It may be used to make special coffee, or maybe you just want to take a sip of coffee. Occasionally, a friend will have the idea of "making a small cup of coffee with only a small amount of coffee beans."But if you have actually done it, Front Street believes that it will not be difficult for you to find: Compared with brewing with a large amount of powder, it is obviously much more difficult to brew a cup of coffee with a small amount of powder.In the past two days, a friend reported to Xiangjie that he tried to make coffee using only 5g of coffee beans, but no matter how he brewed the coffee, it didn’t taste good! Both the texture and taste are very different from coffee brewed with conventional powder.The reason why coffee with a small amount of powder is so difficult to brew is mainly because the amount of powder is too small, which adds many unexpected difficulties to our brewing.What’s the difficulty with brewing with less powder?Front Street mentioned in a previous article that different types of filter cups have their own most suitable amount of powder. For example, the 01 model V60 filter cup is more suitable for brewing 10~20g of coffee powder, while the 02 model is suitable for brewing 20~30g.This does not mean that they cannot brew other powder quantities, but when we use these powder quantities to brew, it is easier to brew a cup of delicious coffee. Why?First of all, this is because these amounts of powder can build a powder bed of just the right thickness in the filter cup! The thickness of the grounds bed will affect the amount of coffee grounds that the hot water can come into contact with. When the powder bed in the filter cup is thicker, more coffee powder will come into contact with the hot water when it penetrates.With other parameters unchanged, the same amount of water will dissolve different amounts of substances due to different thicknesses of the powder bed. The thicker the powder bed, the hot water will dissolve more flavor substances when it penetrates because it comes into contact with more coffee powder, and the efficiency will be higher; the thinner the powder bed, the less powder the hot water will contact when it penetrates, and naturally there will not be that much dissolved material, and the efficiency will be relatively low.(The left side is 5g powder, the right side is 15g powder)A powder bed that is too thick or too thin will increase the difficulty of extraction, because a powder bed that is too thick will easily cause the hot water to contact too much coffee powder, resulting in a cup of over-extracted coffee; a powder bed that is too thin will easily cause the hot water to contact too little coffee powder, resulting in a cup of under-extracted coffee.Therefore, the suitable amount of powder mentioned in the filter cup refers to the amount of powder that can build a powder bed with the right thickness in the filter cup. And when we brew with powder quantities outside these ranges, the difficulty of brewing a good cup of coffee will increase.In addition to the thickness of the powder bed, the amount of water also determines the ease of brewing. When the amount of powder used is more, the amount of water will be more; conversely, the amount of powder used is less, the amount of water will be less. As long as the water injection method remains unchanged, the amount of water affects the extraction time. The greater the amount of water, the longer the time for water injection and water seepage will be; the less the amount of water, the shorter the time for water injection and water seepage.The reason why many friends are unable to brew a cup of delicious coffee with a small amount of powder is because the amount of water is too little, causing the water to be filled in an instant, and then because there is not enough extraction time, the coffee is under-extracted. Then coupled with the powder bed problem mentioned earlier, coffee with a small amount of powder is more difficult to brew well.But being difficult doesn’t mean it’s impossible! Of course we can use a small amount of powder like 5g to brew a pot of coffee that is as delicious as 15g of powder. Because as long as we adjust the extraction parameters appropriately or change the water injection idea, we can brew a pot of coffee with the same extraction rate and concentration.(Or should I say a cup...)Water temperature, grinding, time, ratio, and water flow are the five main factors that determine the extraction efficiency of Pour over(V60) coffee. When the coffee is under-extracted because the extraction efficiency of one of the factors is not up to standard, we only need to correct it by increasing the extraction efficiency of other parameters to brew a cup of coffee with suitable taste and concentration.Here is a simple example. Let us first digitize the extraction efficiency of these factors, so that it can be more intuitive. Taking the water temperature and grinding as an example, when we use a water temperature of 92°C and grinding fine sugar, we can brew a cup of coffee with a suitable extraction rate and concentration. Assuming that the extraction strength provided by them is "5" each, then their combined value is "10". Only by reaching the extraction strength of 10 can we brew a cup of delicious coffee.But one day, due to our negligence, we ground the coffee powder into coarse sugar particles, resulting in the extraction strength provided by the grinding being reduced to "3". If we want to use such particles to brew a pot of coffee that tastes equally good, then we can choose to increase the water temperature during brewing to 94°C or 96°C, so that the extraction strength provided by the water temperature reaches "7", so that the extraction strength provided by the grinding adds up to the same "10", then naturally, we can brew the same delicious coffee.Although the actual operation will be somewhat different from this example due to various reasons, the meaning is almost the same. Okay, without further ado, Front Street will share how to use 5g powder to brew a delicious cup of coffee!If your friends often brew small amounts of coffee, Front Street would recommend purchasing one.V30 filter cup. Because the included angle of V30 is smaller, the same amount of powder can accumulate a thicker powder bed inside it. In addition to allowing the water to extract more coffee powder, a thicker powder bed can also make the coffee more layered due to differences in extraction.But since many friends only have a V60 or other filter cup in hand, we still use a regular filter cup for this brewing sharing. The coffee beans used in this Front Street sharing are the Front Street Esai Oiran in the bean list. The parameters are as follows:Amount of powder used: 5gPink to water ratio: 1:15Brewing water temperature: 92°CGrinding degree: 85% screening rate of No. 20 mesh(When brewing with 15g of powder, the sieving rate used by Front Street is 75%)As you can see, Front Street only made adjustments to the grinding degree, and other parameters are the same as when brewing 15g. Why?Because Front Street will extend the time to 2 minutes through multi-stage water injection, this can avoid the problem of too short time caused by too little water. However, because the amount of water distributed in each section has been reduced, the extraction rate cannot be increased by disturbing the powder bed, so the extraction efficiency without stirring is compensated by finer grinding.So first, we still use twice the amount of water as powder（10ml）Wet the coffee powder and steam it for 30 seconds. Because less water is used（10ml）, so we have to reduce the water flow to rush it slowly~slowly~After steaming, we divide the remaining 65ml of hot water into 3 to 4 sections and inject it. Each section is filled with water using a small flow of water until the water level is almost submerged in the powder bed. Then, wait for the hot water to completely seep out of the filter cup before injecting into the next section.When the target amount of water is completely filled, we only need to wait for all the coffee liquid to drip before removing the filter cup and ending the extraction.(Pour out exactly the amount of one cup)The total time is 2 minutes and 05 seconds, which is the same as when brewing 15g of powder, and the taste is the same! This cup of coffee brewed with 5g powder not only has a very balanced taste, but also has a very outstanding flavor. Oiran's strawberry, citrus, cream, oolong tea and other aromas are well expressed. Then there was no negative smell throughout the whole process.For the sake of conservatism, Qian Street passedconcentration meterThe extraction yield of the coffee was measured. The final concentration meter showed a concentration of 1.59% and an extraction rate of 21.90%, both just right.So to sum up, we can know that as long as the parameters and methods are used properly, even 5g powder can make a delicious cup of coffee. The brewing method of 6g and 7g beans shared by Front Street before is also the same. It’s very simple, you can try it yourself~
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
