Hand pouring skills | Three principles of hand pouring coffee, this is the right way to pour it

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The fun and charm of hand-brewed coffee is that it can be brewed in a convenient and simple way. In fact, the editor did not understand it at the beginning. It was through reading books, learning, and doing brewing experiments that I summarized some commonly used hand-brewed techniques based on my own experience.

Today I recommend a book about hand brewing, "This is the Right Way to Brew" by Huang Linzhi

In order to allow more coffee-loving readers to further acquire professional knowledge of hand-brewed coffee, the author of this book, Huang Linzhi, once again presents complete and systematic hand-brewed coffee teaching and experience in the form of a professional teaching book, so that friends who like to make hand-brewed coffee by themselves can learn the relevant knowledge of hand-brewed coffee after reading this book, and easily become a hand-brewed coffee expert at home.

In fact, hand-brewed coffee requires few utensils, a filter cup, a piece of filter paper and a hand-brewed pot, with freshly ground coffee powder, you can spend five to ten minutes at home or in the office to leisurely brew a cup of coffee.

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Three principles for making unbeatable hand-brewed coffee:

1. Do not add more water than the pellets can absorb each time

2. Use a penetrating water column to ensure that all unwatered particles can absorb water each time they are watered.

3. Do not let the particles stay still in the water. Each time you add water, the amount should be larger than the previous time.

1. Do not add more water than the particles can absorb each time.

As we all know, coffee granules contain a lot of irregular spaces like honeycombs. When we add hot water, they absorb water and exhaust air. What does "not exceed the amount that the granules can absorb" mean?

It's very simple. Think of the coffee particles as individual particles. The space inside each coffee particle is limited and cannot absorb a lot of water. When brewing, the particles will come into contact with hot water, and the wood fibers of the particles will begin to expand. Hot water will gradually enter and push the gas out. At this time, the particles are in a state where they cannot absorb water.

If too much water is given at this time, it will be obvious that the particles will quickly float to the surface and cannot be extracted. This is equivalent to soaking the particles that are absorbing water in water, causing the brewed coffee to have a miscellaneous taste and astringency. Therefore, a reasonable amount of water needs to be given to the particles each time water is added. This is one of the principles.

Second, use penetrating water columns to ensure that particles that have not yet absorbed water can absorb water every time they are watered.

A penetrating water column generally means that when water is supplied, it is expected that each time the water column is supplied, it can penetrate the powder layer that has already absorbed water, so that the particles in the lower layer that have not absorbed water can start to absorb water. If this ideal state cannot be achieved, it means that each time water is supplied, the particles in the previous layer will only absorb water again, which means that the amount of water supplied is too much.

This will echo the first point and cause over-extraction. The powder layer at the bottom becomes heavier due to the particles absorbing water and cannot be properly disturbed and tumbled, resulting in over-soaking, which will produce off-flavors and astringency. This is the second point.

3. Do not let the particles stay still in the water, and the amount of water given each time should be larger than the previous time.

It is actually not difficult to brew a good cup of coffee. It is much easier if you understand the principle of the combination of coffee and water. Two of the three major directions of water supply have been revealed. The four words "over-soaking" repeatedly mentioned in the previous text are the third key point.

The reason is very simple, just like cooking rice, boiling noodles, frying steak, steaming fish, stir-frying vegetables and so on, no one likes it to be undercooked or overcooked because it will taste bad, will not be delicious, or even inedible. This is true for cooking and the same principle applies to making coffee.

How to prevent the particles from being still in the water? Why do we need to add more water each time? Now everyone should have a more solid understanding of the framework of particle draft. We will use the water supply mode combined with the particle draft method to discuss this key point.

When the particles come into contact with the hot water we give them, two independent things will happen: the particles absorb water and push the gas out. Now let's talk about these two topics separately.

• Objects will become heavier as they continue to absorb water, and coffee particles are no exception. Particles that increase in weight will sink, while relatively light particles will continue on top. When the particles in the filter cup become gradually saturated, their specific gravity is greater than that of water, and they will fall to the bottom of the filter cup.

• The exhaust will push each other to create space between the particles. In addition, the state of the particles after absorbing water and the disturbance caused by the water supply will cause the so-called position difference. The reason is that the weight of the coffee particles in the filter cup cannot be the same, so the heavier ones are at the bottom and the lighter ones are at the top.

Now we know more about the relationship between the pellets and water. The heavier pellets will settle at the bottom. If the amount of water is not increased, the pellets accumulated at the bottom cannot be disturbed and continue to soak. Over soaking will become the so-called over soaking. Remember the first factor? The amount of water should be appropriate. Otherwise, the pellets will soak for too long due to too much water, and the brew will have a strange taste. This is the second type of over soaking.

The above three main points are the general principles of water supply. Each point is related to each other. This is the so-called detail. When the devil hidden in the details is caught, it is easier to clarify the uncertain concept. When applied to brewing and theory, the world of coffee becomes clearer, connecting more and more clues. The next step is to string each clue together. The tool for stringing together is the brewing focus that will be explained soon - water pouring technique. It is recommended to read the basic skills of beginners' hand brewing coffee skills, "stable circle" + "soft water pouring" + "water cut-off"