Not long ago, a fan of washed beans was welcomed into the Front Street store. He had bought a lot of washed coffee, but he couldn’t make the coffee taste better at home, so he asked Front Street if he had any tips or suggestions. So today we will discuss the brewing plan for washed coffee.
What is washed coffee?
The "washed process" in coffee is translated from the English "Washed process", also known as“Wet process”, that is, "wet treatment”。
From the outside to the inside of a coffee cherry, there are peel, pulp, pectin, parchment, and coffee beans. The coffee we drink every day is the innermost seed. Conventional "water washing" has a relatively simple process sequence: removing defects → machine peeling → pool fermentation → rinsing and washing → drying → shelling → packaging. As for other washing treatments, adjustments are made to traditional operations. For example, double washing in Kenya uses multiple immersions in water to further remove residual pectin.
As a traditional green bean processing method, the water washing method was born to improve the quality of coffee and make the production of each green bean batch stable and efficient in order to achieve profitability. Therefore, to this day, water washing is still one of the most common and popular processing methods in the origin. We can find its shadow in the information columns of many coffee beans, such as Front Street Dingding, Front Street Small Tomato, Front Street Jade Green Label, Front Streetkilimanjaro...all have the credit of water washing method.
What are the characteristics of washed coffee?
Since during the washing process, the green beans are kept smooth and soaked in water for fermentation, and then the pectin component is completely removed through washing. Therefore, compared with sun-drying, it can highlight the characteristics of the coffee seeds itself and there is almost no fermentation, so the cleanliness is higher.
In order to more clearly present the tonality of the coffee production area (or variety), roasters will use appropriate roasting levels for different washed beans, such as the bright citrus acidity of washed diced fruit, the tomato juice flavor of washed Kenya, the white floral aroma and clean and quiet tone of washed Panamanian Gesha... These are all things that people are fascinated by washed coffee. At the same time, many newcomers will fall into a misunderstanding, thinking that "washed coffee must be more sour than sun-dried coffee."
Front Street needs to correct one thing. The acid in the above coffee is mainly determined by the degree of roasting and has little to do with the processing method. Here is an example. Front Street bakes Golden Mandheling, which focuses on a mellow taste, until it bursts out of the oven. It can also exhibit high-intensity acidity. Whether it tastes good or not is a matter of opinion.
The reason why we think "washed beans are more acidic" is because sun-dried coffee is dried with the peel and pulp, which easily releases the complex fermented fruity aroma into the seeds, allowing us to feel the mellow aroma of tropical fruits, slight wine aroma, candied fruit, brown sugar, etc. Front Street once compared the extraction of water-washed Panamanian Geisha and sun-dried Colombian Geisha using the same set of parameters and found that the sun-dried Gesha does indeed smell sweeter than the water-washed Geisha, but the acidity in the mouth is much higher in the sun-dried Geisha than in the water-washed one.
What brewing method is suitable for washed coffee beans?
As mentioned in Front Street Street, the reason why many washed beans are so popular is mainly because of their unique clean and quiet flavor, as well as the bright floral and fruity tones that appear under medium-light roasting. Therefore, if you want your coffee to taste distinct, the brewing concentration should not be too high. Front Street will choose 1:16 for extraction.
In addition, under the same parameters, the lighter the roasting degree, the lower the solubility of coffee powder in water. At this time, if you want to improve the extraction rate of coffee, in addition to the fine grinding and high water temperature often mentioned on the front street, you can actually further control it by increasing the segmentation + increasing the water flow circle.
Although they are all washed, Front Street believes that coffee with fruit acid can be roughly divided into two categories: one is based on Kenyan,Rwandaforclassic representativeDark berry-like, thick acidity, the other is the fresh flavor of white flower citrus, which mostly appears in washed coffee beans from Ethiopia, Panama, Peru, and Colombia.
Here we use Front Street cherry tomatoes, a double-washed coffee from Kenya. In order to highlight its full and juicy taste and rich layers, Front Street will pair it withThe V60 performs extraction, and the spiral convex groove design allows the water flow to more fully "squeeze" the powder layer, maximizing the water-absorbing expansion of the coffee particles.
Coffee beans: Front Street Kenya · Cherry Tomato
Amount of powder: 15g
Pink to water ratio: 1:16
Total water injection volume: 240g (40g+70g+70g+60g)
Grinding degree: EK43 10 scale (No. 20 screen pass rate 80%/C40 grinder 25 grids)
Water temperature: 93℃
Filter bowl: Hario V60#01
Water injection method: four-stage
First pour 15g of coffee powder into the V60 and pat it flat gently. In the first section, use a small flow of water to inject 40g of water in a circle from the inside to the outside and steam for 30 seconds. Pay attention to moistening all the coffee powder to facilitate exhaust.
After 30 seconds, inject the second section and inject 70g of hot water in a vertical circle. This can slightly raise the water flow and quickly lift the powder bed to half of the filter cup, which allows the flavor to be better developed;
When the coffee liquid falls and is about to expose the powder bed, the time is 1 minute and 09 seconds. Start injecting the third stage. The technique and water volume should be consistent with the previous stage. After pouring 70g of hot water, the liquid level will be just flush with the previous stage. Compared with steaming, these two stages of hot water are mainly responsible for releasing the fruit acid part and caramelized aroma of the washed beans. Therefore, be careful not to pour the water onto the filter paper, which may easily cause insufficient extraction.
When the liquid level drops to half, about 1 minute and 41 seconds, start injecting the last 60g. It is mainly responsible for extracting the sweetness and mellow taste of the washed coffee, so there is no need to use too much water flow, just keep the center point for flushing.
The small tomatoes brewed in this way really live up to their name, with a dense tomato aroma, rich berry acidity from blueberries and black grapes, and a hint of caramel in the mouth. As the temperature decreases, the soft light floral aroma and snow pear flavor begin to become apparent, with a solid sense of juice, and a very rich layering and flavor.
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
