Is Pour-Over Coffee Mysticism or Science? Are Brewing Techniques Really That Important?

Many newcomers to coffee often marvel at what seems like the mystical art of coffee. With thousands of coffee varieties, some people can extract countless nuances from a single bean, while countless brewing methods create entirely different flavor experiences. It's enough to make anyone call it coffee magic!

The Mysticism of Coffee

The mysticism of coffee has been popular since the early days of internet culture! This has given rise to many interesting beliefs, such as the insistence that pour-over must exclude the final extraction to avoid bitterness, or that wetting the filter paper tastes better than not wetting it. The debate between single-pour and three-pour techniques carries an almost martial arts-like atmosphere. Then there's the always elusive grind size, compared to coarse sugar granules, and of course, the mysticism of coffee flavors...

Why We Prefer to Call It Coffee Mysticism

There's a saying: "Theology and science are not opposed to each other. Science is humanity's explanation of known things, while theology is human speculation during the exploration of unknown things." Therefore, we call coffee a form of mysticism precisely because we don't fully understand it yet. We try to explain it using the forces of nature. But as we gradually explore and prove our understanding of coffee, the veil of mysticism covering coffee will be stripped away layer by layer—and that becomes coffee science.

Using Scientific Methods to Open the Door of Mysticism

Regarding claims that pour-over tastes better without the final extraction, or that wetting filter paper makes coffee taste better—these statements are only correct under specific circumstances.

Let's first discuss whether to exclude the final extraction. According to the claim that "pour-over must exclude the final extraction, otherwise it will be bitter," we could understand this to mean that normal brewing produces bitterness. Obviously, this conclusion is unfounded. If you use correct parameters (good coffee beans, proper coffee-to-water ratio, appropriate grind size, water temperature, and proper technique), you won't encounter bitterness or undesirable flavors. If you need to exclude the final extraction to avoid undesirable flavors in your pour-over, it can only mean that your parameters are problematic. While excluding the final extraction is one method, isn't solving the problem at its source better than avoiding it at the end?

So when is it necessary to exclude the final extraction? For example, when your grinder's precision is inadequate and produces too many fine particles, or when the coffee beans are too old but you don't want to waste them. In these situations, excluding the final extraction might be the optimal solution.

The debate between single-pour and three-pour techniques is actually a microcosm of the pour-over method discussion community. There's an overly obsessive pursuit of pour-over methods, much like secret martial arts manuals. At that time, various techniques were pursued, with certain brewing methods being overly mythologized. For example, drip coffee appears quite mystical to outsiders and looks cool. The resulting coffee has rich character, and mastering it requires great perseverance and practice, making this brewing method legendary.

Analyzing from a scientific perspective, the drip method actually utilizes prolonged slow pouring for extended blooming, allowing coffee grounds to fully absorb water, thereby extracting more substances with less water later. The drip method's coffee-to-water ratio is 1:10, producing relatively concentrated coffee without burnt or bitter flavors. The extended time ensures greater flavor stability. Once you understand the extraction principles of the drip method, you'll no longer consider drip pour-over mystical.

Coffee flavors might be what newcomers consider the most mystical aspect. A barista presents a cup of coffee and describes it as having flavors of lemon, berries, red wine, and cane sugar, leaving you bewildered. Can a seemingly ordinary black coffee really have so many flavors?

FrontStreet Coffee can responsibly tell everyone that an ordinary black coffee doesn't actually contain lemons, berries, red wine, or cane sugar, but it does contain flavor compounds that can remind you of these things. Everything has its own characteristics, and different people focus on different aspects (memory points) of the same thing.

Take lemon, for example. Some people remember its acidity, while others remember its aroma. When coffee exhibits lemon flavors, it doesn't necessarily mean it completely matches the substance of lemon, but rather that the coffee's acidity is very bright, reminiscent of lemon.

Another point is that humans tend to associate parts with wholes when identifying things. For example, someone might describe "this coffee smells like roasted sweet potatoes, very sweet." Literature analysis has identified the source of roasted sweet potato aroma as being composed of 29 aromatic compounds, with the highest contributions to roasted sweet potato aroma being almond-like 2-acetylfuran and popcorn-like 2-acetylpyrrole.

This is what the aroma compounds you smell look like.

The main source of aroma in coffee is also furan compounds, including 2-acetylfuran, which is why coffee can exhibit roasted sweet potato-like aromas. Interestingly, sweet potato aroma is also described as having "rose-like aromas of citronellol and geraniol." When coffee smells sweet, it's not actually sugar-added sweetness, after all, our noses can't detect taste. It's constructed through an association mechanism: when smelling aromas similar to roasted sweet potatoes, honey, or maple syrup, our minds automatically supplement the taste of those substances—what we perceive as sweetness.

Therefore, coffee flavors all have scientific basis; it's just that they're accompanied by humanistic imagination and artistic interpretation.

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