5 Tips for Brewing Coffee at Home! How to Easily Improve Pour-Over Coffee Quality?

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As specialty coffee culture gradually becomes part of our daily lives, and with more and more coffee bloggers sharing various coffee knowledge in simple and understandable ways online, I believe many of you have recently taken advantage of various promotional activities on e-commerce platforms to purchase complete coffee brewing equipment! And quietly told yourself: "Now that I have all the equipment, I can definitely brew delicious pour-over coffee at home!"

How to Brew Coffee Correctly

"So! How should I brew it properly?" Don't worry! Today, I've compiled some tips for everyone that can easily improve your coffee quality! Grab your notebook and jot these down, or save this article for later~

1. Choose Freshly Roasted Coffee Beans

To make a delicious cup of coffee, the freshness of the coffee beans is particularly crucial. Although roasted coffee beans are in a dry state and can be stored for a long time, the shelf life for preserving their flavors is actually very short! The optimal tasting period for a bag of freshly roasted coffee beans is about 30 days after the roasting date.

After coffee beans are roasted, carbon dioxide gradually decreases over time, and flavors are carried away by the carbon dioxide. Therefore, the longer coffee is stored, the fewer flavors it will have. Today, many brands of freshly roasted coffee beans regularly offer promotional activities, so there's no need to stock up on too many coffee beans. Buy more when you finish your current supply to ensure freshness~

2. Choose Coffee Beans from Different Roast Levels/Regions Based on Personal Flavor Preferences

Coffee beans from different regions each have their own unique coffee flavor characteristics, and different degrees of roast will also affect the expression of acidity, sweetness, and bitterness.

If you prefer coffee with prominent acidity and a refreshing taste, we recommend choosing light/light-medium roast coffee beans from African regions (such as Ethiopia, Kenya), which typically have citrus-like acidity, berry-like sweetness and acidity, and tea-like aftertaste.

If you prefer coffee with soft acidity and a full-bodied taste, we recommend choosing medium roast coffee beans from Central and South American regions (such as Guatemala, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama), which typically have soft fruit acidity, nutty flavors, and caramel-like aftertaste and sweetness.

If you prefer coffee with low acidity and slight bitterness with a rich taste, we recommend choosing medium-dark roast coffee beans from China's Yunnan region, which typically have plum-like slight acidity, nutty flavors, brown sugar-like sweetness, and tea-like aftertaste; or choose medium-dark roast coffee beans from Brazil, which typically have rich nutty flavors, smooth texture, and sucrose-like sweetness.

For those who love high body thickness and rich, solid-tasting coffee, you can try medium-dark roast coffee beans from island regions (such as Jamaica Blue Mountain, Papua New Guinea), which typically exhibit balanced acidity, sweetness, and bitterness with a rich, solid taste; or choose Indonesian Sumatra Mandheling coffee beans, which typically display herbaceous, spicy, dark chocolate-like rich flavors and a distinct aftertaste.

3. Appropriate Grind Size

For daily brewing with freshly roasted coffee beans, it's recommended to grind them just before brewing. Because grinding increases the surface area of the beans, it accelerates the dissipation of flavors. Different roast levels of coffee beans have different solubility rates~ Therefore, only by grinding them to the appropriate coarseness can you extract a coffee with balanced flavors.

Light-medium roast coffee beans are recommended to be ground to medium-fine/fine sugar size (80% passing through a China No. 20 standard sieve); medium roast coffee beans are recommended to be ground to medium/white sugar size (75% passing through a China No. 20 standard sieve); medium-dark roast coffee beans are recommended to be ground to medium-coarse/coarse sugar size (70% passing through a China No. 20 standard sieve).

4. Measure Water Temperature for Each Brew

Many people at home use freshly boiled hot water directly for brewing coffee, or choose to rely on experience by letting it cool for a few minutes to reduce the temperature. However, this experience is often unreliable because room temperature and water volume are constantly changing, making the brewing temperature inconsistent each time. Therefore, using a thermometer to measure water temperature is essential~

Generally, for brewing light-medium to medium roast coffee beans with the recommended grind sizes mentioned above, the water temperature is recommended to be in the range of 90-92 degrees Celsius. For brewing medium-dark roast or darker coffee beans with the recommended grind sizes mentioned above, the water temperature is recommended to be in the range of 87-89 degrees Celsius.

5. Appropriate Coffee-to-Water Ratio

The key to brewing ratios is "quantification" - a simple electronic scale can solve many problems~ The electronic scale is responsible for weighing the coffee beans and the weight of water added, calculating brewing time. Having each parameter quantified allows for replication while ensuring consistency in each coffee brew.

Under normal circumstances, coffee brewed at a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio tends to be more balanced~ This is just a suggested brewing ratio. If you find it too weak, you can reduce it to 1:13-1:14; if you find it too strong, you can increase it to 1:16-1:17.

The coffee-to-water ratio determines the amount of water to be injected when brewing coffee. For example, if you use 15g of coffee grounds and brew at a 1:15 ratio, you would need to inject 225g of water and end the extraction after all the water has passed through the coffee grounds.

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