Newcomers often say that they feel that making coffee is a metaphysics, and whether it tastes good or not depends solely on luck. But in Front Street’s eyes, as long as you find the logic and rules behind brewing, you will find that it is not that complicated at all. It is nothing more than finding a few key parameters, using hot water to fully extract the coffee powder, and finally getting a cup of coffee that tastes good.
Nowadays, there are endless coffee brewing tutorials on the Internet, but many beginners still face an "accident", that is, the brewed coffee is burnt and difficult to swallow. Today, Front Street uses the elimination method to provide you with a solution.
Reason one ： The coffee beans themselves are dark roasted
Whether coffee is sour or bitter is mainly determined by the degree of roasting. Lightly roasted coffee is more acidic, darker roasted coffee is more bitter, and medium-roasted beans have both sourness and bitterness. For those who like dark roasted coffee, it allows us to smell aromas such as caramel, nuts, chocolate, toast, etc., and at the same time feel the taste characteristics of thick, mellow and deep, and there is a long-lasting aftertaste left in the mouth after drinking.
Those who don't like "heavy flavors" by nature are resistant to this taste from the bottom of their hearts. In addition, this type of coffee mainly has a roasting aroma, so many people find it burnt and bitter, and even compare it to Cantonese-style herbal tea.
To avoid this kind of situation is very simple, we only need to judge from the flavor description on the coffee bean label. For example, in our ration series, Front Street Brazilian Cerato, Front Street Colombian Cymbidium, Front Street Indonesian Mandheling. The labels are all chocolate, nuts, toast, spices, pine wood, caramel... It sounds like the aroma of long-term roasting, which means that it is a coffee with mainly bitter notes.
Reason two : Leaving coffee beans for too long will cause the aroma to be lost
In addition to the issue of roasting degree, the burnt bitterness of coffee is also affected by the tasting period.
Generally speaking, roasted coffee beans will emit a large amount of carbon dioxide in the first few days, then enter a golden tasting period, and slowly reach the peak of the aroma. As time goes by, the flavor substances begin to gradually lose, the aroma weakens, and the taste becomes dull. Front Street generally recommends that if the coffee beans are not ground into powder, it is best to drink it within one and a half months after roasting; if it is ground into powder, it is best to drink it within three weeks.
If your coffee beans happen to belong to the bitter types mentioned above, they will smell obvious roasting aroma when they are fresh, which is what we often call "coffee flavor". However, once the tasting period has passed, the coffee will not only lose the aroma, but also emit miscellaneous smells similar to wood, greasiness, and smoke, and the brewed coffee will also have a burnt and bitter taste.
If you have ruled out that the coffee beans themselves are causing the problem, then the burnt bitterness is likely due to the brewing parameters.
Reason three : The grinding degree is too fine or there are too many fine powders
According to Front Street’s observation, when novices encounter coffee that is bitter and scorched, it is mostly related to the grinding degree. There are two main situations: one is that the grinding degree is too fine, and it is difficult for the water to flow down, resulting in a long soaking time and a bitter taste; the other is that too much fine powder blocks the gaps in the filter paper, causing blockage and over-extraction.
If your situation is that the water is evenly poured, but the overall speed is very slow (15g powder, 1:15, more than 2 minutes and 20 seconds), and the coffee is burnt and bitter, it means that the grinding is too fine and needs to be coarsened;
If your situation is that the water flow is normal in the early stage, but the water flow becomes slower as you go, and it becomes wet and muddy after flushing, it means that there are too many fine powders in the coffee, and you need to sieve out some of the fine powder, or replace it with a better quality grinder to avoid such problems.
Reason four : Water temperature is too high
Regarding water temperature recommendations, Front Street never gives exact numbers, but provides a rough range based on the roasting degree of the coffee beans. Light to light-medium roasting uses 91-93°C, medium roasting is 89-91°C, and dark roasting is 86-88°C. But in fact, there is a difference in the taste between the maximum and minimum hot water, and the reason why the coffee tastes burnt and bitter may be due to this 1 to 2°C difference.
I remember one time when Front Street was brewing Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee, it was extracted with 88°C water. The coffee had a hint of burnt bitterness. Later, with other parameters fixed, Front Street switched to 86°C water temperature, and the taste of the coffee immediately became balanced and clean.
If you get a burnt and bitter taste, and you have ruled out the reasons such as coffee bean roasting degree, date, grinding degree, etc., you might as well determine whether the water temperature is too high.
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
