How to brew the coffee you want? Master these 3 points, and you can brew it sour or bitter!

For us, coffee is not just about tasting its flavor, but also a channel to obtain the energy of the natural earth. Through the delivery of a coffee bean, we can bathe in the sunshine, rain and fresh air, because this is how the coffee bean is nourished.

"Nature" is the best designer. Everything we see, hear, smell and feel, such as flowers, trees, insects, birds, rare animals, etc., is created by it. So we say that returning to nature and returning to the purest state of mind can help us improve our sensitivity and maintain a clear mind, which is very important for us living in the city!

People in cities need to rediscover the feeling of being nourished by the earth. From a cup of freshly brewed coffee, we can experience the sincere treatment of nature's selfless dedication. We must value these hard-earned coffees that can be enjoyed at any time.

In order to bring out the natural flavor of coffee, every step of brewing is precisely required, from a coffee bean to a cup of fragrant coffee. The whole world has invested a lot of effort in this cup of coffee...

Everyone has different tastes. Some people like it to be sour, while others like it to be bitter. So how do you cook it to get the taste you want?

1. Grinding degree of coffee beans

One of the secrets to brewing delicious coffee is the grinding degree of coffee powder. If the grinding degree of coffee powder is not right, not to mention a cup of delicious coffee, it may not be extracted at all. If the grinding degree of a moka pot is used in a hand-brewed drip pot, it will be too bitter to swallow. The coffee powder will also be too fine to clog the filter, causing the extraction time to be too long or water to overflow the filter cup. On the contrary, if the grinding degree of a hand-brewed drip pot is used in a moka pot, it will not be able to extract a fragrant espresso, but will become a liquid with little coffee aroma. It may also be because the coffee powder particles are too coarse that the coffee liquid cannot be extracted from the lower pot to the upper pot and seeps out from the side of the pot body. From this, we can see that each coffee utensil has its own appropriate grinding degree. Most coffee bean stores will tell you the grinding degree suitable for the utensil, or grind the coffee beans according to the required grinding degree. However, in order to ensure the freshness of the coffee, it is recommended to buy a home bean grinder and grind the beans before brewing.

Espresso machines such as Moka pots or ROKs have a fixed grinding degree and do not have much room for choice. However, if you adjust the grinding degree within the permitted range, the flavor of the extracted coffee will also be different. Hand-brewed drip pots or French press pots have a relatively large range of grinding degrees to choose from, and the coffee flavor can be adjusted according to the grinding degree. For example, if you use a French press pot to extract coffee, if the coffee beans are ground coarser than usual, the taste will be sour; if they are finer than usual, it will be bitter.

Even if you use the same coffee beans, the same equipment, and the same method to extract coffee, the flavor of the coffee will be very different due to the different grinding degrees. If you want to change the taste of the coffee, you can try adjusting the grinding degree.

2. Adjust the water temperature to control the taste

Different water temperatures will produce coffee with different characteristics and flavors. Usually, there are three types of water temperatures for coffee extraction: 1. Using water below room temperature, 2. Using hot water, and 3. Brewing coffee and water together.

Coffee extracted with water below room temperature usually takes from 2 hours to more than 24 hours to fully extract the coffee ingredients. The coffee extracted in this way is a bit like wine. It can be stored for a relatively long time. The longer it is stored, the smoother the taste will be. However, it will also deteriorate if it is stored for too long. The "Cold Brew" method, which is famous for ice drip coffee, belongs to this method.

The most common way to extract coffee is with hot water. The water temperature is usually between 80 and 95 degrees Celsius. The lower the temperature, the stronger the acidity and bitterness. The taste of coffee extracted with different water temperatures varies greatly. Therefore, even if the same coffee beans and the same grinding degree are used, different water temperatures will still bring different feelings. Therefore, people who have long loved to use hand-drip filter pots or French filter press pots have their own favorite water temperature.

The method of brewing coffee and water together is to extract coffee at a high temperature close to 100 degrees Celsius. Turkish coffee pots or syphon pots belong to this type. Relatively speaking, you can drink stronger coffee, and the water temperature is always fixed at 100 degrees Celsius, which makes it easier to maintain the consistent flavor of coffee.

You can control the taste of coffee by adjusting the water temperature. If it is too bitter, lower the water temperature; if it is too sour, raise the water temperature. Remember, as long as you know how to adjust the water temperature, you can create countless different flavors of coffee.

3. Filter material - paper vs fiber (cloth) vs solid (stainless steel series)

A cup of coffee contains coffee liquid, coffee oil, and coffee powder. When extracting coffee, the ingredients filtered out will be different depending on the material and type of the filter used. Therefore, the flavor and taste of the coffee extracted by using different filters will be very different.

Generally speaking, filter paper will filter out more coffee grounds and coffee oils, and can extract coffee with a cleaner taste. Fiber filter cloth is the filtering method used by most people before the appearance of filter paper. It can filter coffee grounds, but will not filter out coffee oils, so the extracted coffee tastes softer. Therefore, many coffee lovers regard coffee extracted with filter cloth as the best tasting coffee. However, after the coffee is extracted, the filter cloth needs to be washed, dried, and stored in clean water, which is too troublesome and difficult to popularize. Stainless steel filters will extract all coffee grounds and coffee oils, which can preserve the most original flavor of coffee. In addition, the filter is easy to store and can be used permanently.

Most coffee equipment has its own dedicated filter, but for equipment such as hand drip coffee, AeroPress, and iced coffee, it is up to the brewer to decide which filter to use. Putting aside the convenience, generally if you want to drink a cleaner coffee, use filter paper; if you want to drink a smoother coffee, use filter cloth; if you want to drink the original flavor of coffee, you can choose a stainless steel filter.