Many friends come here to visit Front Street. In addition to sighing at the wide variety of coffee beans in Front Street, they also admire the barista's brewing skills. There are also many friends who want to discuss the issue of pour-over brewing with baristas. So Front Street also took this opportunity to talk about how to improve the level of coffee brewing.
Before that, Front Street asked everyone a question, "Do you think making coffee is a manual skill or a mental job?"
If you think you are a friend of manual skills, then you still need to practice harder. Although Front Street said that water control, circling, and filling of Pour over(V60) coffee are very important, and it is indeed difficult to get started at the beginning, this is only the most basic part of Pour over(V60) coffee.
If your hands shake when filling the water, the water flow is not vertical, and the circle is not circular, it must be that the practice time is not enough. There are two key points in learning to control water. The first point is to learn the correct postures and movements; the second point is to practice consistently to form muscle memory. After mastering the right method, if you don't practice it, the knowledge will only remain on paper. If you can take it out every day
After practicing for 30 minutes, you will be able to master the hand-flush water control technique in about 15 days.
Of course, mastering the water filling method only shows that you know how to brew coffee. Before you learn how to brew coffee by hand, you still need to understand the parameters.
How to understand coffee brewing parameters
Grinding size, powder-to-water ratio, water temperature, and time are parameters that cannot be avoided when learning Pour over(V60) coffee. We must understand the connection between these parameters and how changing these parameters will lead to the flavor of coffee, and use them flexibly.
For example, grinding size and water temperature can control the taste of coffee. Finer grinding or increasing water temperature can increase the extraction rate of coffee and make the coffee more bitter. Increasing the grind size or lowering the water temperature can reduce the extraction rate of coffee and make the coffee more acidic. But grinding degree is one more layer than water temperature. It can also affect the parameter of time.
Finely ground coffee will take a longer time to brew, and coarsely ground coffee will take a shorter time. Therefore, when we adjust parameters, we need to clearly understand the changes that will occur after adjusting each parameter.
In Pour over(V60) coffee, the parameters have a reasonable numerical range. For example, the grinding degree is between 70-80% of the No. 20 screen pass rate, the water temperature is between 86-93 degrees, and the powder-to-water ratio is between 1:13 and 1:18. The time (for 15 grams of powder) generally falls between 1 minute and 40 seconds and 2 minutes and 20 seconds. This does not mean that the parameters cannot fall outside these ranges. It is just the range summarized by Front Street in many brewing practices. You can also refer to it when adjusting the parameters.
Know the characteristics of coffee beans
There are more than 50 types of coffee beans in Front Street. If each type of coffee beans has a different brewing parameter, then you need to remember how to brew more than 50 types of coffee, which is too much of a mental load. Therefore, if you want to learn to brew a variety of coffee beans, you must understand the characteristics of coffee beans and sort them into categories.
For example, according to the coffee production area, coffee from one production area will have the same flavor characteristics. For example, in Ethiopia, whether it is Front Street Yirgacheffe or Front Street Oiran, they generally have citrus, berry and other aromas. Costa Rica, whether it's Front Street Tara Beads or Front Street Mozart, has its own aromatic sweet orange notes. Therefore, in terms of brewing parameters, these coffees with the flavor characteristics of the production area can be brewed using the same set.
The second is to look at the degree of roasting of the coffee beans. The parameters used for medium-light roasting are obviously different from those used for medium-dark roasting. The flavor of medium-light roasted coffee beans is mainly acidic. When brewing, you can choose a finer grinding degree (75-80% passing rate of No. 20 mesh) and a higher water temperature (90-93 degrees). The flavor of medium-dark roasted coffee beans is dominated by bitterness. When brewing, the grinding degree is coarser (the passing rate of No. 20 screen is 70-75%), and the water temperature is also lower (86-89 degrees).
When you encounter a new bean and don’t know how to brew it, you can also refer to the ideas in Front Street’s previous articles.
Record each brewing parameter
In searching for some right path, one often stumbles. Therefore, we must record the parameters every time we brew, then judge whether these parameters are reasonable, and then taste the coffee to find out the parameters that need improvement.
For example, when brewing Front Street Guo Dingding coffee, the parameters used by Front Street are "15 grams of coffee powder, a grinding degree of 80% sieving rate, a powder to water ratio of 1:15, a water temperature of 91 degrees, and a three-stage water injection: 30ml of water in the first stage and steamed for 30 seconds, 100ml in the second stage, and 95ml in the third stage. The brewing time was recorded as 2 minutes and 30 seconds."
After tasting the coffee, the flavor was ginger blossoms, berries, cream, and in the second half there were nuts and cocoa (relatively bitter). Front Street thought that this taste was not pleasant. Through judgment, this bitterness may be caused by the finer grinding, which caused the coffee to be soaked for too long. Therefore, when Front Street brewed for the second time, he adjusted the grinding degree to 75% screening rate and kept other parameters unchanged. The final brewing time was 1 minute and 55 seconds. Flavors by tasting are ginger flower, citrus, berry, oolong tea.
When adjusting parameters, remember that "you can only adjust one parameter at a time", because this way we can know how the coffee flavor will change after adjusting this parameter, which is convenient for recording and analysis.
Making coffee is a course that relies heavily on knowledge accumulation and understanding. Use the correct amount of powder, the correct grind size, the correct water temperature, the correct proportion, and brew the coffee in the correct time, so that you can brew delicious coffee. What we need to learn is how to use the correct parameters!
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
