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The Difference Between Pour-Over Coffee Extraction Rate and Concentration - How to Make Delicious Hand-Ground Coffee?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Coffee enthusiast: "My homemade pour-over coffee smells wonderfully aromatic, but something feels off when I taste it! It's not unpleasant—the expected acidity and sweetness are there—but I feel like something's missing..." FrontStreet Coffee: Do you feel it lacks complexity, with the coffee flavor tasting rather one-dimensional? Coffee enthusiast: Yes, yes, exactly!

"The pour-over coffee I brew smells wonderfully aromatic, but when I drink it, something feels off! It's not unpleasant to drink - it has the expected acidity and sweetness - but it seems to be missing something..."

FrontStreet Coffee: Are you finding it lacks dimension, with the coffee flavors seeming rather uniform?

Friend: Yes, yes, yes, exactly!!!

FrontStreet Coffee: It might be that the coffee concentration is too high!

Friend: But shouldn't high concentration create unpleasant flavors?!

Concentration and Extraction Rate Are Not Directly Equivalent

Many people equate concentration with extraction rate during daily brewing, but this understanding is not accurate! First, extraction rate refers to the release rate of substances during the extraction process. A coffee bean consists of 70% woody fiber and 30% soluble flavor compounds, and when we extract coffee daily, we only need to extract 18%-22%. Concentration refers to the proportion of substances dissolved in the coffee liquid, and generally, the concentration of pour-over coffee does not exceed 2%.

To put it simply, extraction rate is how much substance water causes coffee particles to release, while concentration is how much substance is dissolved in water. Yes, you read that correctly! Not all released substances immediately dissolve in water. During the coffee brewing process, soluble substances are released in three stages: acidic substances - sweet substances - bitter substances. These substances fall into two categories: soluble volatile aromatic compounds and soluble taste compounds.

Take light to medium roast coffee beans as an example. The acid and sweet substances released during the early to middle stages of extraction provide the maximum concentration for the coffee. The bitter substances released during the later extraction stages typically dilute the previously extracted coffee concentration and contribute body to the coffee. An appropriate amount of bitter substances will give coffee a certain degree of body, while excessive bitter substances (over-extraction) will bring bitterness and other unpleasant sensations to the coffee. In other words, high concentration doesn't necessarily mean bitterness, but over-extraction will make the coffee taste strong.

High Coffee Concentration Doesn't Necessarily Mean Unpleasant Flavors/Sensations!!

As FrontStreet Coffee just mentioned, coffee concentration largely depends on early to middle stage extraction. When we finish brewing and find that the coffee has rich aroma but tastes somewhat uniform, it might be a case of high concentration with low extraction. This means you've only extracted substances from the early to middle stages, without appropriately extracting later stage substances to dilute concentration and enhance body. We can call this high concentration with low extraction.

Coffee with high concentration and low extraction will exhibit very concentrated flavor profiles. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee simulated high concentration with low extraction brewing for the Guancai 5.0 coffee beans. Using 15g of medium-ground coffee powder, a 30-second bloom was employed, and water pouring was accelerated during the later extraction stages, finally extracting 165ml of coffee liquid with a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:11. The brewed coffee had rich floral and fruit aromas, with very full and rich berry-like fruit acidity and sweetness, but without a sense of dimension - just berry-like fruit acidity and sweetness from start to finish.

When coffee concentration is too high, flavor compounds become too concentrated, and the taste buds cannot clearly distinguish flavors. Therefore, when encountering high concentration with low extraction, you can add warm water in small portions (5g at a time is recommended) for dilution, also known as bypass. After each addition of warm water, you need to shake well and pour out a small amount to judge the concentration before deciding on the next addition, until you begin to perceive other flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee added approximately 40g of warm water to dilute this Guancai 5.0 coffee brew, and the final coffee presented soft mixed berry aromas, the fullness of strawberry juice, and black tea notes. However, due to insufficient extraction of body-enhancing compounds, the bypassed coffee didn't feel particularly substantial, with a light and unburdened mouthfeel.