I believe that everyone has prepared enough coffee ear bags for the upcoming National Day holiday, so that during the long holiday, you can not be bound by those complicated brewing equipment and parameters, so that you can have a free time in the year and drink black coffee in the simplest way!
This is also the original intention of the designer of the ear-hanging bag. He just hopes that everyone can drink a cup of hand-made drip coffee without spending a lot of energy. There is no need for too many coffee utensils or too precise parameters. As long as a cup, a pot of hot water, and a pack of hanging ears, you can take on the important task of making drip coffee.
There are actually not many skills in choosing hanging ears. It mainly depends on your own taste. Most of the hanging ears we taste are of the Arabica variety. After baking, they are divided into two categories: dark roasted and light roasted. If you like the floral and fruity type, buy Front Street Yirgacheffe hanging ears, Front Street Oiran hanging ears, and Front Street Geisha hanging ears;
I usually prefer strong, bitter coffee, so it’s best to try Front Street Mandheling, Front Street Blue Mountain No. 1, and Front Street Brazilian Seasonal. The black coffee brewed by them will emit obvious nutty and caramel aromas. It is mellow and sweet, and is very suitable for people who are afraid of acid.
However, many friends, without an electronic scale, directly place the hanging ear on any cup, and then use high-temperature hot water to soak for a long time. The result of this is that it is difficult to obtain the ideal hanging ear coffee. On the contrary, it will most likely lead to two negative results for the coffee: one is that the coffee tastes weak due to too much water injection; the other is that the soaking time is too long, resulting in over-extraction, which makes it taste very bitter!
So! By observing the appearance and capacity of the cup, we can avoid brewing unpleasant coffee due to errors caused by the lack of electronic scales and temperature control equipment. After all, no matter how simple it is, we still need some quality!
cup capacity
We can first understand the capacity of the cup we are using, and then combine it with the conventional powder-to-water ratio to determine which cup and which position hot water needs to be poured into in order to achieve the target water volume and finally extract the appropriate concentration.
In general coffee extraction, 1:15 is the more commonly used ratio of powder to water, and the concentration of the brewed coffee is more suitable. The amount of powder in Front Street's ear-hanging bags is 10g, which translates into 150ml of hot water.
If the capacity of the cup used is 400ml, we only need to inject water to one-third of the total height of the cup, and then we can get a cup of coffee with the appropriate concentration. If it is a 300ml cup, fill it to half of the cup, and the water volume can be controlled at about 150ml, and so on.
cup shape
Because cups have different shapes, their capacities and heights are inconsistent. Then these factors will directly cause the ear-mounted bag to be soaked to varying degrees during brewing!
For example, for some shorter cups, because the cup body is not high, the ear-hanging bag can directly contact the bottom of the cup. When hot water is poured in, it will be soaked directly by the hot water at the bottom, which can easily over-extract the coffee. In this case, we need to slightly lower the water temperature used for brewing and weaken the intensity of hot water extraction.
Front Street recommends that you boil the water directly to a boiling state, then open the lid and leave it for 120 seconds. The water temperature will drop to about 90°C. Using hot water at this temperature for brewing can reduce the chance of over-extraction while ensuring the flavor.
As for those tall, large-capacity cups, even after filling the appropriate amount of hot water, the water in the cup will not soak into the ear-hanging bag because the water level is not high enough. Then we can use a higher water temperature for brewing and extraction. The range of 92~94°C is a good choice.
If we have other props around us, we can also use them as assistance! For example, items such as chopsticks, spoons, and toothpicks can be used as stir sticks for those who do not have a thin-diameter hot water bottle. When pouring hot water, stir them in a circle at the center of the hanging ear, which can effectively increase the flavor of the extracted 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
