Recently, a customer asked Front Street what he should do if the coffee beans he bought were ground into fine powder for making Italian coffee. I believe many friends have also encountered this situation. The coffee powder they bought was found to be too fine. If you use the usual parameters for hand brewing, it will definitely be overextracted. Do you have to throw it away? Can't you keep it?
Today, Front Street would like to share with you, can the "powder" with a grinding degree suitable for making espresso coffee be used for cold brewing or hand brewing? How should it be brewed better?
When it comes to the selection of coffee beans, Front Street here uses the medium-dark roasted [Front Street Mandheling] as a demonstration. This bean has a high body, relatively low acidity, and an aroma with characteristics of chocolate, caramel, herbs, Pu'er tea, pine, etc. It is also a flavor profile close to many Italian coffee powders on the market.
【Hand punch】
In order to restore the situation that my friends encountered at home, Front Street directly uses the coffee grinder produced by the store.Galileo, and modulate the scale with corresponding thickness2.5grid for grinding.
Parameters: Hario KONO filter cup; water temperature 81~83℃; powder to water ratio 1:15 or 1:10 and then diluted by By Pass; grinding degree: Galileo 2.5 (Italian grinding)
filter cup
In order to highlight the mellow taste and solid flavor of Mandheling, the mellow and round taste of coffee will be extracted using a KONO coffee filter cup. The ribs of KONO are less than half the height of the filter cup. This design is actually to ensure that the filter cup sticks to the wall of the filter cup after it is wet with water, limiting the air flow. This will increase the time for the coffee powder particles to absorb water, so that the extracted coffee is more uniform overall. It is suitable for brewing medium-dark roasted single-origin coffee beans such as Front Street Blue Mountain Coffee and Front Street Golden Mandheling.
water temperature
Since the grinding degree is very fine and the degree of roasting is relatively deep, it is easy to over-extract if the water temperature is too high, so FrontStreet Coffee will choose a relatively low water temperature (81~83℃) for brewing.
Pink to water ratio
technique
In terms of technique, FrontStreet Coffee chooses the method of pouring water directly into the center after steaming. Because the coffee powder is ground too finely and the dark roasted beans are loose, which makes the flavor substances in the coffee powder easier to extract. In order to prevent over-extraction and make the coffee bitter, FrontStreet chooses the method of pouring water in the center to reduce the disturbance of the powder layer.
When the coffee powder is impacted by the water flow, it will roll inward with the water injection point as the center. The center point of the water injection is close to the hole in the filter cup at the bottom, so the water flow will be pressurized and flow to the sharing pot faster.
Due to the water injection in the center, all the coffee liquid in the filter cup will flow out after brewing, and the powder bed will look like a deep pit in the future.
Extraction time
Because the flavor substances in finely ground coffee powder are easily extracted, FrontStreet Coffee recommends that you shorten the extraction time appropriately when brewing. For this brewing, FrontStreet Coffee starts from steaming, and the extraction time is controlled to about one and a half minutes.
FrontStreet Coffee used two powder-to-water ratios for brewing experiments:
[Powder to water ratio 1:15]
Technique: Use 30 grams of water to steam for 30 seconds so that the coffee powder can be fully exhausted to avoid the impact of the gas in the coffee powder during brewing. After steaming, directly pour water into the center to 225 grams and stop. When the water in the filter cup drops to 1/2 of the filter cup, remove the filter cup. The extraction time is 1 minute and 10 seconds.
Flavor: The taste is dark chocolate, cocoa, and roasted hazelnuts. It has a strong taste and a sweet caramel finish. The overall flavor is rich and the taste is thick.
[Powder to water ratio 1:10]
Technique: Use 30 grams of water to steam for 30 seconds so that the coffee powder can be fully exhausted to avoid the impact of the gas in the coffee powder during brewing. After steaming, directly pour water into the center to 150 grams and stop. When the water in the filter cup drops to 1/2 of the filter cup, remove the filter cup. (Steaming starts timing) The extraction time is 1 minute and 35 seconds. Then add 100 grams of water to the sharing pot.
Finally, let us summarize, if the coffee powder is ground finely, then we can appropriately lower the water temperature when brewing, choose a small ratio of powder to water, and reduce stirring during brewing to reduce the extraction of coffee powder!
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
