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The Impact of Pour-Over Coffee Temperature on Extraction: A Brief Analysis of Pour-Over Coffee Multi-Stage Extraction Principles

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). FrontStreet Coffee - Brief Introduction to Pour-Over Coffee Water Temperature Requirements. [High water temperature] tends to cause over-extraction of coffee grounds, resulting in bitterness in the coffee. Bitterness mostly comes from caffeine, but it's also related to other chemical reactions. Astringency is easily extracted at high water temperatures, creating a strong sensation.

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

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Pour-Over Coffee Water Temperature Requirements

High Water Temperature

High water temperature tends to over-extract coffee grounds, resulting in bitter coffee. The bitterness mostly comes from caffeine, but it's also related to other chemical reactions. Astringency is easily extracted at high temperatures, creating a strong and lingering sensation because polyphenols are bitter and bind with proteins in saliva. They draw moisture from the tongue, creating a gritty or dry feeling in the mouth. Emptiness and hollowness refer to stripping away the freshness and brightness of coffee, killing the wonderful substances and lacking flavor.

Low Water Temperature

Brewing with low water temperature can lead to under-extraction, failing to bring out sufficient substances. For example, sour taste, lack of sweetness, strange salty flavors, and short aftertaste are basically signs of under-extraction. In the third experiment, the lack of sweetness made the dullness and emptiness of the acidity more prominent, without bringing satisfaction. Insufficient flavor, short aftertaste, and unsatisfying mouthfeel. The stimulating sourness when cooled might make people pucker their lips, with tingling and sharp sensations on both sides of the tongue, destroying the taste experience.

Appropriate Water Temperature

Good extraction with appropriate water temperature presents positive and comfortable aromas and flavors. For example, the acidity will be rich, like the sweet and sour sensation of plums or drupes. The overall cleanliness, clarity, and transparency allow you to clearly taste what flavors are present. The delicate, rich, and bright acidity can even remind people of certain fruits or even wine, with a persistent aftertaste in the mouth that leaves people wanting more.

Temperature has quite a significant impact on coffee extraction flavors. Bitterness, astringency, and burnt flavors are later-stage flavors. At the same grind size, if the brewed coffee tastes bitter, burnt, or astringent, you can lower the extraction water temperature to adjust; conversely, if it feels watery and bland, it means many flavors are still left in the coffee grounds, so you can consider increasing the temperature.

Summary

91~98°C

High water temperature provides high thermal energy to the coffee, resulting in fast dissolution speed and high extraction rate.

Advantages: Can quickly increase extraction rate; aromatic and bright acidity, suitable for short extraction times.

Risks: Brewing must be completed within a short time.

82~90°C

Low water temperature provides low thermal energy to the coffee, resulting in slow dissolution speed and low extraction rate.

Advantages: Wider safe brewing range, easier to avoid bitterness, good balance between sweet and sour.

Risks: High possibility of under-extraction.

Three-Stage Pour-Over Technique

After the bloom, divide the water into three stages, using small, medium, and large water flow for three-stage extraction. This staged extraction helps prevent the coffee ground wall at the filter paper edge from being easily broken, and the segmented water injection also helps increase the stirring of coffee grounds during brewing. The water flow can penetrate the coffee grounds to increase extraction rate.

Knowledge Point

Pour-over coffee has strong versatility. Dark-roasted espresso blends can also be used for pour-over, but if you truly want to experience the charm of pour-over coffee, it's still recommended to choose specialty beans with cupping scores above 80 points.

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