Brewing Guides & Principles
WE ALL WANT TO MAKE BETTER COFFEE, DON'T WE?
Let's cover some of the principles for better tasting coffee.
-
It all starts with water, as that makes up roughly 98.5% of a filter coffee and 90% of an espresso.
Depending on where you live in the world your tap water will have a certain degree of 'hardness', and a general rule of thumb is the higher the hardness the harder it is to make great coffee.
Invest in a water filter of some kind and watch your coffee immediately elevate to the next level. We can recommend a simple Brita water filter.
-
A grinder needs sharp and clean burrs. This is the part of a coffee grinder that is going to cut up your coffee beans and you ideally want all the small particles to be roughly the same size. Why? Because the water should extract each one of them the same amount. Keeping your grinder clean will keep the burrs from going blunt fast.
-
Use scales. There is simply no way around this. If you want to make better coffee you will need a pair of scales to measure the dry coffee and the amount of water used.
-
Use boiling water. Any green coffee that is lightly roasted and roasted well should be brewed with water straight off the boil. The heat extracts what you want faster, and when the coffee's good it has nothing to hide.
-
It's better to extract a little too much than too little. This one is largely about preference, but it is pretty safe to say that the majority of people would prefer a brew that is a little on the bitter side of sweet than not sweet and therefore overly sour. This by no means whatsoever is us saying that acidity is bad! On the contrary, acidity is what gives coffee its excitement, but it is always in need of sweetness to provide balance and pleasure.
-
Clean clean clean. Anything that has liquid coffee touch it will have some coffee oil on it, and that stuff goes rancid. No one wants old rancid coffee oil in their brew. Clean.
BREWING GUIDES – USE THESE RECIPES AS A STARTING POINT
Aeropress Recipe:
Preheat
- Pour 50g of boiling water in.
- Stir 17g of coffee in and start a timer.
- At 20 seconds; Pour in the rest of the water. Your final weight should be 240g.
- Stir 5 times. Wait until 1:45, stir another 5 times.
- Put the basket with filter on, close it.
- Put the aeropress on the server or cup and push until you will hear the air coming out.
- Enjoy your sweet and juicy cup of coffee.
Hario V60 Recipe:
Put a filter in a V60 and pre-wet it with some hot water, as this will get rid of the bleached paper taste.
- 18g of coffee in.
- Pour around 60g of water on the coffee, stir it gently and wait 30 seconds.
- At 00:30 pour hot water to 150g.
- At 00:55 pour hot water to 200g.
- At 01:20 pour hot water to 250g.
- At 1:45 pour hot water to 300g.
- Gently swirl your V60 and let the coffee drip.
- Your brew should finish between 2:30-3:00.
Espresso Recipe:
- Know your basket size, and always start with 0,5g less than it recommends. So, if you have 20g baskets use 19,5g of coffee.
- Distribute evenly and tamp flat.
- Extract at least double your dose - so we're aiming for 42g of espresso
- This should be finished between 25 and 30 seconds so long as your grinder burrs are sharp.
Capsule Recipes:
Short Shot: 20g - 30g in 10-15 seconds
Long Shot: 30g - 40g in 15-20 seconds
Lungo: 50g - 60g in 23-30 seconds
We do not recommend any shot volumes above 60g for our capsules. Each package has the recommended recipe for that particular capsule on the top.