How to improve hand-poured coffee - How to make a cup of hand-poured coffee that can talk?

Click to follow | Daily boutique coffee culture magazine Coffee Workshop

Gently pick up the filter cup and place it on the kettle. Fold and unfold the filter paper along the seam and spread it in the filter cup. Take a scoop of beans from the bean can and pour it into the grinder. Turn it in circles, and the slight aroma will dissipate as the click and rustle sounds gradually weaken, and fill the space when the lid is opened. The heavy water has just reached the boiling point, and light smoke floats from the mouth of the hot water kettle, with a dull gurgling sound. Transfer a little water to the hand-brewed kettle and sprinkle it on the filter cup to clean and warm the filter cup and wash away the dust on the filter paper. Pour the ground coffee powder into the filter cup and tap the filter cup to make it smooth.

Pick up the hand-poured kettle casually, and pour your thoughts into the water column, either gently or unrestrainedly, drawing a circle with the same center. At the right time, cut off the water and put the kettle away, and let the water flow slowly. Pour the remaining water in the hand-poured kettle into the cup, warming the cup and the hand holding the cup. Fill the cup with amber coffee.

With intention but without thoughts, the present self is expressed through the brewing process, and placed in the flavor of a cup of coffee, dedicated to yourself or your friends, with pure time. This is the unique charm of hand-brewed coffee.

01: Before brewing, match a set of utensils of your own style

Filter cup, pot, filter paper. Bean can, bean scoop, grinder. Kettle, hand brewing pot. Cup.

The popularity of hand-brewed coffee has greatly lowered the threshold for us to brew coffee at home. Compared with making Italian coffee such as latte, which requires a coffee machine that costs tens of thousands of yuan, hand-brewed coffee only requires a lower budget. It is easy to find equipment that can be easily obtained, and there are many choices, which is very suitable for matching personal style according to personal preferences or moods.

When purchasing, you must pay special attention to the combination of the filter cup and the filter paper. Many filter cups are designed to present different views on coffee extraction, which extend to specific requirements for the shape of the filter paper. For example, common filter papers are divided into cones, fans, and even waves. Friends who are experimental or like scientific research can purchase electronic scales, thermometers, and timers. These three can more accurately control the amount of coffee beans we use, the temperature and amount of water, and the extraction time. In recent years, many brands have combined hand-brewed kettles with heating bases to develop temperature-controlled heating kettles that can also be used as hot water kettles.

The bean can is ideally a light-proof sealed can. The choice of bean can involves the preservation of coffee beans, and the best preservation is in an environment that can avoid rapid oxidation, low temperature drying and light exposure. It should be noted that the remaining space in the bean can after pouring the coffee beans should not be too large, firstly to reduce the air in the can, and secondly to reduce the space for the aroma of the coffee beans to volatilize. If it is stored in the refrigerator, it is necessary to pay attention to the sealing to avoid absorbing the odor in the refrigerator, and secondly, the problem of moisture escaping when thawing and warming up quickly.

I sincerely recommend that if beginners want to quickly improve the flavor of their coffee, the first appliance they need to purchase or upgrade is a "bean grinder", whether it is a quick and convenient electric model, or a hand-cranked grinder that pursues a slow-paced feel. No matter which one, freshly ground and brewed coffee will definitely preserve more of the coffee's charming details and aroma.

Finally, please prepare a cup of your own style to hold your coffee, whether you are drinking it yourself or entertaining guests.

02: Taste and understand what coffee says

By using utensils to create a scene with a personal style, we can clearly see a kind of ritual and human feelings like the Japanese tea ceremony. However, the Western scientific materialism and coffee culture brought to the East by the hot third wave of coffee in recent years, especially focusing on olfactory and taste appreciation, has proposed a new perspective for us to start from the senses. Let us examine the past emphasis on the ritual, spirit, atmosphere, and artistic conception created by the utensils and scenes of coffee drinking. It seems that a very important part is missing: the language of coffee itself.

And "flavor" is the language that coffee can speak to us.

In the internationally accepted sensory evaluation, the items for coffee tasting are as follows (taking SCA as an example): dry and wet aromas felt by smell, flavor in the mouth when sipping, aftertaste remaining in the throat after spitting or swallowing, acidity on the taste, tactile sensation on the tongue (comprehensive score of mellowness and texture), overall balance, sweetness, consistency, cleanliness, and whether there are any defective flavors.

In this way, we can objectively express the performance of each coffee in all aspects from simply conveying the subjective preferences of the tasters, and even use specific odor nouns to describe the aroma felt by the sense of smell, such as jasmine, hazelnut, citrus, dark chocolate, etc., to accurately depict the most unique appearance of each coffee. Knowledge can only make us understand coffee, and flavor is the only language we can feel the coffee itself. Only by imagining the beautiful flavor can we move forward to that imagination and brew a cup of coffee that we like.

Before you “brew” a cup of coffee, you must first know how to taste it.

03: The process of hand brewing coffee

Although there are many different schools of thought in the technique of hand brewing coffee, apart from the extreme schools, they generally consist of three stages: preparation, steaming, and brewing.

Preparation: Soak the filter paper and preheat the coffee pot. The filter paper should absorb the odor in the air to remove it. Pour the ground coffee powder into the filter cup and tap the edge of the cup to level the coffee powder layer. More importantly, warm up, take a deep breath, calm your mind, and prepare yourself to immerse yourself in brewing.

Steaming: Some people also call it pre-soaking. Gently inject a small amount of water to wet all the coffee powder, and wait for about 15 to 30 seconds. The soaked coffee powder often slowly expands and stretches like a hamburger, which is a very healing scene.

Brewing: Keep the water column in a stable state, and move it from the center of the circle to the circumference and inward. Follow the rhythm and rhythm of your heart, and imagine that the water column is an extension of your fingers, stirring all the coffee powder. When appropriate, stop the water column.

If you are in a suitable environment, you can often feel the aroma of coffee during the brewing process, as if you are immersed in the fragrance. The first person to enjoy the flavor of coffee is often the person who brews it.

04: How to improve hand-poured coffee

In hand-brewed coffee, a person's style will eventually be presented as the flavor of a cup of coffee. If the flavor is the invisible words that a cup of coffee says to the drinker, then the way for a brewer to improve is three steps: understand what each cup of coffee is saying, understand how to brew it to make the coffee speak, and let the coffee speak through brewing.

What are the coffee beans saying?

Brewing a cup of coffee starts with selecting beans. The flavor and texture of the raw materials themselves have determined the words you can use to describe it. There is no shortcut to selecting beans or understanding what each coffee bean is saying. The only way is to increase your personal experience of tasting coffee. For example, you can try coffee from different producing areas in a coffee shop, or visit multiple coffee shops to experience different interpretations of the same bean to broaden your horizons.

But we can still try to draw a rough outline in our minds through reading, using the characteristics of the origin and the degree of roasting to avoid getting lost in the vast ocean of coffee, but remember to keep an open mind to face every bean in front of you.

Three major production areas

Africa: Ethiopia is the representative of African beans. Washed Yirgacheffe often has a floral and citrus lemon flavor, which is light and elegant; sun-dried ones have a bold aroma, either rich berry or rich fruity. Another representative country is Kenya. The typical Kenyan beans not only have a berry flavor, but also have a solid and heavy taste that is unique among African beans.

Central and South America: Central and South America is usually known for its mild and balanced flavor. It is often characterized by nuts and caramel flavors. In the past, Brazil and Colombia were famous. In recent years, Panama's Geisha coffee has won a lot of attention in international competitions for its unique strong nectar citrus flavor.

Asia: The representative of Asia is Sumatra in Indonesia, which is the Mandheling we often hear about. Low acidity, excellent mellowness and richness, coupled with unique wood and herbal flavors, can be called the oriental flavor of coffee.

Roasting degree

Light roast: Lightly roasted coffee is more likely to show its original flavor, such as floral, fruity, and herbal aromas. However, because coffee beans are roasted from the seeds of the fruit, they are also more likely to have a distinct fruity sour taste when lightly roasted.

Medium roast: When coffee is roasted medium, it is easier to present aromas such as nuts, honey, caramel, or honey, with obvious sweetness and gradually weakening acidity. A slightly darker roast will present a chocolate flavor.

Dark roasted coffee is probably the coffee flavor we are most accustomed to. Dark roasted coffee usually does not have a sour taste, and the bitterness gradually increases. It is accompanied by a smoky, charcoal roasted, or woody, spicy and other aromas.

Beginners can start by appreciating the classic varieties of each era, such as today’s Yirgacheffe and Gesha, or the Jamaican Blue Mountain and Kona of the old days. From these, we can get a glimpse of the aspects emphasized in each era and use them as a benchmark to extend outward.

How to let coffee speak?

Coffee has very high requirements for brewing conditions. If you don't have a certain degree of understanding to help brew, it will either become a bland and tasteless muted coffee or a bitter and hoarse coffee. Current scientific research points out that the six major factors that affect the flavor during the brewing process are as follows: water-to-powder ratio, water temperature, powder coarseness, extraction time, filter material, and water flow disturbance.

Today, the objective parameters constructed by the West in a scientific and statistical way are more like an imagination of an excellent student and a standard value, which can easily lead to the problem of over-approximation. How to make a cup of "delicious" coffee? It will be limited by the objective environment and resources, as well as subjective preferences and cultural influences. These variables, and even the six factors mentioned above, are actually a system that affects the whole body. When we encounter a problem, if we only treat the symptoms, we often cannot really solve the problem. For example, when we try to reduce the acidity in brewing, we may also weaken its flavor.

Beginners can start with themselves and set a more natural and stable brewing method for themselves, and then use this as a benchmark, and then use simple scientific principles to modify the flavor by changing one variable at a time within the range that they can control. We can adjust our brewing according to the following coffee flavor correction chart:

First, find a flavor description that is close to your own coffee flavor in the circle, and then you can look at the brewing correction suggestions in the outermost circle to adjust your next cup of brewing. For example: this cup of coffee has a "watery" feeling, and the corresponding suggestion in the outermost circle is "increase the extraction rate", so in the next cup of brewing, you can grind the coffee powder finer and brew it for a longer time, and you can move towards the "flavor balance" in the center of the circle.

How to say what you want to say over coffee?

Ultimately, it is people's preferences and ideas that determine what a cup of coffee says. A cup of coffee with personal style and soul is a cup of coffee with ideas. To achieve this goal, it can be divided into two stages: being able to imagine the flavor before brewing, and having the ability to practice imagination. Imagination comes from the experience of tasting and the wonderful flavor. Try to establish a method or theory in your mind, and practice the theory in the brewing process through a trained and controllable body.

Starting from the flavor of the cup of coffee in front of you, extending to the arrangement of utensils and even the layout of the space, we can build our personal style. After all, it is not just the flavor, but everything around us that really affects us. The key is the harmony between what the cup of "coffee" tells us and the atmosphere, even the spirit and artistic conception.

at last

Everyone has his own style, and every cup of coffee has its own flavor. Different people brew different cups of coffee, and they are even more varied. Just like Haruki Murakami dreamed that if our language was whiskey, "I just need to quietly hold out the glass, and you just need to take it and quietly put it down your throat, and that should be enough." If we don't really have to talk, I can put my words in a coffee cup, and you take it. In a quiet and happy moment, you can understand me. That would be great.

【Recommended reading】：

Is pour-over coffee dead? Are automatic pour-over machines the next step in specialty coffee?

Specialty coffee tasting and taste training | How should beginners develop their taste?

From seeds to cups─Is the “technique” that is becoming less and less valued really unimportant?

Disclaimer: Some of the pictures in this article are from the Internet. For some of the content on the website, such as pictures, we will respect the copyright of the original work and indicate the source, but due to the large number of pictures, some pictures and texts may not be indicated in time, please forgive me. If the original author has any disputes, please contact the website to deal with it. Once verified, we will correct it immediately. It is edited by "Coffee Workshop". Please indicate the source when reprinting. This article is intended to spread coffee culture. If there is any infringement, please inform us to delete it. Thank you~!