How to Make Brazilian Coffee with Pour-Over for Better Taste? Why Does Medium-Roasted Brazilian Black Coffee Have a Bitter Burnt Flavor?

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A friend bought a bag of Brazilian coffee beans and found it quite bitter when brewed, so they came to ask FrontStreet Coffee how to brew it properly. Here, FrontStreet Coffee will share the pour-over brewing method for Brazilian coffee.

Understanding Brazilian Coffee's Bitterness

Brazilian coffee beans typically use a medium-dark roast level, so their fundamental flavor profile is bitterness. Therefore, it's normal for Brazilian coffee to be bitter. However, bitterness can be categorized as good or bad. Good bitterness comes from flavors like nuts, chocolate, and caramel—what we call positive flavors. Since there are positive flavors, there are naturally negative bitter flavors. Common negative flavors include smoky, woody, medicinal, and burnt tastes, which generally manifest as uncomfortable, throat-irritating, and stimulating sensations.

So, if your brewed coffee has the positive bitter flavors, that's normal. If your brewed coffee has negative bitter flavors, then you need to continue reading.

The Appealing Aspects of Brazilian Coffee

Besides the bitterness mentioned above, Brazilian coffee has other attractive qualities. For example, the enticing aroma of coffee originally referred to the fragrance emitted by this cup of rich, bitter dark-roast coffee. These aromas are complex blends of nuts, caramel, roasted chestnuts, cream, and spices. People find it hard to resist this aromatic temptation. Many friends gradually fall in love with coffee starting from its aroma. Additionally, the creamy, rich mouthfeel is an unparalleled characteristic of Brazilian and other dark-roast coffees.

Brewing Method for Brazilian Coffee

So how should you brew Brazilian coffee beans? FrontStreet Coffee will demonstrate using coffee beans from the Cerrado region of Brazil. This coffee bean is also the representative Brazilian bean in FrontStreet Coffee's daily selection series. Since both FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Cerrado and FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Queen Manor Farm have rich nutty aromas and balanced mouthfeel, they're suitable for various extraction methods. They can be made into moka pot coffee, American coffee, siphon coffee, drip bag coffee, and more. Everyone can purchase them from FrontStreet Coffee's Tmall flagship store.

Equipment Selection

For the filter cup choice, FrontStreet Coffee selected the Kono Meimon filter cup. The biggest characteristic of the Kono filter cup is that its ribs extend from the bottom to the middle, while the upper part is a smooth filter wall. This way, when the filter paper fits against the filter cup, water cannot "secretly" bypass the coffee grounds and escape, improving the richness of the mouthfeel.

Brewing Parameters

FrontStreet Coffee still uses 15g of coffee grounds. The amount of coffee grounds isn't necessarily better when more or less—it depends on the specific filter cup specifications. FrontStreet Coffee uses a 1-2 person filter cup, where 15-20g of grounds is a reasonable brewing amount. Brewing with amounts outside this range can be somewhat difficult.

For the brewing ratio, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using 1:15. Although some might suggest using 1:13 or an even smaller ratio, FrontStreet Coffee mentioned in previous articles that concentration and richness don't necessarily have a direct correlation. Moreover, overly strong coffee can cause discomfort. Therefore, using a 1:15 ratio can also well express the rich mouthfeel of Brazilian coffee beans.

For coffee grind size, FrontStreet Coffee uses a 70% pass rate through a #20 sieve screen. The grind size for brewing Golden Mandheling coffee should be slightly coarser than for light-roast coffee beans because Golden Mandheling uses deep roasting, which makes its structure more porous and more likely to absorb water and release coffee substances. If ground to the fineness of light-roast beans, it's easy to extract burnt bitterness; if ground even coarser, the coffee will become thin and tasteless, with a watery mouthfeel.

For water temperature selection, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using 87-88°C water for brewing. Similar to the grind size principle, too high water temperature easily produces burnt bitterness, while too low water temperature makes the coffee taste flat and can produce unpleasant sour flavors.

Three-Stage Pouring Technique

The brewing method uses a three-stage pouring technique. Dividing the pour into three stages can better express Brazilian coffee's rich mouthfeel and caramel sweetness. The specific water distribution is: first stage bloom with 30ml of water—this pour completely wets the coffee grounds for degassing, allowing better extraction of coffee flavor substances in subsequent stages. The second stage injects 100ml, and the final stage injects 95ml to enhance the coffee's sweetness, overall expressing a substantial rich mouthfeel with caramel sweetness and chocolate, nut flavors.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473