The Perfect Pourover
Added 2025-05-27 15:38:54 +0000 UTCCofffeeeee......
Comments
I apologize for my snobbery in advance. The article seemed to be about maximizing extraction of caffeine, rather than the best coffee. The outcome of your brew is based on 3 primary variables- grind, temperature and time. When the grind granules are smaller, extraction is faster. When the water is hotter, extraction is faster. And when the grounds are exposed to the water over a longer time, there is more extraction. The key to a perfect cup is balance between all these. Under-brewed coffee is sour, over-brewed coffee is bitter. In between there is a balance of the two- the elusive perfect cup. Grind consistency is important. Since we know that affects extraction, we don’t want stray large grounds making the coffee sour and extra tiny grounds making the coffee bitter. A quality conical burr grinder will do the job. Ideally one with discrete grind size settings. I use a 1ZPresso J series, which adjusts in 8 micron increments. It doesn’t have to be that fancy though. Grinding right before brewing is ideal. After grinding, the coffee oxidizes faster and will lose flavor. Someone else already mentioned, you want to start a pourover with the “bloom”. Pour double the weight of the grounds and let it set 30 seconds. So for 15g coffee grounds, 30g water. This lets the coffee “gas off” some of the less desirable flavor notes before brewing. A kitchen scale is important if you want to reproduce your results. A tea kettle will work fine. But for more accurate/consistent results, a gooseneck kettle with precise temperature control will get you there. The smaller spout allows you to pour in a concentric pattern, so you can control the drawdown speed by creating a vortex. I’m typically brewing pourover between 199-204 F, depending on the roast I’m using (lower temp for darker roasts). As far as the paper taste, you can wet down the filter first while it’s in the pour over. Discard the paper water, then add the grounds and start brewing. It helps.
Your Face
2025-05-28 15:21:36 +0000 UTCBack in my college days, (50 years ago), my housemates and I ran across a posted article in our local natural food store about how to make good coffee. Using a cone and filter, it recommended pouring a small amount of not-quite-boiling water in the center (probably a teaspoon or two), then waiting for at least 30 seconds for it to "burst the flavor buds." Then, pour slowly, never flooding the cone. This technique has worked really well for me for these past several decades. It allows for the hot water to penetrate the grounds before rushing through them. We used to get a kick out of that quoted expression, "Bursting the flavor buds" == such a commercial-sounding phrase.
Rob Hamilton
2025-05-28 02:16:15 +0000 UTC
