How to Brew Kenyan Coffee - Pour Over Ratios, Grind Settings, Parameters & Flavor Characteristics

Friends who enjoy acidic coffee should know that FrontStreet Coffee's Kenyan coffee is renowned for its rich and solid fruit acidity, with a juice-like mouthfeel and intense, complex flavors that leave a lasting impression. FrontStreet Coffee believes that to brew a coffee bean well, it's worth first understanding its characteristics before exploring how to make it taste even better. If we want to deeply discuss how the acidity in FrontStreet Coffee's Kenyan coffee beans comes about, FrontStreet Coffee must mention Kenya's local growing environment, coffee varieties, and post-harvest processing methods.

Most of Kenya's coffee trees grow in the fertile, loose, acidic volcanic red soil of the highlands north and east of Nairobi. This area enjoys abundant sunlight, good drainage, and elevations between 1400-2000 meters. Due to the greater temperature variation between day and night at higher altitudes, Kenyan coffee has a longer maturation period than lower-altitude growing regions, resulting in higher density and more intense flavors.

Additionally, the two common Kenyan coffee varieties, SL28 and SL34, are both mutations of Bourbon. Through cupping multiple Kenyan coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee has also discovered that the berry-like acidity of these two varieties is particularly prominent. In 1922, the Kenyan government established the Scott Agricultural Laboratory (hence the names SL28 and SL34) to engage in coffee cultivation research. In the decade following its establishment, they selected SL28 and SL34 from 42 coffee varieties as the most suitable for cultivation in the region, providing an excellent start for the coffee industry's development. Today, these two varieties occupy 90% of Kenya's planting area.

Among them, SL28 has mixed lineage from multiple coffee varieties including French Mission, Mocha, and Yemen Typica. The plants are tall with emerald green leaf tips, high yield, large beans, and relatively strong drought resistance, but are susceptible to coffee leaf rust, coffee berry disease (CBD), and soil nematodes. In terms of flavor, SL28 not only has distinct dark plum and citrus flavors but also exhibits rich, deep drupe acidity, similar to the mellow sweetness of wine.

In comparison, SL34 coffee trees have dark bronze leaf tips, require more nutrients during growth, have relatively lower yields, and produce large beans. When planted at high altitudes, they show excellent quality potential, displaying good fruit acidity with nutty and spicy aromas. The coffee trees' constitution is similar to SL28, both being highly sensitive to CBD, leaf rust, and pests.

Thus, the two major varieties, SL28 and SL34, have created the classic flavors that have made Kenyan coffee famous worldwide, captivating countless acidic coffee enthusiasts. The coffee varieties in FrontStreet Coffee's house-roasted FrontStreet Coffee Kenya Asalia coffee beans are SL28 and SL34. The brewed black coffee exhibits intense aromatic notes of cherry tomatoes, black plums, snow pears, and berries.

Unlike many African coffee-growing regions, Kenyan coffee producers typically use a refined and unique 72-hour fermentation washed processing method, also known as K72. On the day of harvest, coffee cherries are first sorted to remove defective ones. Then they are pulped and fermented for 24 hours, after which they are washed with clean river water. Next, they are fermented again in clean river water for another 24 hours, then washed again. This process is repeated for 3 cycles, reaching a total fermentation time of 72 hours. Through prolonged fermentation and washing, the original rich acidity of FrontStreet Coffee's Kenyan coffee beans becomes more complex, and cleanliness is also improved.

This FrontStreet Coffee Kenya coffee bean launched by FrontStreet Coffee comes from the Thika region, produced and processed by the Asali Honey Processing Station. To preserve the characteristic rich acidity of FrontStreet Coffee's Kenyan coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's roasters adopted a medium-light roast. The cupping notes reveal flavors of snow pear, dark plum, brown sugar, cherry tomatoes, and plums.

Key Factors for Brewing Great Pour-Over Coffee

A delicious pour-over coffee depends on several main factors: fresh coffee beans within their optimal tasting period, appropriate grind size, powder-to-water ratio, brewing water temperature, and pouring technique.

Coffee beans have a 4-7 day degassing period after roasting before entering their optimal tasting stage. As storage time increases, the coffee's aroma will accelerate dissipation, and flavor profile will significantly diminish. To ensure everyone enjoys coffee at its best, FrontStreet Coffee guarantees shipping only beans roasted within 5 days. Fresh coffee beans are more conducive to extracting the quality flavors of FrontStreet Coffee's Kenyan coffee.

Regardless of which grinding equipment is chosen, the goal is to obtain uniformly ground coffee powder. The coarseness of the coffee grind directly affects the coffee's taste. If the coffee grind is too coarse, it's prone to under-extraction, resulting in a weak flavor; if too fine, it's prone to over-extraction, resulting in a bitter taste. FrontStreet Coffee adjusts grind size using a tool—China No. 20 0.85mm standard sieve. For medium-light roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee consistently uses a 75-80% sieve pass rate, while for medium-dark roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee uses 70-75%. The FrontStreet Coffee Kenya Asalia that FrontStreet Coffee acquired is a medium-light roasted, high-altitude coffee bean. Hoping to extract more rich aromatic substances, FrontStreet Coffee chose a grind size with an 80% pass rate through the No. 20 standard sieve. The store uses an EK43s grinder setting of 10.

Water temperature plays a similar role to grind size. The higher the water temperature, the higher the coffee extraction efficiency, making it easier to release various substance components and resulting in higher concentration. If using near-boiling hot water for brewing, it's easy to extract unpleasant bitter substances. Therefore, when brewing medium-dark roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee uses different brewing parameters than for light-roasted coffee beans. For medium-dark roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using 87-88°C, while light-roasted coffee requires higher temperatures to stimulate aroma, thus using 91-93°C.

The daily offerings at FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) stores typically use Hario V60 and KONO drippers. The V60 dripper is mainly responsible for brewing lighter roasted coffee beans, while the KONO dripper handles darker roasted coffee beans. Here, FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) baristas use a resin V60 dripper to extract the light-roasted Kenyan coffee. The V60 dripper features flow ribs connecting the top and bottom and a large circular hole at the center, which accelerates water flow rate. The spiral-shaped exhaust groove design extends the water flow path, increasing contact time between coffee grounds and hot water. Each water stream converges along the grooves toward the dripper's center point, concentrating pressure on the coffee grounds and resulting in more layered extracted coffee.

Pouring Technique

Based on past brewing experience, FrontStreet Coffee recommends beginners adopt a three-stage pouring method. Three-stage extraction helps to more fully dissolve flavor substances during extraction, increasing mouthfeel layers while avoiding over-extraction from overly long steeping times.

For 15g of coffee powder with a 1:15 powder-to-water ratio and 225ml total water volume, the three-stage water amounts are: 30ml, 95ml, and 100ml, with weights displayed on the electronic scale as: 30g, 125g, and 225g.

Fold the filter paper to fit snugly with the dripper, wet it with a small amount of water to make them conform better, and pour out the water from the lower pot. Next, pour in the coffee powder and tap gently to distribute the powder layer evenly. For the first stage, gently pour 30g of water for blooming, with a blooming time of 30 seconds. For the second stage, pour to about 125g of water, moving in even, steady outward circles. Then wait for the coffee liquid to drop, and when it reaches halfway, pour the final stage to 225g. After waiting for all the coffee to drip through, the total extraction time is typically around 2 minutes.

Tasting Notes

The pour-over FrontStreet Coffee Kenya Asalia coffee presents fruit flavors of cherry tomatoes, dark berries, and black plums, with sweetness reminiscent of honey, accompanied by a thick, rounded dark plum-like juice sensation. The layers are extremely rich, with a mellow entry and a bright aftertaste.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) on private WeChat, ID: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

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