How Can Beginners Learn Pour-Over Coffee? Can You Master Coffee Brewing Through Books and Movies?

Coffee Insights from Film and Common Misconceptions

When learning something new, we can master it through many channels, such as books, teachers, and even in movies where we can learn a thing or two.

In the movie "Cafe at the Edge of the World" (さいはてにて やさしい香りと待ちながら), although the plot doesn't revolve around the theme of coffee, it contains many coffee-related scenes worth exploring.

First, the protagonist of the film, Yoshida Misaki, is a coffee roaster from Tokyo, and in her seaside coffee shop, there's a Fuji Royal R105 roaster. The setup is quite impressive.

The interior of the seaside coffee shop looks quite different from the coffee shops we're familiar with. However, this isn't made up for the movie but is based on real observations. In Japan, there are many small self-roasting coffee shops whose decorations tend toward a simple, home-style atmosphere. The important feature is definitely the large cabinet behind the bar counter, where cups, saucers, or coffee equipment are neatly arranged.

There's a scene where we see roasted coffee beans displayed in large jars, which is clearly different from the packaged coffee beans we usually buy in coffee shops. In Japan, many independent small cafes sell coffee beans in a way similar to how small shops sell bulk candy. When customers need to buy coffee beans, they are scooped from large jars, weighed, and sold. Of course, major brands like Maruyama Coffee or modern coffee shops have abandoned this practice.

There's even a scene that attempts to teach you how to brew coffee. Although it only has a few repetitive phrases, FrontStreet Coffee thinks it expresses the brewing method very simply. The entire method tells you to pour water slowly and gently (for dark roast beans), starting with pouring water in a "の" shape slowly, then stopping – this is the bloom stage.

Then continue pouring water, stop – that's segmented pouring. Continue pouring water in a "の" shape to ensure even extraction. Don't let the coffee grounds settle down means don't let the liquid level drop. They believe the foam on the surface of the coffee powder is the source of bitterness in coffee. In fact, brewing a cup of coffee is really that simple.

The film even features professional coffee cupping sessions. The coffee-related details in this movie are abundant. This film can satisfy coffee enthusiasts like me who look for sophisticated details. (I won't admit I watched it just for Sasaki Nozomi)

Of course, a movie is still a movie and cannot present the complete, authentic picture to everyone. If you want to learn more about coffee, you might want to watch some coffee documentaries, such as the CCTV documentary "Black Coffee," which provides an excellent explanation of coffee's origins and development.

Common Coffee Misconceptions for Beginners

When we first step into the world of coffee, we encounter many new things we've never understood before. Because we're not familiar with them, we can only understand them literally, which often leads to developing and following some misconceptions. Over time, these misconceptions can misguide our subsequent knowledge intake. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee would like to share some common misconceptions that beginners might encounter when learning about coffee!

Does darker roasting mean higher caffeine content?

There's a statement that many beginners easily fall into: "With the same parameters, dark roasted coffee beans will extract more caffeine than light roasted coffee beans!" Many friends, upon seeing this statement, believe that the darker the roast, the higher the caffeine content.

But in fact, caffeine content doesn't increase with darker roasting because only the bean variety's genetics and growing environment can affect caffeine content (for details, you can refer to the article "What Factors Affect Caffeine Content?"). The reason dark roasted coffee extracts more caffeine is that the extended roasting time significantly changes the structure of the coffee beans themselves, making them easier to extract. Therefore, with the same parameters, dark roasted coffee beans will brew more caffeine. So we can know that it's not that the darker the roast, the more caffeine the beans have, but that they are more easily extracted for caffeine.

Is all dark roasted coffee acid-free?

"The lighter the roast, the more acidic the coffee; the darker the roast, the more bitter the coffee." This is a familiar statement to everyone! Acidic substances continuously decompose as roasting time progresses, eventually accounting for a smaller proportion of the taste in the coffee. When reaching a certain roasting degree, bitterness will take the dominant position.

Then many friends mistakenly believe that when coffee beans reach the dark roast level, they are acid-free. But in reality, dark roasted coffee still retains quite a bit of acidic substances, they're just hard to detect clearly under the cover of bitterness. If you've tasted under-extracted dark roast coffee or espresso, you can clearly perceive the presence of acidity because at this time, there are fewer bitter substances that cannot cover the existence of acidic substances.

Is fresher always better for coffee roasting?

After coffee beans are roasted, they continuously release carbon dioxide and flavor compounds. After two months of roasting, coffee beans stored at room temperature have lost almost all their aroma and flavor. At that point, brewing will only result in a mediocre cup of coffee! Therefore, we pursue freshly roasted good coffee, allowing the coffee beans to be used for coffee making while they are still fresh, so we can enjoy them.

Although we want to pursue fresh coffee beans, this doesn't include beans that are too fresh. Because coffee beans contain a large amount of carbon dioxide right after roasting! The presence of carbon dioxide will hinder the extraction of hot water, leading to deviations in the taste of brewed coffee, especially for extraction-sensitive methods like espresso, where the impact is huge! In addition, the brewed coffee will also be accompanied by a very obvious "roasted sensation." Therefore, we need to let them rest for a period of time to release gas, reduce the carbon dioxide that causes extraction differences, and remove the roasted sensation. This is what we often call the "resting period." When the resting period is over, the carbon dioxide content drops to a range that doesn't affect extraction, and at that time, we can better brew delicious coffee. So we can know that beans should be fresh, but not too fresh. At the same time, there's another point to note: coffee beans can be extracted right after roasting, but it's not recommended because extraction parameters need to be adjusted, and the margin for error is too low.

Does new harvest coffee mean coffee harvested this year?

Not just roasting, the harvest time of coffee is also very particular! Freshly harvested coffee beans always have the most abundant flavor compounds, so many coffee enthusiasts, when ordering, always ask the shop owner whether the beans belong to new harvest products. But many beginners mistakenly believe that new harvest refers to fresh coffee beans harvested in the current season or year, which is not quite correct.

It's important to know that most of the delicious coffee we can drink now requires importing green beans from abroad. And coffee green beans cannot immediately fly into our country for "cooking" and enjoyment right after harvest because what's harvested are coffee fruits. They need to undergo sorting and processing to remove impurities other than coffee beans (peel, pulp, pectin) and reduce the moisture content to a specified range. Only then can coffee beans have a longer storage time and exhibit full flavor during subsequent roasting.

These tasks all require time for processing, basically taking nearly a month. Moreover, most coffee beans "cannot afford" to fly by plane, after all, their selling prices simply cannot afford plane tickets, so they can only enter our country by sea, which takes the longest time, about 3-6 months. This is very unfriendly for coffee beans with harvest seasons from October to January of the following year. Because if we follow the conventional concept of time, these beans are harvested in October and delivered to roasters in April or May of the following year, which already belongs to last year's harvested coffee beans. But according to coffee harvest seasons, these beans are now "juicy" new harvest coffee beans. So we cannot apply the conventional concept of time to the freshness of coffee beans, as this easily leads to cognitive errors.

- END

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473