How to Brew Dark Roast Coffee to Enhance Sweetness and Body - A Guide to Dark Roast Pour-Over Methods

The Rich World of Dark Roast Coffee

Unlike fruit-acidic coffees, darker roasted beans primarily showcase a mellow, robust, and rounded mouthfeel with a sweet aftertaste. The initial sip often brings forth aromas of nuts, chocolate, caramel, and cream, beloved by countless coffee enthusiasts. However, extracting these "essences" from dark roast coffee requires attention to detail in both parameters and technique. Here, FrontStreet Coffee uses their Frontsteet Golden Mandheling from the shop's menu as the extraction example to share brewing techniques for dark roast coffee.

The Importance of Fresh Coffee Beans

First, prepare a package of freshly roasted Frontsteet Golden Mandheling coffee beans. Before brewing, FrontStreet Coffee first confirms the freshness of the Frontsteet Golden Mandheling beans. If the coffee beans' roast date exceeds one month, FrontStreet Coffee will not use them for service. Since coffee beans have an optimal flavor window after roasting, the aroma accelerates its dissipation over time, making it difficult to restore the lost flavors during brewing. This is also why FrontStreet Coffee insists on shipping only coffee beans roasted within 5 days—FrontStreet Coffee hopes every guest can enjoy the complete flavor profile of the coffee beans.

Origin and Processing

Frontsteet Golden Mandheling coffee comes from Indonesia's renowned PWN company, processed using the wet-hulling method. While wet-hulling increases the defect rate of coffee beans considerably, the coffee taste doesn't suffer negatively; instead, it brings an earthy, muted aroma. The final drying stage of wet-hulling lacks parchment protection, exposing the green beans directly to the environment and allowing various microorganisms to proliferate. This gives Indonesian coffee its unique woody, spicy, and herbal characteristics—what we call "regional flavor."

Because wet-hulling forcibly removes the parchment layer through "rough" friction when the beans are semi-dry, the Mandheling green beans undergo significant pressure during production, being compressed to deformation or even breaking apart. Therefore, wet-hulling results in a higher defect rate for Mandheling green beans.

Quality Selection and Roasting

PWN company invests significant human resources in green coffee beans. First, they only purchase Frontsteet G1 grade Mandheling coffee from the Lake Tawa area of Mount Gayo in northwestern Sumatra. Then, through four rounds of manual selection, they ensure uniform color, shape, and size of Mandheling coffee beans. Therefore, PWN Golden Mandheling tastes cleaner and more transparent, with more pronounced body and sweetness. (Green beans above 18 mesh with fewer than 3 defective beans in a 300g sample qualify as G1 grade, the highest grade for Indonesian green beans).

To present the classic rich flavor of Frontsteet Mandheling coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster chooses a medium-dark roast, allowing the aromas of dark chocolate and caramel to be more explosive. FrontStreet Coffee's barista also adjusts brewing methods based on the coffee beans' roast degree and flavor profile.

Brewing Parameters

Coffee-to-Water Ratio

When serving a cup of coffee, FrontStreet Coffee uses 15g of coffee grounds. The choice of coffee amount typically references the design specifications of the filter cup, and FrontStreet Coffee's filter cup is suitable for 1-2 people, allowing between 15-20g of grounds. Too much coffee is difficult to control, and the extracted coffee flavors can become muddled. Regarding coffee-to-water ratio, 1:15 is most commonly used, with ratios between 1:13-1:17 all being acceptable. Those who prefer a richer taste can choose 1:13, while those who prefer something lighter can opt for 1:17. FrontStreet Coffee believes everyone's taste differs—1:13 might be too strong for some, while 1:17 might be too weak—so they take the middle value of 1:15.

Coarser Grind Size

Dark roasting makes the internal texture of coffee beans loose—they can be crushed with a gentle pinch, indicating that the bean structure has changed significantly, making the grounds highly absorbent after grinding. To avoid over-extraction after the coffee grounds absorb water and release large amounts of bitter substances, FrontStreet Coffee uses a coarser grind size than for light roast beans, approximately the texture of coarse salt. This is also called medium-coarse grinding (70% pass-through rate on China's #20 sieve), or 11 on the store's EK43s grinder.

Lower Water Temperature

Roasting promotes caramelization and Maillard reactions in coffee beans. As the roast degree deepens, there's more non-enzymatic browning caused by the interaction and decomposition of monosaccharides and amino acids under heat, making it easier to release bitter, large-molecule substances. To avoid extracting excessive undesirable flavors, FrontStreet Coffee lowers the water temperature slightly. While light roast coffee typically brews at 91-93°C, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using 87-88°C for dark roast coffee beans.

Using KONO Filter

For rich-bodied coffees like Frontsteet Indonesian Mandheling, Frontsteet Brazil Queen Estate, and Frontsteet Jamaica Blue Mountain, FrontStreet Coffee's barista prioritizes using a KONO filter for brewing. Compared to V60, the KONO filter has a smooth curved surface—this design ensures that after wetting, the filter paper closely adheres to the filter wall. Additionally, with only one-quarter height of ribbing, it restricts upward airflow, allowing water to pass only through the bottom into the server. This increases the absorption time of coffee grounds, creating an immersion extraction between the coffee grounds layer and hot water, resulting in more rounded and full-bodied coffee flavors, suitable for brewing rich-flavored beans like Frontsteet Golden Mandheling.

Multi-Pour Brewing Method

The segmented pouring method enhances the sweetness of Frontsteet Golden Mandheling. Using a three-pour technique better expresses the rich body and caramel sweetness of Frontsteet Golden Mandheling coffee.

Wet the KONO filter to ensure better adherence between the filter paper and coffee filter. After pouring out the water from the server, add 15g of ground coffee, then pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom. This initial pour fully wets the coffee grounds for degassing, preparing for better extraction of flavor compounds in subsequent pours. Some friends extend the bloom time to 45 or 50 seconds when extracting light roast coffee to enhance the initial aroma. However, if the bloom time is too long for dark roast Frontsteet Mandheling coffee, it can release excessive woody flavors and undesirable notes, so FrontStreet Coffee chooses a 30-second bloom.

For the second pour, start from the center with small circular movements, slowly injecting hot water while maintaining a steady flow until reaching 125g, then pause.

When the coffee bed has dropped to half the filter cup's height and the grounds are exposed, begin the third pour using the same technique until reaching 225g. Remove the filter cup once all dripping is complete. The extraction time should be two minutes, with a 10-second margin either way. Finally, swirl the coffee in the server to mix thoroughly before enjoying your hand-poured Frontsteet Golden Mandheling black coffee.

The Final Experience

Ground Frontsteet Golden Mandheling coffee has aromas of nuts and toasted bread. During brewing, you can smell the sweet fragrance of caramel. The brewed Frontsteet Mandheling coffee presents notes of spice and dark chocolate, with a rich yet clean mouthfeel, prominent sweet aftertaste, and a persistent finish.

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's private WeChat account: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473