Have You Noticed These Details in Pour-Over Coffee?

Many people find pour-over coffee challenging because even when they've established a brewing framework, the taste often falls short of expectations. The coffee either lacks flavor or becomes over-extracted, and despite much contemplation, they can't pinpoint where the problem lies.

As the saying goes, details determine success or failure! If your brewing parameters are generally correct but the flavor profile differs significantly from the description, you might be overlooking some small operational details. Below, FrontStreet Coffee has compiled 10 points that beginners most easily neglect. Let's review them together.

1. Clean Your Grinder Before Grinding

Whether using a manual or electric grinder, a small amount of fine powder remains on the burrs (and chute) after grinding coffee beans. If the grinder isn't used frequently and isn't cleaned before use, the accumulated fine powder in the crevices can easily oxidize, producing woody or rancid flavors. To prevent old powder residue from mixing with fresh grounds and causing flavor contamination, FrontStreet Coffee throws a few beans through the grinder before grinding the actual batch for brewing. When using your grinder daily, develop the good habit of cleaning it before use and after use.

2. Ensure Filter Paper Fits the Dripper

Many people have the habit of wetting the filter paper before brewing coffee. This serves two purposes: first, to ensure the filter paper "fits tightly" against the dripper, and second, to preheat both the dripper and the server.

FrontStreet Coffee has verified whether "filter paper fitting is really that important for pour-over coffee." If the filter paper doesn't fit properly, not only will the coffee powder's gas release during blooming be hindered, but the dripper wall's design features will also lose effectiveness, such as the V60's water-repellent flow ribs or Kono's smooth curved surface. Consequently, extraction uniformity and flow rate will be affected. Therefore, to utilize your dripper's functionality, you should confirm that the filter paper fits properly during preparation. Otherwise, by the time you notice it's "crooked" during pouring, it becomes difficult to remedy.

3. Minimize Tapping the Dripper

We all know that uneven coffee grounds can easily lead to uneven extraction, so we're accustomed to tapping or shaking the dripper to level the coffee bed surface. However, the more intensely (or frequently) you tap the dripper, the more likely fine particles will fall to the bottom through gaps, causing flow blockage during brewing. When adding coffee grounds, aim for the center point and pour slowly, which prevents excessive bias to one side. A gentle shake will distribute the grounds evenly at the bottom of the dripper.

4. Double-Check for Mistakes Before Pouring

Even experienced baristas sometimes make basic mistakes when picking up the pour-over kettle, and pre-pouring checks can help us avoid these situations. Before pouring, please check: has the wastewater in the server been emptied? Is there enough water in the kettle? After grinding the coffee beans, tare the scale before pouring to confirm the weight is accurate, preventing the grinder from "eating beans" without your knowledge.

5. Start Brewing Immediately After Confirming Water Temperature

FrontStreet Coffee has noticed that some friends confirm the water temperature, then put the lid on and attend to other tasks. By the time they actually start pouring, the temperature has already dropped. Therefore, confirming water temperature should be done within the final two steps. For non-temperature-controlled kettles like those FrontStreet Coffee uses, consider the kettle's heat absorption state - choose water temperature higher than the brewing target and pour it into the pour-over kettle. As it gradually cools to the target temperature, begin pouring immediately.

6. Strictly Follow Your Planned Parameters

Before brewing coffee, we typically create a brewing plan. For example, when FrontStreet Coffee brews Brazil's Queen Estate coffee beans, the plan might be: 15g of coffee grounds, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, grind size of 75% passing through a #20 standard sieve, water temperature of 88°C, and three-stage pouring: 30ml, 95ml, and 100ml.

But if during brewing, the coffee amount is less, the total water amount accidentally increases, and you cut off the flow early after exceeding 2 minutes, then the coffee-to-water ratio has definitely changed, and the coffee will likely deviate significantly from expectations. For beginners, after establishing a brewing framework, strictly following the original parameters is crucial. Pour exactly the target water amount, and wait until all coffee liquid has finished dripping before removing the dripper. This corresponds to your original extraction framework.

7. Ensure Coffee Grounds Are Fully Saturated During Blooming

In the eyes of most coffee professionals, blooming is a standard action before formal extraction begins. Some friends focus too much on bloom water amount and time, but their water control ability needs improvement. After adding the bloom water, some grounds remain dry, making the bloom insufficient and affecting the resulting coffee flavor. From FrontStreet Coffee's experience, if you can't fully saturate all coffee grounds within twice the water amount (30g water for 15g coffee grounds), don't hesitate to add more water. Remember, the main purpose of blooming is to thoroughly wet all coffee grounds and release gases.

8. Focus on Coffee Bed Changes Rather Than the Scale

Some people like to stare at the electronic scale's data throughout the brewing process. FrontStreet Coffee believes this is not a good habit. Although numerical accuracy is important for a cup of coffee, focusing too much on data often causes you to miss other important factors. For example, when you concentrate too much on pour weight and time, the water level might overflow the coffee bed, causing water to flow directly down the ribs and result in under-extraction. Therefore, during brewing, your focus should be on the coffee bed rather than the electronic scale.

9. Stir Well Before Drinking After Brewing

Some impatient friends might take a sip immediately after brewing coffee, only to find the first sip weak and the second strong. The release amount and rate of flavor compounds differ in each extraction stage. When coffee of different concentrations falls into the server, it doesn't mix immediately, so external help is needed to stir the coffee liquid evenly.

10. Taste First, Then Examine the Coffee Bed

Perhaps when you've brewed a beautiful coffee bed (crater), you feel confident that this cup of coffee will be good. When you brew an uneven coffee wall, you subconsciously think it probably won't taste good.

Understand that the coffee bed we see is formed after all the water poured into the coffee grounds has finished flowing. It mainly depends on pouring technique, dripper flow characteristics, coffee bean absorption state, etc. A beautiful coffee bed might not have perfect flavor, and an unattractive bed can produce delicious coffee. The coffee bed is merely a reference factor for judging whether our brewing framework is reasonable - not the main cause. Don't confuse priorities.

FrontStreet Coffee has focused on so many details not to suggest that only by strictly following them can you brew good coffee, but rather to help everyone eliminate various unstable factors from the source when "reviewing" their parameters, making it more intuitive to identify why coffee doesn't taste good.

If we can grasp these small details, then when coffee flavor deviates, we can directly find answers from the major factors affecting coffee taste, such as grind size, coffee-to-water ratio, water temperature, extraction time, pouring technique, etc.

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