How to make a cup of talking hand-brewed coffee?

Gently pick up the filter cup and place it on the pot. Fold the filter paper along the seam, unfold it, 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 fade, 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-poured 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 into the filter cup and tap the filter cup to loosen the ground coffee.

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 is easily available, and there are many choices, which is very suitable for matching personal style according to personal preferences or mood.

When purchasing, you must pay special attention to the matching of the filter cup and filter paper. Many filter cups are designed to show different views on coffee extraction, which extend to specific requirements for the shape of the filter paper. For example, common filter papers can be cone-shaped, fan-shaped, or even wavy.

Friends who are experimental or like scientific research can purchase electronic scales, thermometers, and timers. These three items 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 avoid light.

It should be noted that the remaining space in the bean can after pouring the coffee beans does not need to be too large. First, to reduce the air in the can, and second, to reduce the space for the aroma of the coffee beans to evaporate.

If it is to be stored in the refrigerator, attention must be paid to the sealing to avoid absorbing odors in the refrigerator. Secondly, there is the problem of moisture escaping when it is quickly thawed and warmed up.

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 of 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 coffee tasting, beyond the rituals, spirit, atmosphere, and artistic conception created by the utensils and scenes, and it seems that a very important piece 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, it is possible to move from simply conveying the subjective preferences of the tasters to objectively expressing the performance of each coffee in all aspects, and even using specific odor nouns to describe the aroma perceived by the sense of smell, such as jasmine, hazelnut, citrus, dark chocolate, etc., accurately depicting the most unique appearance of each coffee.

Knowledge can only help us understand coffee, but flavor is the only language through which we can feel the coffee itself. Only by imagining the wonderful 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.