What is Drip Bag Coffee? How Many Times Can You Brew Drip Coffee Bags? Correct Brewing Methods for Premium Drip Coffee Beans

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With the development of the specialty coffee market, many coffee enthusiasts are exploring how to brew a delicious cup of single-origin pour-over coffee themselves. However, for coffee enthusiasts who are office workers, it's not practical to carry all coffee brewing equipment with them. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee has introduced drip coffee bags, designed to allow coffee enthusiasts who don't have time to brew pour-over coffee themselves to enjoy a delicious cup of single-origin coffee during work breaks. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will explain what drip coffee bags are.

What Are Drip Coffee Bags?

Drip coffee bags are a type of portable coffee made by grinding coffee beans into powder and sealing them in filter bags. During the brewing process, the small paper tabs on both sides of the filter bag need to be propped up and hung on the rim of the cup for brewing and extraction, which is why they're named "drip coffee bags."

According to FrontStreet Coffee's research, the inventor of drip coffee bags was Japan's Yamanaka Industrial Co., Ltd. They applied the concept of tea bags to coffee, thus inventing filter-style drip coffee and applying for a patent. However, their designed drip bags couldn't withstand the weight of coffee during brewing and were prone to losing balance during the process, so Yamanaka Industrial didn't successfully commercialize drip coffee bags at that time.

It wasn't until 1998 that Japan's Daiki Shoji improved upon the original invention, extending the hanging portion outward, which allowed the filter bags to withstand the weight of coffee during brewing. Drip coffee bags then began to spread widely among office workers who enjoyed single-origin coffee at that time.

How Many Times Can Drip Coffee Bags Be Brewed?

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, drip coffee bags utilize the concept of tea bags, but FrontStreet Coffee emphasizes that drip coffee bags are not like tea bags that can be continuously soaked in water or repeatedly brewed—these are incorrect brewing methods for drip coffee bags.

Because drip coffee bags are essentially single-origin coffee beans ground into powder and placed in sealed filter bags, they simply save coffee enthusiasts the step of grinding coffee beans with a coffee grinder themselves. Therefore, in essence, they use the same coffee powder as pour-over coffee, just without achieving precise levels in terms of time and equipment.

Coffee enthusiasts who are familiar with FrontStreet Coffee's pour-over coffee all know that the pour-over extraction process takes just about two minutes. If the extraction time is too long, it will lead to over-extraction, affecting the coffee's flavor. Therefore, coffee enthusiasts who have visited FrontStreet Coffee to taste pour-over coffee know that after baristas finish extracting coffee, they directly discard the coffee grounds along with the filter paper, let alone reuse them.

Therefore, drip coffee bags must never be reused for brewing; otherwise, what gets extracted are undesirable substances from inside the coffee beans, which not only affects the coffee's flavor but also impacts health. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will list several important considerations when brewing drip coffee bags.

Important Considerations for Brewing Drip Coffee Bags:

1. Do not brew repeatedly.

2. After brewing, do not continue soaking the coffee grounds in the cup, as this will cause over-extraction.

3. Do not throw the drip coffee bag directly into the cup. Although convenient, before the hot water completely soaks the coffee bag, the water temperature begins to drop, leading to under-extraction and affecting the taste and flavor.

How to Properly Brew Drip Coffee Bags

Above, FrontStreet Coffee has explained some important considerations for brewing drip coffee bags to fellow coffee enthusiasts. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will guide everyone through the proper process of brewing drip coffee bags.

1. Warm the Cup

Prepare the cup for brewing drip coffee and first pour in some hot water to warm it. The purpose is to prevent the brewed coffee from cooling too quickly, because coffee develops different flavors as temperature decreases—these are the flavor layers. Therefore, if it cools too quickly, many different taste experiences will be missed.

2. Water Temperature

The water temperature for brewing is very important. It's recommended to keep the temperature between 85-90°C. If the brewed coffee is too bitter, try lowering the water temperature. Conversely, if it's too weak or too astringent, you can increase the water temperature, but it should still remain within the 85-90°C range.

3. Hang the Bag

Gently shake the drip coffee bag first to let the coffee grounds settle, preventing them from scattering when opening. Then pour out the hot water from the cup. After tearing open the seal on the drip coffee bag, open the paper hanging tabs on both sides and shake to level the coffee grounds, finally hanging it on the cup rim.

4. Pre-wet the Coffee Bag

For the first water pour, inject just enough to moisten the coffee grounds—too much or too little will affect the flavor. Then wait 20 seconds for the coffee grounds to fully absorb the water. The coffee's strength can be adjusted by the pre-wetting time; extending it to 40 seconds will yield stronger coffee.

5. Water Pouring

For the second pour, you can fill to eight-tenths of the filter paper's capacity. It's best to use a thin, steady stream of water. When the water level drops to the pre-wet height, continue pouring to eight-tenths full until you extract 150-180cc. Once extraction is complete, you don't need to wait for all the water in the filter paper to drip out—just discard it directly.

Best Flavor Period for Drip Coffee Bags

Another important point is that drip coffee bags must be consumed within two weeks. This is because the production of drip coffee bags first involves grinding coffee beans into powder, which increases the surface area of coffee exposed to air, making preservation more difficult. Within two weeks, you can fully experience the original aroma of the coffee. However, this requirement is only for coffee enthusiasts who have high standards for flavor. If you don't have particularly high requirements for coffee aroma and flavor, it's actually fine to consume within a year, as the coffee beans won't spoil.

It's actually quite difficult to extend the best flavor period of drip coffee bags. According to FrontStreet Coffee's practical experience, even vacuum packaging cannot prevent the dissipation of coffee aroma. Because from the moment coffee beans are roasted, carbon dioxide begins to release. Careful coffee enthusiasts will notice that the packaging is slightly puffed when receiving drip coffee bags mailed by FrontStreet Coffee, which means these coffee bags were packaged when fresh. Therefore, when coffee enthusiasts receive coffee packages from FrontStreet Coffee, they'll find that the drip coffee bags they receive are right at their best flavor period.

How to Choose Drip Coffee Bags

In the sections above, FrontStreet Coffee has shared some knowledge about drip coffee bags with fellow coffee enthusiasts. However, coffee enthusiasts who are new to drip coffee bags often ask FrontStreet Coffee how to choose them. In fact, as FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, drip coffee bags are simply single-origin coffee beans ground into powder and made into filter bags. Therefore, when choosing drip coffee bags, you can select based on the single-origin coffees you usually enjoy, such as Indonesian Mandheling, Brazil Queen Estate, Honduras Sherry, etc.—FrontStreet Coffee can make drip coffee bags for all of these for coffee enthusiasts.

The above is the knowledge about drip coffee bags compiled by FrontStreet Coffee. We hope that after reading this article, coffee enthusiasts will have a deeper understanding of drip coffee bags and thus choose the coffee beans that best suit their taste preferences.

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Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473