For hand brewed coffee, is there a standard coffee powder size and technique?

Text: The Desert Fox Photo: KOHI House

Regarding hand brewed coffee, the coarseness of the coffee powder and the technique used to brew it bothered me for a long time. During that time, I really had a love-hate relationship with it.

Let me write down the fixed brewing method now: Kono filter cup with Kalita crane mouth pot, the hand brewing method is the drip method: the first stage is to use water drops to fall (the distance between the pot mouth and the coffee powder is about 10 cm), until a small water column is produced under the filter cup, then you can enter the second stage of water injection (about 3mm wide water column, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom). Wait for the water in the filter cup to drain out before injecting water. When most of the foam on the liquid surface is milky white and the water flows slowly, enter the third stage of water injection, and use a large water column to flush up the coffee powder at the bottom. 16 grams of coffee is divided into 250cc of coffee liquid, basically maintaining a ratio of 1:16.

As for the coarseness of coffee powder, according to my experience, the finer the coffee powder, the easier it is to over-extract, making it hard to swallow and bitter. Coarser coffee powder is more likely to be under-extracted and taste light and sour. If you want to adjust the coarseness, it is better to go from coarse to fine. I keep it at the coarseness of white sugar, which I think suits my taste.

In fact, I still have self-doubt from time to time, and then I will try different thicknesses, water temperatures, and techniques. But I am not as entangled as before. I try more and drink more. When the predecessors brewed, they did not worry about so many right and wrong. They all started from satisfying their own mouths.

Thanks and see you later!