American barista teach you how to brew coffee

The theory is to pour an even layer of coffee grounds into the dripper of your choice and a wetted filter (filter cup, filter paper, or filter cloth).

Slowly wet the coffee grounds with water, continue adding water to reach the appropriate strength. The dissolved coffee will drip through the filter cup.

The inventor of pour over coffee was Ms. Merita from Germany. She did not care for the residue texture in found in coffee, so she combined ink-absorbing paper and a perforated copper bowl to filter coffee grounds. The experiment created the prototype of filter paper and filter cup. This kind of filtered coffee has clean and clear taste characteristics, which can showcase the unique flavor of different coffees and become an indispensable way of brewing in third wave specialty coffee.

• Indicators of brewing: The ideal extraction flavor can be achieved by adjusting the grind size, water temperature, water flow rate, time and coffee-water ratio.

• Equipment preparations: grinder, filter, filter paper, sharing vessel, pour over kettle, wooden stick (used for mixing),thermometer, kettle, electronic scale.

• Steps:

• Preparation for equipment, hot water and coffee.

• Fold the filter paper along the seam and place it in the filter cup. Soak the filter paper with hot water in order to stick filter paper to the filter cup.

• Put filter cup on top of the sharing vessel and pour the coffee grounds evenly into the filter cup. We use 16:1 water-coffee ratio, and the amount of coffee we use is 20g.

• Make sure the water temperature is between 190°F and 201°F（88°C and 94°C）. Choose the appropriate water temperature according to different coffee beans. Start pouring water into coffee grounds in circles.

• Wait until the water in the filter cup has completely dripped into sharing vessel (the time is calculated from the beginning of blooming, within 2-3 minutes). Remove the filter cup, and you can begin to taste the coffee. 

First water pouring (blooming): 3 times the amount of water used to coffee. The dose is 20g, so our water amount should be 60g. Allow all the coffee to be wet in 20-30s. Carbon dioxide in coffee will be released during blooming. The fresher the coffee, the more gas it releases.

Second water pouring: pouring 260g of water by drawing circles evenly. We can pour water in several times to adjust to the appropriate brewing method.

• Brewing suggestion

• Note: In the process of adjusting the brewing method, we often use the method of adjusting only one variable at a time to find the appropriate brewing parameters.

When it comes to selecting tools for a pour over, an indispensable one is flannel filter cloth. Unlike the other filters, the filter cloth is made of soft velvet-like fabric.

With more filter holes, the cloth absorbs and retains the oil in coffee, which make the coffee taste mellow and smooth. The filter cloth should be cleaned after every use.