Tutorial | Tips for making hand-poured coffee

Among the many brewing methods, hand pouring can be said to be the most popular coffee brewing method. It is simple, easy to learn, easy to control, and the taste is acceptable to most people. However, many friends are not sure how to find the taste that suits them when making it. What factors affect a cup of hand pouring coffee, and how big is the influence?

Hand brewed coffee consumables: coffee, filter paper, water;

Hand brewed coffee utensils: filter cup, lower pot, water filling utensils, weighing utensils, timing tools, thermometer, grinding tools;

Several factors that affect the production of hand-brewed single-origin coffee:

Coffee beans selection:

What we make is coffee, not orange juice or green tea, so the coffee itself determines the basic taste of this cup of coffee. For example, whether this coffee is sun-dried or washed, whether it is produced in Indonesia in Asia, Colombia in South America, or Ethiopia in Africa, etc. When the coffee is determined, the taste in your cup is actually 50% determined. This is the most critical link.

Coffee grinding degree and uniformity:

The coarseness of coffee grinding directly determines the amount of coffee substances extracted during the brewing process. In a unit of time, the coarser the coffee is, the harder it is to extract the coffee substances, while the finer the coffee is, the faster it is extracted, which will be reflected in the taste being lighter or stronger. However, under normal circumstances, our coffee grinders cannot be absolutely uniform. After you choose the coarseness, there will generally be a certain proportion of powder that does not meet your requirements. If it is just right, it will increase the layering of the coffee flavor, while excessive unevenness will make the coffee taste "out of control".

Water quality and temperature:

The water quality varies from place to place in China, and it is generally believed that the water quality in the north is not as good as that in the south. There are two options for water for making coffee, treated water and purchased bottled water. The so-called treated water is tap water that has been treated by a water softener, water purifier or water purifier. This water can be used to make coffee, and the taste is much better than using tap water directly. Another type is to use purchased purified water to make coffee. Cost is not a problem we are considering today, so we can basically default to the more expensive treatment method. Maybe, what we are saying is that it may taste better.

Water temperature is also an important indicator that affects the taste of coffee. When I make coffee, I usually use a water temperature of around 90 degrees, of course, this is in line with my grinding fineness. You don't have to be so precise, in fact, you can just fix a personal habit, such as letting the water stand for 1 minute or 1.5 minutes after it is fully boiled. Of course, you also need to adjust this time according to the temperature in the room, and there will probably be a temperature difference between winter and summer.

Coffee Steeping Time:

This is actually easy to understand. The longer the soaking time, the more substances will be extracted and the stronger the taste will be, and vice versa. However, what factors will affect the soaking time? Let's take a closer look.

The first is the coarseness of the coffee grind. Coarse grinds filter water quickly, while fine grinds filter water slowly. As everyone can imagine, the faster the water is filtered, the shorter the contact time between the coffee and water per unit amount of water, and the taste will be lighter, and vice versa.

Then there is the filter. One of the filters we often use is filter paper. A good filter paper should be odorless and have good water filtration. I once used a low-quality filter paper that was very thin, but the water filtration speed was very slow. I only saw water pouring in, but no water flowing down, which inevitably led to a long soaking time. In addition, common filters include flannel and metal. It is generally believed that among these materials, filter paper has the best filtration performance, but the disadvantages are high cost and possible pulp taste. Flannel is also generally believed to have excellent filtration effect, and the coffee produced has a smooth taste and high alcohol content. However, after repeated use, flannel is very easy to absorb the taste of coffee, causing cross contamination. Finally, there is the metal filter, which is considered to have the worst filtration performance, and it also makes it difficult to filter out some very fine coffee powder.

Another factor that affects the soaking time is the technique and method of water injection for hand brewing. Some friends like to inject water in one go, that is, to inject water continuously, some people like to inject water twice, and some people like to inject water more times. You can try to time them separately, and you can find that the difference in water injection methods can cause a large time difference, that is, the difference in the time the coffee is soaked in water. Usually, I personally prefer the soaking time of 20 grams of coffee to be around 2 minutes. Of course, if you use an ordinary kettle instead of a dedicated hand brewing kettle, it may be difficult for you to control your water volume, and you may not be able to accurately grasp your water injection time. Maybe one-time water injection is more suitable for you.

The water-to-powder ratio when brewing coffee:

When we make tea, everyone probably knows the most basic principle. If you want a stronger cup of coffee, put more tea leaves. The same applies to coffee making. If you want a stronger cup of coffee, put more coffee powder. However, if we want to make a stable cup of coffee and drink it every day with a standard taste, John still recommends that everyone has a standard water-to-powder ratio, at least a personal habit. John's personal habit is 20 grams of coffee and 300 ml of water, that is, the powder-to-water ratio is 1:15. Of course, this is also based on the premise that I fix the water temperature and the coarseness of the grind. This is a basic universal ratio, and then it can be slightly adjusted according to the specific coffee and personal preference.

At this point, everyone should have a little idea. In fact, the key factors affecting coffee making will interact with each other and work in a cycle. For example, if the coffee powder is ground coarsely, the water will be filtered quickly and the taste will be weak, but you can slightly increase the water temperature or increase the soaking time to adjust the taste in the cup. But no matter how you adjust it, you can't change your coffee beans, which is the main theme of the coffee in your cup. We will discuss with you in subsequent articles how to choose a coffee that suits you.