Still wondering what brewing equipment to buy? Seeing a dazzling array of filter cups, brewing kettles, and grinders...don’t know how to choose? It doesn't matter! An article on Front Street will help you choose coffee brewing equipment suitable for novices!
The choice of coffee beans for both office and home use
Whether it is an office or a coffee corner at home, a pack of good beans is the most important factor. Since coffee extraction is mainly divided into two types, espresso (Moka pot) and hand brewing (French press, cold brew), we can enter keywords first when purchasing.
The taste of Italian coffee depends on the coffee beans themselves. For office crowds and home users, stable extraction is definitely the primary consideration, followed by flavor and cost-effectiveness. Combining these three aspects, Front Street Black Cocoa Basic Blend can satisfy you in one go. It uses a combination of Yunnan small grains and Brazilian semi-dried cocoa, uses medium-dark roasting, and extracts and concentrates to present beautiful coffee oil, and exudes the flavor of butternut, chocolate, caramel, and plum.
If you want Pour over(V60) coffee to taste delicious, Front Street believes that it is very important to choose the right coffee beans that suit you. If you like coffee with a burst of juice, it is recommended to choose medium-light roasted coffee beans with rich floral and fruity aromas such as Front Street Little Tomato Coffee, Front Street Red Cherry Coffee, and Front Street Oiran Coffee;
If you prefer coffee with a strong and mellow taste, it is recommended to buy three types of dark roasted beans: Front Street Golden Mandheling Coffee, Front Street Queen's Manor Coffee, and Front Street Cymbidium; in addition, Front Street Strawberry Sugar Coffee, Front Street Hija Coffee, and Front Street Mozart Coffee have attracted many coffee lovers because of their aromatic and sweet flavors and have become one of the most popular items.
Coffee grinder choice
The grinder is very important! The grinder is very important! The grinder is very important! The price of bean grinders on the market is also "colorful", ranging from a hand-crank grinder costing tens of yuan to an electric bean grinder costing tens of thousands. Many friends who are just starting to brew coffee think that grinders are expensive, so they just buy a cheap one, or a spiral blade grinder that is not a coffee grinder.
Price determines the quality of the grinder, that’s for sure. If it is just for daily brewing rather than products produced in a store, Front Street recommends that you choose a hand-cranked grinder with a budget of about 500-2,000 yuan. It is more appropriate to choose an electric grinder with a budget of about 1,500-5,000 yuan.
Coffee grinders are expensive, why are they so expensive? Grind the cutterhead!
The cutterhead is the most important part of the grinder. Different cutterheads directly affect the distribution of the diameter of the coffee powder, which determines whether the thickness of the coffee powder is uniform after grinding. The degree of grinding also has a great impact on the taste of Pour over(V60) coffee! The currently common types of cutterheads are divided into tapered cutters, flat cutters and ghost cutters. Among them, the vertebrae and ghost teeth are only used for grinding Pour over(V60) coffee.
Cone cutter: It grinds coffee beans into particles by grinding, so its shape is mainly block-shaped. It is generally used for hand grinding. Since it is in the form of "grinding", a large amount of dust-like fine powder will appear when the coffee beans are crushed and exploded. Normal coffee particles are also in irregular lumps, but tend to be uniform overall. The cone blade is close to granular shape, which leads to a longer water absorption path, and it will be exposed to water for a longer period of time. Therefore, the initial release of soluble substances is small and the concentration will not be too high. However, the long-term extraction of the xylem absorbs less water and is less likely to produce off-flavors and astringency.
Ghost tooth cutter: It grinds coffee beans into particles, so its shape is mainly closer to a sphere. But also because one coffee bean can be ground into several tiny spheres, the scraps (fine powder) produced by grinding the spheres will also increase. But overall the differences between large particles are minimal.
Buy Coffee Grind Correction Screen
The degree of grinding directly affects the taste of the entire cup of Pour over(V60) coffee, so it is very important to find a suitable degree of grinding. Front Street noticed that the primary reason why many enthusiasts do not brew well at home is often because the grinding degree is not correct - if the grinding is too fine, the taste will be bitter and astringent; if the grinding is too coarse, the flavor will not come out.
Front Street recommends medium grinding for Pour over(V60) coffee. How coarse is medium grinding? The coffee bean grinders currently on the market have different grinding scale standards, and there is no standard grinding scale. Therefore, Front Street recommends purchasing a 0.85mm No. 20 standard sieve for sieving.
The pass rate of grinding fineness of medium and light roasted coffee beans for manual brewing is about 75%-80%, and the pass rate of grinding fineness of medium and dark roasted coffee beans for manual brewing is about 65%-70%.
Choice of hand brewing kettles
In addition to filter cups, there are also many styles of hand-pour pots. When many novice friends don’t know which one to buy, they go for the color of the hand-pour pot... (Hey, the focus is wrong!!!) We must pay attention to the spout and the capacity of the pot! Front Street recommends that novices choose a goose-neck and thin-mouth teapot. What does it look like? Looks like this~
The capacity of the hand brewing kettle determines the center of gravity during brewing, and the center of gravity also determines the stability of the pouring water. A hand pouring kettle with a capacity that is too small will lack a center of gravity and will float when filling water. Although the center of gravity of a hand pouring kettle with a large capacity can better stabilize the water flow, it is not suitable for those with weak strength... Therefore, Front Street recommends that a hand pouring kettle with a capacity of 500-600ml is more suitable.
Should I choose a temperature-controlled hand brewing kettle or an ordinary hand pouring kettle?
You can choose any one. If you have enough budget, you can buy a temperature-controlled hand brewing kettle. If you have a smaller budget, you can choose an ordinary hand brewing kettle and then buy a digital thermometer~
Brewing filter selection
There are so many styles of coffee filter cups on the market that it is dizzying, and different styles of coffee filter cups have different brewing effects. Before worrying about which filter cup to buy, buy a V60 filter cup first. There is no single-origin coffee beans that the V60 filter cup cannot brew!
The name of the V60 filter cup comes from the 60-degree tapered design, which can guide water to the center and extend the contact time between water and coffee. The large-pore filter design at the bottom allows you to control the flavor extraction time of coffee by changing the size of water injection. The spiral ribs (exhaust grooves) allow air to be discharged upward from all sides, maximizing the exhaust process of coffee powder.
Choice of filter paper
The shape and size of the filter paper determines the fit between the filter paper and the filter cup. When the mismatched filter paper cannot perfectly fit the filter cup, it will easily cause a gap between the filter paper and the filter cup, changing the diversion effect of the filter cup, leading to negative effects such as uneven coffee extraction. Therefore, when purchasing filter paper, you should look at the model of the filter cup and then purchase the same model of filter paper.
Should I choose raw wood filter paper or bleached filter paper?
Raw wood filter paper refers to unbleached filter paper, which is light brown in color and has a paper smell. Bleached filter paper refers to bleached filter paper, which is white and has no obvious paper smell. Regarding the question of how to choose between log filter paper and bleached filter paper, Front Street prefers bleached filter paper. Because the smell of bleached filter paper is not obvious, it will not affect the taste of the coffee.
You may be worried about the toxicity of bleached paper. In fact, the famous coffee filter paper brand now uses advanced enzyme bleaching. Unlike traditional chemical bleaching, enzyme bleaching uses biologically active enzymes for bleaching, which is widely used in the medical field. Therefore, when buying coffee filter paper, you must choose a big brand with a reasonable price. Some filter papers that are too cheap cannot be guaranteed regardless of their material, size, or bleaching technology.
Choice of electronic scales
Front Street recommends purchasing a quick-display electronic scale with a timing function, or directly searching for a Pour over(V60) coffee electronic scale to purchase.
Sharing Pot Choices
Front Street recommends that when choosing a sharing pot, you should check whether the pot itself is heat-resistant, instead of buying it when you see it looks good. Sharing pots of poor quality will be less susceptible to hot spots when brewing coffee and are prone to bursting. Therefore, you should not be cheap when buying a sharing pot~
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
