Modern technology is becoming more and more advanced, and coffee has also entered the field of automation. Automatic milk frothing and automatic latte art have been frequently searched in recent years. So the question becomes, can a ritualistic coffee type like Pour over(V60) coffee be replaced by a machine?
Adhering to the spirit of inquiry, Front Street went to the next door in the middle of the night to borrow an automatic brewing machine that he did not have to return. He wanted to try out what kind of coffee flavor the machine could brew and how it would be different from the coffee we brew manually!
This automatic coffee brewing machine is only responsible for brewing, because the water temperature and weighing need to be measured manually. Of course, there are already fully automatic brewing machines on the market, and everything from water temperature control to weighing can be automatically managed by the machine.
But it doesn’t matter much! Because the way they brew is similar to this machine, turn on the turntable switch on the side, the upper kettle will rotate evenly, and then hot water will be injected through the three holes at the bottom of the upper kettle.
The water injection in these three holes will be affected by the water pressure. When the water pressure is high, the water flow will be in the form of a water column. When the water is about to drip filter, the water pressure will decrease and the water column will transform into a slow drip filter. Okay, without further ado, let’s start preparing for the experiment.
Experiment preparation
We used the same beans and brewed both sides once. The following is the data used for this brewing comparison.
The extraction principle of a fully automatic coffee machine is actually very similar to that of hand brewing, both of which are drip-filter type, so when we buy coffee beans, we can directly choose single products with different flavors: if you don’t usually like bitter coffee, you can buy medium-light roasted Front Street Oiran, Front Street Grana Geisha, Front Street Butterfly;
For those who are looking for high sweetness, buy the medium-roasted Front Street Strawberry Candies, Front Street Claws, and Front Street Blackberries; but for those who can’t tolerate the sour taste, the barista recommends trying Front Street Mandheling, Front Street Blue Mountain No. 1, and Front Street Queen’s Manor.
The beans that Front Street brewed this time used dark roasted "Front Street Indonesia·Golden Mandheling".
Grinding degree: Normal grinding for hot brewing. The grinder used in Front Street Street is EK43, the grinding scale is 10.5, and the sieving rate of No. 20 sieve is 75%.
Powder to water ratio: 1:15 (15g coffee powder, 225ml hot water)
Water temperature: Use 88°C for dark roasted beans.
Brewing method: One-stroke brewing method.
Filter cup: Like the automatic brewing machine, it uses a fan-shaped filter cup.
Experiment begins
Manual brewing usually involves too much, so I won’t go into too much detail in this article and just put in the automatic brewing process.
1. Place and moisten the filter paper and pour in coffee powder.
2. Turn on the switch on the side to allow the water lamp to enter rotation.
3. Inject 30ml hot water and steam for 30 seconds.
4. Place the lower pot into the frame.
5. When the steaming time reaches 30 seconds, pour the remaining 195ml of water into the upper pot.
6. Wait for drip filtration to complete and then shake. The total time is about 2 minutes.
7. Take a spoonful of coffee each to check the concentration.
The extraction calculation formula of the coffee concentration meter (TDS detector) is: coffee liquid concentration ✖️coffee liquid weight ➗coffee bean/powder weight = extraction rate.
concentration | liquid weight | Weight | Extraction rate | |
Golden Mandheling (machine) | 1.34% | 225ml | 15g | 20.1% |
Golden Mandheling (person) | 1.36% | 225ml | 15g | 20.4% |
We can see that both brews meet the data of the extraction gold cup, so the next step is our tasting session.
Through tasting comparison, we found that the coffee brewed by the machine is not as clear-cut as the coffee brewed manually, not as thick, and more balanced, but the flavor characteristics of Mandheling are all displayed, such as nuts, pine and chocolate. The coffee brewed manually is obviously rich in layers and has a distinct creamy texture.
In fact, using a machine to brew, whether it is dark roasting or light roasting, as long as the parameters are set correctly, it can extract the core flavor of each bean, and it can make the extraction of each cup of coffee roughly the same when the parameters are consistent.
But Front Street feels that the definition of good Pour over(V60) coffee is not necessarily just delicious, but more about the core of the word - "people". The same bean will be brewed in different ways due to different people, different personalities, the height of the water flow, and the speed of the circle, which will cause the coffee to show different flavor characteristics. It is not a repetitive cookie, but it can make people feel the warmth of the heart and spleen. This is the most important thing.
Finally, no matter what the result is, if the manual brewing of Pour over(V60) coffee is changed to machine brewing, then... would this coffee be more appropriately called "machine-brewed coffee"?
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
