Many people enjoy pouring over coffee but are intimidated by it.
Why?
A pour over coffee is often featured in major barista competitions, attracting the attention of a large number of coffee lovers for its delicate brewing steps and masterful technique.
But please don't be afraid of it. To let more people know more about pour over coffee and its brewing techniques, we will devote a few articles to share its brewing techniques.
Today, let's start with a basic knowledge of pour over coffee. Read more and you will benefit more.
Things We Need to Know About Pour Over Coffee
Pour over coffee, is a type of hand-brewed coffee.
This brewing method was first invented by Ms. Melita in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century.
At the time she was making coffee at home and on a whim used her son's Ink-absorbing paper as a filter to brew the coffee powder, accidentally extracting a cup of coffee with a different taste than before.
The world's most popular way of brewing coffee is filter brewing, and we should be thankful to Bentz Melitta, a German housewife. She invented the filter coffee brewing method more than 100 years ago, rewriting the history of coffee drinking in Germany and the world.
Bentz Melitta was born in Dresden in 1873 and as a housewife, she loved Schälchen Heeßen (Saxon dialect for a cup of coffee eine Tasse Kaffee) - freshly brewed coffee.
But she was a perfectionist and hated the coffee grounds left between her teeth. One day she had a whim, punched a hole in the bottom of a copper bowl, took out an ink-absorbing paper from her son's school bag and put it on top, poured in hot water, and the fragrant coffee dripped into the pot through the ink-absorbing paper. That's how she invented it (a filter brewing method that can filter the grounds and retain the aroma of good coffee).
Before this invention, people are using fabric bags to filter coffee grounds. But the fabric filter bag is cleaning trouble, the second is unhygienic after repeated use, residual in the crevices of the cloth bag coffee grounds also easy to destroy the original mellow coffee taste.
On June 20, 1908, Melita registered her invention at the Royal Patent Office: a copper coffee filter cup with an arch-shaped bottom pierced with a water outlet hole, which is the world's first filter coffee cup. With very little money, Melitta Benz set up the "Melitta Company" at her residence and registered the product with her signature, Melitta.
As the pace of life becomes faster and more stressful, more people are trying to allow themselves to slow down in the busy pace of urban life, and pour over coffee seems to represent a refined lifestyle at this time.
Why Use the Pour Over?
Why are more and more people willing to make pour-over coffee at home? What is the attraction of pour-over coffee?
Reason 1: A feast for the smell senses
Although human taste buds can only taste sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and fresh coffee.
But the human senses of smell are instead more powerful. The average person can distinguish a dozen different smells, and after olfactory training, an outstanding person can remember about 3,000 kinds of smells.
This is why some people ask, "Why does coffee smell good, but not taste good?" So rather than drinking coffee, it is an olfactory pleasure to drink coffee.
With a small coffee bean, the volatile aromatic substances are the main source of flavor that governs coffee and can only be perceived through the human sense of smell. Pour-over coffee has a lot of variations because of the brewing parameters and techniques, however, even if the parameters are replicated, different people will have different flavor presentations when brewing.
Reason 2: Improves the quality of the coffee beans
Compared to other brewing methods, pour-over coffee is better at bringing out the rich aroma and flavor of coffee, making it the premier method of brewing single-serve coffee.
A good pour-over coffee has a pure, clear, and consistent flavor because the water extracts the greasy and aromatic coffee at a controlled time and pressure, and the hand-brewed filter absorbs these grease and oils, making the coffee taste pure.
Because pour-over coffee is extracted with water injection, it will extract a little faster than the immersion brewing method (such as French press pots) because of the extra disturbance of water flow.
Nara Lee, the 2017 New Zealand Coffee Brewing Champion, says, "Using hand brewing doesn't change the flavor of the coffee, it only increases the aroma matter released, and I don't think brewing appliances can change the flavor of coffee, but some people are sure of that."
Reason 3: Cost-effective
If you search for pour-over coffee equipment, you will be surprised at how variable its price is. Some range from a dozen dollars to hundreds of dollars.
Outdoor ones, indoor ones, ones that are easy to use for camping, ones with trendy designs, and so on, all meet our needs.
If you don't like paper filters, you can also choose recyclable filters. This is one of our favorite tools for outdoor travel. A retail price of a dozen dollars will be a good solution for our outdoor coffee-making needs. And you don't have to worry about breaking it, and it's easier to clean.
What Equipment is Used for Pour Over Coffee
Why are there so many types of pour-over coffee equipment on the market?
That's because pour-over coffee is very creative.
For example, there are filter cups, ceramic, metal, plastic, glass, single-hole, double-hole, and triple-hole filter cups, and so on.
So, what are the ones we must have, and what are the unnecessary but very used ones?
Necessities - Non-Consumables
#1-Kettle
It is recommended to buy a gooseneck kettle, which is helpful for you to control the water flow. A kettle with a thermometer can help us control the water temperature better.
#2 - Bean Grinder
There are many types of bean grinders, including manual grinders and electric grinders. Electric grinders can also be divided into plug-in models and USB models.
And it is important to note that the bean grinder's blade is particularly important. The common ones are burr and flat knife discs. The burr disc can grind the coffee beans into a coarser and more uniform coffee powder.
#3-Filter cup
Filter cups are highly selective, with different filter cups having different extraction styles and different flow rates. The three main types are conical, fan-shaped, and cake. Among them, cake cups allow for more even extraction and are more suitable for novice operators.
#4-Electronic Weighing
The pour-over coffee needs to be accurate to specific parameters, so we need an electronic scale that can be accurate to 0.1g.
#5-Sharing Pot
We recommend buying a sharing pot with a handle for easy pouring of liquid.
Necessities-Consumables
#1-Coffee beans
Coffee beans need to be consumed within one month of the roasting date to prevent flavor loss.
#2-Filter paper
There are generally three types of filter paper: cone, fan, and cake filter paper, so buy whatever shape filter paper you use for your cup. There are also some special filter papers for special filter cups. It should be noted that there are two types of filter paper: virgin pulp and bleached. The virgin pulp filter paper is best used with water to reduce the smell of paper.
#3-Water
Some of the more professional cafes will use pure water + mineral powder to make brewing water. We general enthusiasts can buy mineral water / pure water for brewing if we save time. You can use a TDS pen to measure the TDS value of the water and generally use 40-80 ppm water for coffee brewing.
Non-essential but good tools
#1-Fine bristle brush
Used to clean the bean grinder. Every time you grind, you must remove as much of the residual powder from the grinder as possible, because the powder is not fresh enough and loses most of its positive flavor, which is not beneficial for brewing.
#2-Stirring Stick
Used to stir the coffee powder when pouring, and is required for some brewing techniques.
What Type of Coffee is Better for Pour Over Coffee?
Which coffee beans to buy for pour-over coffee?
There are a wide variety of coffee beans, and the flavor can vary greatly from country to country, region to region, variety to variety, treatment to treatment, and roasting level to roasting level.
And tasting coffee is a very personal act. Different people have different preferences. We share the better coffee beans and hope you can choose the right one.
【Essai Yegashefi, Africa】
Yegashefi was originally a secondary region under the Sidamo appellation. Because of the outstanding production method and flavor of the coffee beans produced in Yegashefi town, Ethiopia is proud of it, and even beans from other regions are given the name Yegashefi. This has led to the separation of Yegashefi from the Sidamo appellation.
Flavor characteristics：[Sun-dried Yerba Buena Vista] has a complex and rich taste, with a light fermented wine aroma, a bit more bitterness, a much richer taste, honey sweetness, cocoa flavor with a little spice, a thick taste, and a long finish.
[Washed Yegafi] acidity will be brighter, just like lemon acid, the taste is more refreshing, the citrus aroma is more obvious, some red tea feeling at the end.
But overall, both have a fruity acidity, similar to lemon citrus fruits.
【Kenya Coffee Africa】
The most famous coffee bean varieties from Kenya are SL28 and SL34.
These two varieties were selected and bred from research at the National Agricultural Laboratory (formerly the Scott Coffee Institute) in Kenya.
Flavor Characteristics：Kenya's flavor is extremely acidic, with a distinct fruity flavor, greasy Kenya coffee is aromatic, rich, and has a rich and perfect taste.
Kenya coffee tastes like blackberries drinking grapefruit. Flavor freshness is especially suitable for summer iced coffee drinking.
Tasting this coffee is best paired with fruits with acidities such as grapefruit, or chocolate.
【Brazilian coffee】
Due to the low altitude of Brazil's planting, between 400 meters and 1600 meters, the Brazilian coffee planting mostly uses exposure planting, so that the coffee cherry absorbs enough heat to mature early, resulting in a low density of Brazilian coffee beans, soft beans, a soft bean flavor. A very sharp contrast in flavor with the African coffee beans.
Flavor Characteristics：Low acidity, heavy nutty flavor, good chocolate sweetness, and fullness, but slightly woody and earthy, floral, and orange aroma is not obvious.
【Indonesian Coffee】
Indonesian cat poop coffee is known for its scarcity and high price. The most accessible Indonesian coffee to the general public is Mandheling Coffee.
Indonesian Mandheling Coffee is mostly brewed using a semi-washed method with local characteristics.
Flavor Characteristics：The taste and flavor of Indonesia's maintain coffee is rich and strong, with a distinctive character.
【Panama Coffee】
If there is one coffee variety that is the most outstanding, it is the Cuisinart.
The delicate and elegant flavor of the Cuisinart variety comes from specific growing conditions.
The Cohiba variety is very selective about the growing conditions: high altitude, shade cultivation, and fertile soil.
It is these factors that give Cuisinart coffee its distinctive floral aroma and its delicate and elegant fruit acidity. This elegant flavor is one of the reasons why it is so popular around the world.
Must Master Skills of Pour Over Coffee
For beginners, what are the skills that must be mastered to brew a competent cup of pour-over coffee? Let's learn together.
Step 1: Grind the coffee beans
Grind the coffee beans into a powder the size of granulated sugar. Our common ratio of coffee powder to water is 1:4, which means that 10 grams of coffee powder require 140 ml of water. For a two-person coffee, it is recommended to use 30 grams of coffee powder with 420 ml of water.
Step 2: Warm the cup
Coffee will become sour when it meets cold, so you need to pour a small amount of hot water into the filter cup and sharing pot to warm up the cup before you start pouring. When warming the cup, some people used to put the filter paper in place and run the hot water evenly on the filter paper to make it completely wet and cling to the cup, while reducing the taste of the paper filter paper.
Step 3: Pour in the coffee powder and heat the water
Pour in the coffee powder, and try to concentrate the coffee powder. The water temperature is recommended to be hot water at 194°F (refer to your choice of coffee beans)
Step 4: Steaming
Fill the coffee with a small amount of water, about 40% of the water volume, and let the water completely moisten the coffee powder for 30 seconds, this process is called steaming. The purpose of steaming is to remove the air from the coffee so that the aroma of the coffee can be fully developed.
Step 5: Fill with water
After 30 seconds, slowly and continuously fill with hot water. Control the amount of water in the sharing pot by the amount of water shown on the electronic scale. If your kettle has a scale, just fill it according to the amount of water on the scale.
When the water completely flows into the sharing pot, the pour-over coffee is ready.
Conclusion
There are also many ways to make pour-over coffee, and the above is to share our basic way. To make a great cup of coffee, we need to keep practicing, find our favorite coffee beans, our favorite powder-to-water ratio, and the brewing method.
In the later blogs, I will share more tips and knowledge about pour-over coffee, follow us and be the first to know more!
