Why Does Pour-Over Coffee Taste Weak? How to Brew Flavorful Coffee That Isn't Watery?

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Producing coffee that tastes either too strong or too weak is a very common phenomenon. Not only do beginners experience this, but even seasoned coffee professionals with years of experience may occasionally brew coffee that doesn't suit their taste. So, beginners need not worry—this is a routine occurrence.

Compared to overly strong coffee, brewed coffee that is too weak or watery is a situation that many beginners encounter more frequently. So what should you do when this happens? No worries if you don't know—FrontStreet Coffee is here today to share what causes brewed coffee to be insipid and what the corresponding solutions are!

Why Brewed Coffee Turns Out Weak

When you find that coffee tastes weak and insipid, it means that this cup of coffee lacks sufficient substances to support adequate flavor expression, resulting in the unpleasant experience of coffee that tastes weak and hollow. There are two factors that can trigger this situation. The first is what we commonly refer to as "under-extraction."

Under-extraction

When extracting coffee, we all apply extraction formulas corresponding to the specific beans. Because not all substances in coffee are desirable, we need to control parameters to limit the release of these undesirable substances. Time, grind size, water temperature, and coffee-to-water ratio are the main parameters we need to control. They are all important complementary elements that provide different extraction efficiencies from various perspectives during the extraction process, allowing water, as a solvent, to appropriately dissolve flavor substances.

However, if any parameter in this formula deviates, it will directly affect the overall extraction efficiency, consequently preventing the water, as a dissolving agent, from extracting sufficient substances. The coffee will then exhibit underdeveloped flavors and indistinct tastes due to insufficient substances—this is what we commonly call "under-extraction." In addition to tasting weak, under-extracted coffee may also present undesirable negative experiences such as saltiness or astringency.

This type of problem is easy to solve—simply identify the factor affecting extraction and make corrections! FrontStreet Coffee still recommends using time as the judgment standard.

For example, when FrontStreet Coffee brews a 15g portion of coffee beans using hot water, the brewing time is set to around 2 minutes. When the brewing time is significantly shorter than two minutes (differing by more than 10 seconds), it likely means the grind is too coarse. In this case, we need to adjust the grind to be finer to correct the under-extraction issue. If the time exceeds two minutes and the coffee still tastes weak, it's likely that the water temperature is too low. Appropriately increasing the water temperature at this point can improve the under-extraction situation. (Note: Everyone uses different equipment and coffee amounts. FrontStreet Coffee's extraction time is based on our own equipment and coffee amounts, so 2 minutes is for reference only.)

However, if the grind size or water temperature cannot be adjusted, we can compensate for the lacking extraction efficiency by increasing other parameters. For example, if the grind is too coarse but it's pre-ground or the grinder can't be adjusted any finer, we can choose to increase the brewing water temperature or extend the extraction time (both segmented pouring and dripper choice can solve this). This achieves a higher extraction rate, reducing the impact of insufficient fineness. The same principle applies to similar situations in other aspects.

Insufficient Concentration

Another situation that can cause weak coffee is "insufficient concentration," which is somewhat different from under-extracted coffee. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned in yesterday's article, because the flavor substances in coffee are limited, when we use too much hot water for extraction, not only will undesirable substances like off-flavors be extracted, but it will also dilute the coffee's concentration. Since there are only so many substances, the more water added, the more diluted it becomes.

(The image shows a comparison of coffee extracted using 1:17 and 1:15 coffee-to-water ratios respectively. You can clearly see that the coffee on the right is stronger due to less water, with a deeper color. The coffee on the left, with more water, has diluted concentration, resulting in a lighter color.)

This situation is easy to solve! First, taste this weak coffee to see if there's any over-extraction—that is, whether there are any off-flavors or obvious bitterness in the coffee. If present, we only need to directly reduce the coffee-to-water ratio to correct the weak effect. For example, reducing from 1:17 to 1:15, without worrying about whether extraction needs correction.

If there are no off-flavors or bitterness in the coffee, it means that when correcting the coffee-to-water ratio, we also need to simultaneously increase the extraction efficiency of other coffee parameters. Otherwise, after reducing the coffee-to-water ratio, the extraction time will also decrease accordingly.

Time is also an important member of the extraction formula. When using a 1:17 coffee-to-water ratio, if the coffee doesn't show negative flavors like off-flavors or astringency, it indicates that the 1:17 ratio combined with other parameters provides just the right overall extraction efficiency! If we directly adjust the coffee-to-water ratio at this point, it means the extraction efficiency will decrease, and the coffee will easily become under-extracted. Therefore, we need to enhance other extraction parameters to compensate for the extraction efficiency!

In summary, we need to understand the underlying logic of coffee extraction. Once you thoroughly comprehend the extraction logic, regardless of what situation arises with your brewed coffee, you can immediately identify the problem and make timely corrections—whether it's too strong or too weak.

Important Notice :

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