Is Pour-Over Coffee Better Cold or Hot? At What Temperature Does Pour-Over Coffee Taste Best?

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FrontStreet Coffee often mentions that our perception of flavor changes significantly with coffee at different temperatures. For example, when drinking coffee at its highest temperature, our tongue's sensitivity is reduced due to the heat, making bitterness less pronounced while acidity and sweetness are more prominent. However, as the temperature drops, bitterness gradually increases, becoming most apparent when the coffee is cold. Therefore, it's generally recommended to consume dark-roasted coffee beans while hot, as bitterness becomes particularly evident at lower temperatures, making it difficult to drink.

Next is medium temperature, which FrontStreet Coffee defines as close to body temperature, around 45°C-35°C. At this temperature, our perception of sweetness is most acute, making the coffee's sweetness and aftertaste most apparent.

When drinking coffee at low temperatures, both acidity and bitterness become more pronounced while sweetness is diminished. Except for coffee beans with special characteristics, it's generally not recommended to drink coffee after it has cooled down.

So, at what temperature does pour-over coffee taste best?

Regarding why pour-over coffee should be drunk hot, FrontStreet Coffee has shared several reasons before, but many friends didn't understand the differences because the explanation wasn't intuitive enough. Therefore, today FrontStreet Coffee will conduct a side-by-side comparison to help everyone see more clearly: why you should drink pour-over coffee hot to experience its flavors! Let's first look at the parameters FrontStreet Coffee uses when brewing both methods.

The hot pour-over parameters are: 15g of coffee, ground at setting 10 on the Ek43, water temperature of 92°C, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio (meaning 15g of coffee with 225ml of hot water), with a brewing time of about 2 minutes.

The iced pour-over parameters are: 15g of coffee, ground at setting 9.5 on the Ek43, water temperature of 92°C, 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio (meaning 15g of coffee with 150ml of hot water), 1:6 coffee-to-ice ratio (meaning 15g of coffee uses 90g of ice, though not all the ice will completely melt), with a brewing time of about 2 minutes.

As you can see, the main differences between the two methods are water amount and grind size. Iced pour-over uses less water because it needs ice to achieve rapid cooling. For this reason, we need to increase the coffee concentration by reducing water amount, preventing it from becoming a watery "coffee water" due to ice melting.

However, because of the reduced water amount, the same brewing method can no longer extract sufficient flavors from the coffee. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee adjusts the grind to be finer to appropriately increase the extraction rate. So we can understand that the source of the difference mainly comes from using different amounts of water.

Because pour-over coffee doesn't have pressure assistance like espresso machines, when water isn't abundant, it's difficult to completely extract the flavor compounds we need through drip brewing alone. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will help everyone better understand this statement through an experimental comparison. Of course, friends can try this at home when they have time, as it can directly demonstrate the differences between the two methods.

Comparative Experiment

Next, FrontStreet Coffee will brew two pots of coffee using 1:15 and 1:10 coffee-to-water ratios, with parameters consistent with those listed above. The difference is that the 1:10 ratio coffee won't have ice added, but will be diluted with hot water. This is done to make the temperature and concentration of both pots similar, better demonstrating the differences caused by different extraction water amounts.

The coffee beans used this time are FrontStreet Coffee's Guodingding. Since the brewing method was introduced in yesterday's article, FrontStreet Coffee won't elaborate here. However, after brewing is complete, we need to measure the liquid weight of both pots of coffee separately.

Through measurement, the pot with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio yielded 195ml of liquid, while the pot with a 1:10 ratio yielded 120ml.

We take a spoonful of coffee liquid (about 1ml) from each to test their extraction rates, then add 70ml of 65°C hot water to the 1:10 ratio coffee to dilute it to a concentration similar to the 1:15 ratio, and finally conduct a taste test.

No joke, the difference is truly significant. The extraction rate of the 1:15 ratio coffee was 20.6%, with rich layers, full sweet and sour flavors, and taste notes of: citrus, strawberry, cream, and berries. After swallowing the coffee, a distinct honey-like aftertaste appeared.

The extraction rate of the 1:10 ratio coffee was 18.1%, with relatively less rich layers and more prominent sweet and sour flavors, with almost no bitter notes. The taste notes were: strawberry, berries, and citrus. There was no aftertaste after swallowing, but it was still within the category of enjoyable coffee.

Subsequently, FrontStreet Coffee had customers in the shop taste-test and blindly select between the two pots. Unanimously, everyone chose the 1:15 ratio coffee. The conclusion was that both were good, but the 1:15 ratio coffee had fuller flavors and tasted even better.

At this point, some friends might ask: if the insufficient dissolution of compounds is due to too little water, couldn't we compensate for the reduced extraction efficiency caused by insufficient water by making the grind much finer and increasing the water temperature? In terms of extraction logic alone, this reasoning is indeed correct. However, in actual operation, we not only need to consider the relationships between parameters but also take into account other issues beyond parameters, such as: fine particles.

Although a finer grind size can provide more surface area for coffee particles to contact water, it also leads to the production of more fine particles. Fine particles have faster dissolution rates than regular particles, meaning they more easily dissolve all bitter compounds.

FrontStreet Coffee once tested grinding coffee to setting 7 on the Ek43 while keeping all other parameters unchanged, brewing with a 1:10 ratio. The result was an extraction rate of 20%, within the Golden Cup extraction range. Although it might seem like a good cup of coffee, the actual taste wasn't pleasant. It didn't exhibit any distinct flavors, showing mostly bitterness and off-flavors.

Therefore, when the grind is too fine, coffee easily becomes over-extracted due to excessive fine particles. Meeting the extraction rate standard only means the calculated extraction rate is an average, which cannot measure how much sour, sweet, or bitter compounds are present. Consequently, most coffee shops' iced pour-overs make only minor adjustments based on the original hot pour-over to ensure stability, without trying extremely unstable extraction methods for more prominent flavor expression.

Some coffee shops, aiming for more complete extraction, increase the amount of coffee grounds to increase the water used for extraction. While this naturally achieves the goal, it raises both cost and selling price, so most coffee shops don't adopt this method for making iced pour-over coffee.

In conclusion, everyone can now understand why pour-over coffee should be drunk hot to experience its flavors. This is because hot brewing has sufficient water to dissolve the flavor compounds in the coffee, resulting in more complete flavor expression.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473