How to Brew Coffee for Two People? How to Choose Coffee Grind Size? How to Pour Water for Blooming?

Beginner's Pour-Over Coffee Q&A

Professional coffee knowledge exchange, for more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

Recently, many friends have asked our editor some questions about pour-over coffee. The editor has compiled this beginner's Q&A, hoping to help friends with similar questions~

01 | Is the extraction time the same when brewing two cups versus one cup?

When there are many people, brewing one by one is too time-consuming. So what should you do when one serving becomes two or even three servings?

Taking one serving (15g of coffee grounds) as an example, if you add one more person, add 10g more. As the amount of grounds increases, the extraction time will naturally lengthen.

Additionally, when brewing, the grounds can be adjusted slightly coarser because with more grounds, the time will correspondingly lengthen. If you use the same grind size as for a single serving, it will easily lead to over-extraction.

02 | How to determine if the coffee grind size is appropriate?

Coffee grinding is not necessarily better the finer it is, and of course, too many fine grounds are not good either. Because too many fine grounds or a grind that's too fine can easily cause blockage at the water outlet, leading to over-extraction.

Generally, when we finish brewing coffee, if we see the situation shown in the picture below, it means there are too many fine grounds or the grind is too fine.

When the grind size is uneven, we'll see two situations:

1. Fine grounds spread on the surface of the coffee bed. If you stir too much during brewing or use a large water flow, you'll find fine grounds on the surface of the coffee bed. When you flip it over, the grounds underneath are coarser. This is because there's more water and the water level is higher, so the fine grounds float up;

2. Coarse grounds spread on the surface of the coffee bed. This situation is the opposite of the above. Because the water flow is smaller, the stirring frequency is not too high, and there's less water, so the water level is not high. The fine grounds don't float up with the water, so the coarse grounds will be on the surface.

How should coffee grind size be chosen?

Generally speaking, the coarseness of coffee grounds can be divided into five levels: coarse grind, medium grind, medium-fine grind, fine grind, and extra-fine grind.

Extra-fine grind: Suitable for espresso

This usage is quite specific and is only used when making espresso. Because the extraction method is different from the principle of regular home brewing, it requires pressure, so the equipment is an espresso machine, and the grinding also requires a professional coffee grinder to achieve extra-fine grounds.

If you're brewing coffee with a moka pot, extra-fine grounds are also quite suitable, but the extraction will generally be overdone. Although some crema can be produced, the taste tends to be bitter, and often the enjoyment of the process outweighs the taste itself.

Because when making Italian-style coffee, you must forcefully tamp the coffee grounds to create resistance against high-pressure hot water to truly extract the essence of the coffee. Therefore, it's more sensitive to grind size. The more uniform the grind, the tighter the tamped coffee grounds will be with fewer gaps, creating balanced resistance to water. This is how to successfully extract a cup of Espresso.

Fine grind: Suitable for drip bags

Fine grind is slightly smaller than fine sugar (fine sugar used for baking, also called caster sugar). As another reference, salt. Smaller than fine sugar but larger than salt - that's it.

Fine grind is suitable for drip bag coffee. Many people think that since part of the drip bag is soaked in water, coarser particles should be used. Actually, this is mainly because the entire drip bag is made of filter paper, resulting in high water output. Unlike pour-over, which has a narrowed opening, like the commonly used three-hole drippers that actually slow down the water flow rate. Therefore, drip bags need fine grounds to increase the extraction area.

Medium-fine and medium grinds, most suitable for pour-over (using Fujiyama ceramic burr as an example)

| Medium-fine grind (suitable for lightly roasted beans, Fujiyama ceramic burr 3.5)

Medium-fine grind ≈ white sugar (the most common white sugar in supermarkets, slightly larger than regular granulated sugar). Generally, pour-over will eventually settle on a medium-fine grind size. Because medium-fine grind is very commonly used, coffee lovers should experiment more with their coffee grinders to find their most suitable medium-fine grind level.

| Medium grind (suitable for medium-roasted beans, Fujiyama ceramic burr 4)

Medium grind = granulated sugar (the largest particle white sugar seen in supermarkets, most often this size). Medium grind is slightly coarser than medium-fine grind, but not as coarse as true coarse grind.

Beginners are recommended to first use medium grind for pour-over, since grinding medium grind doesn't easily produce extremely fine powders, nor does it easily cause large amounts of water to accumulate on the filter cup due to unstable water flow control at the beginning, thereby over-extracting the coffee. Additionally, because personal tastes vary, you can experiment more between medium and fine grinds to find the coarseness that suits you.

| Coarse grind (suitable for medium-dark roasted beans, Fujiyama ceramic burr 4.5)

Coarse grind > raw sugar (in plain terms: sugar larger than the largest granulated sugar available on the market)

Grinding coffee beans is the first step in brewing coffee, but it's also a step where many people fail - either grinding too fine or too coarse, indirectly affecting the taste of the coffee. To precisely control the coarseness of coffee grounds, it's recommended to use an electric grinder with adjustable settings to accurately control the grind size. Taking the Fujiyama grinder as an example, the optimal coarseness for pour-over coffee grounds is between settings 3-4, with fine sugar as a reference.

03 | How to pour water during blooming

If you're too gentle and careful when pouring water during blooming, it's actually very easy to ruin a cup of coffee.

When you pour water particularly gently, or believe in the so-called "spreading water" method, without enough force to let water penetrate the surface layer of grounds, only moistening the surface, letting water rely only on capillary action and gravity to seep into deeper layers, the time for blooming water to seep from the surface to the bottom will be extended, and some water will spread from the surface and flow away through the edge ribs, reducing the actual amount of water the coffee grounds receive for blooming, naturally greatly diminishing the blooming effect.

What should you pay attention to when pouring water during blooming?

1. Increase the force of your pour, which can be approached from two aspects: water stream size and pouring height. After all, some narrow-spouted kettles are only suitable for fine water flow, and larger flow easily tilts the water stream. In this case, raise the pouring height a bit and let gravitational acceleration provide enough penetration for you. Of course, don't splash water everywhere.

2. Appropriately increase the amount and time of blooming water. Just as the saying goes "cross bridges when you come to them," since insufficient penetration will reduce the actual blooming water amount and slow down the speed, just add a bit more water and extend the blooming time.

Alright~ This concludes this issue's beginner's Q&A~ Hope it helps everyone! Of course, if you have any questions, you're welcome to come and discuss with us!

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans. Online shop services are also available. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473