The difference between American coffee machine and hand brewed coffee

I personally like to make single-origin coffee by hand pouring, so that I can taste the flavor of different coffee beans and feel the mood of making coffee by myself. Then a friend asked me if it is the same principle as that of an American coffee machine, why it is more convenient to use a machine. There are differences and similarities between American coffee machines and hand pouring coffee, and let me talk about it slowly, first talking about American coffee machines, which is American drip coffee.

In 1963, Bunn successfully developed the first commercial American coffee machine. After improvements, it entered American households in 1967. The coffee machine in the advertisement at that time was almost the same in appearance as the current American drip machine in the picture I attached.

This was the ad at the time

A drip coffee machine is very easy to use. Even someone who has never made coffee before can easily make a cup of American drip coffee. There are a total of several steps. First, put filter paper in the filter cup, pour the ground coffee powder into the filter cup with the filter paper, put the filter cup on the drip filter, add purified water or soft water on top of the coffee machine (remember not to add tap water, the hardness is too high, scale will reduce the service life of the coffee machine, be sure to use purified water or soft water with a TDS below 100), set the temperature you want, and when the water reaches the temperature you want, it will be evenly extracted.

Let's talk about the selection of American coffee machines. I personally do not recommend that you buy the American drip machines that cost two or three hundred yuan online, because the American drip machines produced are either unevenly extracted or over-extracted, and they will taste burnt and bitter, and you can't enjoy a cup of delicious coffee.

First of all, low-end drip machines do not need to use filter paper. Most of them use a filter like this. This filter can easily allow water to flow through the filter quickly, resulting in insufficient extraction. If the powder is ground too finely, the water will stay in the coffee powder for a long time, causing over-extraction, and the coffee you drink will easily taste bitter.

A professional American coffee drip machine uses a filter cup that requires filter paper. The advantage of filter paper is that it can make the coffee extraction slower. For example, if you use coarsely ground coffee powder, the filter paper can slow down the extraction of the coffee powder and achieve uniform extraction.

After talking about the filter cup, let’s talk about the water hole. In order to save costs, low-end American drip machines mostly have only one water hole in the middle. This means that the water hole in the middle can only inject water into the middle of the coffee powder in the filter cup. As we know, in order to evenly inject water when hand brewing, it is necessary to circle around from the inside to the outside to evenly extract the coffee powder, so as to avoid over-extraction of some coffee powder and under-extraction of some coffee powder.

Let's take a look at how a professional American drip filter machine simulates the brewing process of hand-poured coffee. You should have noticed that it has ten holes, which means that its water outlet holes are evenly distributed above the filter cup. The purpose of this is to ensure the uniform extraction of coffee powder and simulate the brewing process of hand-poured coffee to the maximum extent.

Professional American drip coffee also uses a more professional temperature controller system. As we all know, coffee is very sensitive to water temperature. Too high or too low temperature will affect the extraction of coffee flavor.

Nowadays, American drip machines are used in international cupping competitions, because many American drip machines meet the SCAA American Specialty Coffee Association's Gold Cup standard and can produce a perfect cup of coffee.

After talking about American coffee drip machines, let’s talk about hand-brewed coffee

To make hand-brewed coffee, first you need to have a handy pot. This depends on the individual. Some people like the Japanese style of narrow-mouthed pots, while others like hand-brewed pots and the American style of quick brewing. No matter how you brew it, the key is to make it taste good and in accordance with your own taste.

The first step is to pour in the ground coffee powder. I use the Fuji scale 3.5

20 grams of coffee powder, about the amount for two people

For the first water injection, use 30 grams of water to steam, and inject water evenly from the inside to the outside. The amount of water for steaming should be as small as possible, and it should be slow and as close to the powder layer as possible.

During the steaming process, when the coffee powder stops expanding, it is time to start the second water injection.

The second time you pour water, make it evenly in a circle, from the inside to the outside. Do not let the water touch the wall of the filter cup, because the water will flow down the groove of the filter cup wall, which will cause the extraction to be inconsistent.

The third time I added water, I reached the right amount of water. I used a water-to-powder ratio of 1:15, which means I added 300 grams of water.

After 300 grams, stop adding water and wait for all dripping to complete in about 2; 20 seconds

A cup of hand-brewed coffee is ready

Everyone has discovered that the brewing process of hand-poured coffee is more complicated than that of an American coffee machine, which means there are more possibilities and uncertainties. This is why everyone is keen on hand-poured coffee. American coffee machines are too stable, and every cup of coffee meets the gold cup standard. They are too rigid and not fun, but of course there is no problem drinking them.

The flavor of hand-poured coffee is more open, which means you can taste more flavors and the flavor is more delicate, while the flavor of coffee made by a drip coffee machine is more compact, and the flavor you can taste is less than that of hand-poured coffee. This is why it is more difficult to find a different cup of coffee in the triangular cup test during the World Cup test, because the drip machine is used, and the water temperature is relatively higher than the temperature when hand-poured, and the flavor is not so open. If people with insensitive sense of smell and taste, it is difficult to tell the difference between two beans from the same state with the same processing method. The same hand-poured coffee beans will have different flavors when brewed in different ways. Of course, its main flavor remains unchanged, while the drip machine is more rigid, and its extraction can only meet the gold cup standard, but it is difficult to have major changes, but it is very stable. This is the fun of hand-poured coffee.