel when drinking is hot! hot! hot! Then comes the sweetness, and the sourness comes out after the temperature drops slightly; when it is high, the aroma of coffee is very strong, and when the temperature drops to 70 degrees, the rich flavor inherent in the coffee beans will gradually emerge.

Suggestion: Mastering stability, especially the water temperature of the coffee, and the timing of various operations, may require a lot of experiments and experience to accumulate stable conclusions.

Turkish pot

Since 2011, Turkish coffee has broken away from the traditional brewing method and has entered the stage of specialty coffee. The door to the Turkish Coffee International Competition was opened, inviting experts from all over the world to join the competition, thereby improving the quality and brewing skills of Turkish coffee. However, compared with other coffee brewing methods, the development of Turkish coffee into specialty coffee was a few years later.

Turkish coffee is a way of brewing coffee, an ancient coffee culture, but for us, it is also a new lifestyle habit. And new lifestyle habits need to be opened up first, and then they can be integrated into life after being influenced by time.

Suggestion: Turkish coffee has not yet kept up with the trend, and the brewing method still needs more attempts and exploration. Interested enthusiasts can study it in depth.

Finally: no matter which method you use, each has its own unique culture and temperament. Don’t judge by price or difficulty of operation. No matter which one you use, buy a bag of good beans first.

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