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How to Improve Pour-Over Coffee's Body and Texture? What Does Coffee Body Mean?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, When enjoying a cup of quality coffee today, flavor is an extremely important evaluation criterion. When friends select their favorite coffee, they also pay attention to the flavor descriptions on the label. FrontStreet Coffee believes, "While good coffee flavor is certainly important, Body cannot be overlooked!" Body? Perhaps this is your first time encountering the concept of "coffee Bo

Nowadays, flavor is a crucial standard when enjoying a good cup of coffee. When friends select their favorite coffee, they also pay attention to the flavor descriptions on the label. FrontStreet Coffee believes, "While the flavor of a good coffee is certainly important, we cannot overlook the Body!"

Body?

Perhaps your first encounter with "coffee Body" was during a conversation with a barista, in coffee books, or from your coffee friends... In Chinese, it roughly translates to the volume of coffee (also called thickness). If you happen to have a cup of coffee nearby, take a small sip and use your tongue's tactile sense to feel the thickness of the coffee. Or shake the coffee in the cup to see the coating effect on the walls—this is Body.

Often, Body gets confused with terms like mouthfeel and smoothness, but in fact, these words are all referring to the same thing. However, if we delve deeper, the subject of the term "Body" is the coffee liquid itself, representing the thickness of the coffee—it's an objective reality that exists whether we taste it or not.

Mouthfeel and smoothness, on the other hand, have human senses as their subject—it's you who feels that this cup of coffee is very smooth, which leans toward subjectivity. You might consider this coffee smooth in mouthfeel, or you might think this coffee has a heavy astringency, depending on your personal sensory perception. (I digress.)

Returning to the main topic, Body doesn't reflect olfactory or gustatory sensations; rather, it's the volume of coffee that makes you feel smooth, full-bodied, and mellow, of course, there are also unpleasant sensations, such as roughness, astringency, and weakness.

What makes us perceive a good coffee Body is primarily thanks to oils and fibrous materials. That is to say, the richer the oils and fibrous materials in coffee, the better the Body of the entire cup of coffee. This is also why Italians love their espresso and Japanese people prefer using flannel to brew coffee. Essentially, it's all about retaining more oils to enhance the coffee's Body.

How to Brew Smooth and Full-Bodied Coffee

In pour-over coffee, although the Body isn't as high as in espresso, there's a significant difference in sensory experience between good and bad coffee Body. We can adjust brewing parameters to achieve a good coffee Body.

First, FrontStreet Coffee wants to address a common misconception about coffee—that coffee Body is equivalent to coffee concentration, and the stronger the coffee, the better the mouthfeel. This is actually an incorrect understanding. Coffee Body has nothing to do with the amount of substances dissolved in the liquid; its smooth and thick mouthfeel comes from coffee oils and fibrous materials that are insoluble in the liquid.

Therefore, methods like increasing water temperature to extract more coffee substances or reducing the coffee-to-water ratio to increase concentration cannot effectively express the coffee's Body.

FrontStreet Coffee recommends an extraction recipe for everyone's reference: "lower water temperature, maintain ratio, less agitation, more soaking, extend time."

For some coffees, when brewed with conventional parameters, they might taste smooth and have medium thickness when hot, but as the temperature drops, roughness becomes prominent. This situation might be due to the excessive stirring force of the water column, causing the coffee bed to tumble and release more polyphenolic substances. Coffee maintained in a soaking state will have a smoother mouthfeel.

Coffee brewed at high temperatures generally exhibits rich, clear, and intense coffee flavors but tends to be relatively thin in mouthfeel. And if we lower the water temperature (by 2-3 degrees), wouldn't that reduce the extraction rate and make it even thinner? Therefore, to maintain the extraction rate, FrontStreet Coffee would choose a dripper with slower water flow (such as Kono or cake-shaped drippers), try to maintain the soaking state, and use small water streams for gentle pouring when adding water. As a result, the extraction time will be 30-40 seconds longer than conventional brewing.