3 tips to make good hand brewed coffee

For many people, the first thing they do when they wake up in the morning is make a cup of coffee.

However, people's understanding of coffee brewing has changed a lot in recent years. The benefit of this is that the roasting and brewing techniques of coffee beans have also changed accordingly, but whether you can benefit from it depends on you.

Many people think that people nowadays pay too much attention to brewing coffee. However, the undeniable fact is: it is easy to make bad coffee, but it is difficult to make good coffee. However, once you start to understand some basic knowledge about brewing coffee and buy a few brewing tools, you can easily find the fun of improving the quality of life.

The New York Times summarized three tips for hand-brewed coffee . You can learn one at a time or try them all.

The first step is grinding beans

If you can only buy one tool for brewing coffee, buy a coffee bean grinder. This is the most important tool of all coffee brewing tools . Even with an inexpensive coffee grinder and coffee pot, you can brew good coffee. Because no matter how high-end the machine is, it can't save the already ground coffee powder in the bag and the flavor that escapes when it is opened. Grinding the coffee beans yourself before brewing can effectively improve the quality of the coffee.

The bad news is that good grinders aren't cheap. You want a conical burr grinder that grinds the beans into even-sized particles, not one of those cheap grinders that grinds the beans into uneven sizes. Brewing coffee is an extraction process, and you need to dissolve 20% of the coffee beans with water, so even-sized grinds mean equal extraction. If some of the ground coffee is fine like flour and some is coarse like pebbles, then the cup of coffee is a mixture of under-extracted and over-extracted. (Under-extracted coffee has no flavor, while over-extracted coffee is very bitter).

Conical coffee grinder

In other words, a conical burr grinder is both a workhorse and a precision positioner. The Baratza Encore is a good basic grinder, as are the Breville Dose Control Pro, which has more features, and the Oxo Barista Brain, which has a built-in electronic meter. The burr quality and grind speed of the Baratza Virtuoso make it a top choice for home grinders.

Baratza Virtuoso

Step 2

Ditch the measuring spoon and opt for a digital measuring machine

Now that nerd has gone from being a sarcasm to a compliment, it makes you feel like it's perfectly natural to be picky about brewing coffee. First, the coffee needs to be measured in grams using an electronic meter.

If you have ever baked, you will not be surprised by the suggestion of using electronic scales. For a long time, pastry chefs have measured the weight of dessert ingredients in grams. Now, not only desserts, but also all kinds of food need to use electronic scales. If you are currently using electronic scales, you will definitely understand its benefits.

Moreover, you need to weigh not only the coffee, but also the water, at least how many liters, instead of just filling a cup with water. Here's why: brewing coffee is all about the brewing ratio, and the amount of water you need depends on how much coffee powder you use. Most Americans use a ball spoon to measure, however, the capacity of a coffee machine is usually 5 ounces, but the capacity of a ball spoon is not fixed.

If you can't get the ratio right, brew coffee at a ratio of 55 grams of coffee powder to 1000 grams of water (about 1:18), which is the golden brewing ratio recommended by the American Coffee Experts Association. Don't be scared by the metric system, it actually makes brewing coffee easier.

As for the electronic meter itself, a cheap one will suffice. Make sure it has a maximum weight capacity of 2 kg before you buy it. If you want an entry-level model, consider the Hario V60 VST-2000, which is accurate to 0.01 grams and has a Death Star-like black built-in timer.

Hario V60 VST-2000

In addition, it is best to store coffee beans in a cool, dark and sealed place , rather than in the grinder you have in the cabinet at this moment. Coffee beans can be put in the packaging bag and put in the cabinet, and then they can be taken out to weigh and grind when needed.

Step 3

Buy a better filter

There are two types of coffee making tools: a filter cup for hand brewing, where you need to boil hot water and pour it into the pot yourself, and a drip coffee machine that heats and brews automatically.

The good thing about a filter is that it's not expensive. The Kalita Wave is great, but if you want to use better filters and filters, your budget will be much higher. Strictly speaking, these things are not necessary, but they can make your coffee more exquisite. The Hario V60 is an inexpensive filter, and the Chemex 8-cup hand-pour pot is also great for brewing coffee or sharing coffee.

Hario V60

Chemex 8-cup

The filter cup also allows you to better control the water temperature (it should be around 93 degrees Celsius, if the water is too cold, the extraction effect will not be good) . If you want to improve efficiency, you can directly place the filter cup and the pot on the meter and then look at the number on it.

If you want a fully automatic drip coffee machine, that's fine, you need one that can replicate the pour-over process. These machines are more advanced than manual ones because they can automatically control the temperature and the degree of penetration of the coffee powder. Therefore, they are much more expensive.

Entry-level basic automatic filter pots include the Bonavita BV1900TS and Oxo Barista Brain, both of which are remakes of the drip coffee machine launched by Dutch brand Technivorm Moccamaster in 1968.

Bonavita BV1900TS

Last year, Chemex introduced a drip coffee maker called the Ottomatic, a breakthrough for a company that previously made pour-overs, and one that fits in nicely with the company's design philosophy. If you need something high-end, the Portland-based company's Ratio's Eight is to coffee makers what vintage Marantz is to speakers: made by nerds, for nerds.

Ottomatic by Chemex

Portland's Ratio's Eight

The tools recommended by the New York Times are all produced by professional coffee brands. These utensils have stood the test of time and are very classic. People who really love coffee rarely overemphasize the sense of ritual, especially when it comes to hand brewing, the cumbersome steps will scare beginners. Use simple tools to carefully brew a cup of good coffee, return to the essence, and enjoy it!

Thank you for reading this, I hope you enjoy today's update. Happy work!

Text: Ritsuko

Figure: Network

Design: George