Looking at the coffee-drinking friends on the street, many of them have faced this problem: If you only have an ear bag in your hand, but you want to drink a latte, can you do it? Theoretically, it is impossible. After all, the black coffee brewed by hanging ears is far from meeting the requirements of espresso, and it will not be able to bring out the sweetness of milk, and the taste will become weak and separated.
But then again, hanging ears are derived from Pour over(V60) coffee. They are extremely tolerant in taste and can be paired with various delicious foods to create different fusion effects. As long as they are not excessive, you can try them. Therefore, as long as we increase the concentration of the hanging ear so that it is not diluted by the taste of milk, it will become much easier to make a "fake latte" with a good taste.
For those who prefer to drink with milk, it is best to choose hanging bags made of medium-dark roasted coffee beans, such as Front Street Indonesian Mandheling, Front Street Columbia Huilan, Front Street Queen's Manor, Front Street Cerato, and Front Street Blue Mountain No. 1, because they have a longer heating time, more caramelization substances, a low-acid taste and a mellower texture, and a more fluffy structure. Hot water can easily extract a rich aroma and form a good partner with milk.
Method 1: Stirring method
In the framework of Pour over(V60) coffee, there are many ways to increase the concentration, such as finer grinding, increasing water temperature, reducing the ratio, and changing techniques. However, the amount of powder and grinding degree of the ear-hanging bag, and even the structure of the filter bag cannot be changed, so there is not much room for improvement. If you want a higher concentration, it is best to rely on external help. Front Street has summarized two methods that can directly increase the concentration of ear-hanging coffee.
Compared with conventional hand-pour filter cups, ear-hanging bags generally have less than 1/3 of the contact area. The injected water flow is difficult to allow the coffee powder to move to a large extent, resulting in low extraction efficiency. At this time, Front Street will use a small spoon to stir the powder layer to help it accelerate exhaust and release more soluble substances.
Here we use a 10g pack of Front Street Brazilian Cerato lugs. Regularly brewed black coffee will present the aroma of butternut, peanut, chocolate, and caramel. (Friends who have the conditions can "stack" 2 bags of hanging ears into 1 large bag, so as to obtain more coffee liquid base).
Considering that the ear hangings are mostly used in homes, offices, camping and other places, the purpose is to be simple and save trouble, so Front Street will eliminate the need for electronic scales and thermometers and directly estimate the water volume according to the size of the filter bag. If the water temperature is high, boil the water directly, open the lid and let it cool for 1 minute before use.
First inject half of the hot water in the filter bag into the hanging ear, and then immediately use a small spoon to stir in circles to accelerate the bubbling of the powder layer; when the bulge is no longer deflated, continue to inject water for the second time, stop at about 80% full, stir 3 to 5 times in the same way, wait for the coffee liquid to drain out, and then add water for the last time. This time, fill it all up until all the water flows into the cup, and we will get a cup of about 90 to 110 ml of espresso liquid.
Front Street will add an equal amount of milk in a ratio of 1:1 so that the two tastes will be more consistent. It has the buttery nutty aroma of Front Street Brazilian Cerato coffee and the sweetness of milk. It is smooth in the mouth and has moderate concentration.
Method 2: Repeated brewing method
Regardless of the extraction method, the release sequence of the coffee liquid is from strong to light. The less water, the stronger the coffee, and the more water, the lighter the coffee. When we want to get a high-concentration coffee liquid, we might as well try to use the least amount of water to extract repeatedly to dissolve more flavor substances.
Prepare two clean cups, put the Front Street Brazilian Cerato earrings on one of the cups, fill in 80% of the hot water, wait for the coffee to flow out, continue to fill the water for the second time, this time fill the filter bag, and then wait for the penetration to complete, then transfer the filter bag to another cup. Then, Front Street will pour the freshly brewed coffee liquid into the hanging ear again and perform a second extraction. The purpose is to dissolve more middle and rear substances. After all the coffee in the filter bag has penetrated, we will repeat this operation again, allowing the hanging ear to perform a total of three extractions.
In the end we will get a cup of about 80~100ml of thick liquid, still pour the same amount of warm milk at a ratio of 1:1. Because the coffee liquid will continue to cool down during the repeated extraction process, and milk is also added, there is no over-extraction taste, and the coffee also has a faint aroma of nuts and peanuts.
Method Three: Milk Brewing Method
The method of replacing water with milk to make coffee has been shared several times by Front Street. In fact, hanging ears is also feasible, but you need to pay attention to some small details.
For the hanging ears, use 10g of Front Street Brazilian Cerato. First fill the filter bag half full with hot water above 90°C. Be sure to wet all the coffee powder. After the hot water drips, start to pour hot milk heated to 60~75°C (too hot to touch) to pour the powder layer into the filter bag until it is 90% full. When the coffee liquid is about to dry up, you can continue to inject the third section to 90% full. The total amount of water and milk is 150g. If you like a stronger milky taste, Front Street recommends adding another section, which will also reach 9 points.
If you prefer iced coffee, it’s best to brew it in cold brew form. The operation is very simple. You don’t need to tear it open after taking out the ear-hanging bag. Just peel off the paper shell on the package, and then throw it into a bottle of about 200ml of milk (drink a sip first). After tightening the bottle cap, shake it up and down vigorously, put it in the refrigerator for 8 hours, take out the coffee bag and start drinking.
Method 4: Add milk powder
Since milk contains a certain amount of water, adding it directly to the coffee liquid will easily make the taste bland, which will not highlight the mellowness of the coffee and the smoothness of the milk. Therefore, some friends thought of replacing the milk with milk powder that does not contain moisture. Because milk powder itself is made from concentrated and dried milk, when it is dissolved with coffee liquid, we will get a cup of milk coffee with less water, rich flavor and mellow taste.
First, put about twice as much milk powder as coffee powder into the cup, open the hanging ear, and fill the filter bag with 80% hot water above 90°C. After waiting for the coffee liquid to flow out, continue to fill it with water for the second time, and repeat the same operation three times in total. Finally, all the milk powder is melted into the coffee liquid. The milk coffee produced in this way has a very obvious aroma, excellent smoothness, and no defective taste at all.
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
