How Should Champion Sidra Coffee Beans Be Brewed? What Should You Pay Attention to When Extracting Sidra from Colombia's Finca El Diviso?

As the champion bean used in the 2022 brewing competition, Sidra has received significant attention. However, many friends have reported in the background that the Sidra coffee they brew tastes rather bland and not as full-bodied as expected! Today, FrontStreet Coffee is returning to share with everyone how to brew Sidra to achieve the best flavor~

FrontStreet Coffee's Sidra comes from La Divisa farm in Colombia! It uses double anaerobic natural processing. It is precisely this processing method that allows the naturally fruity Sidra to develop even richer fruit aromas! The prominent and charming flavors of grapes, passion fruit, and apricot have allowed it to shine in world competitions, with many enthusiasts becoming captivated after experiencing it. Regarding Sidra, FrontStreet Coffee has already provided a detailed analysis in a previous article (for details, please refer to "The Origin of Sidra"~). So what exactly is this double anaerobic natural processing method?

Double Anaerobic Natural Processing

I believe everyone is already quite familiar with the natural processing workflow! It involves directly drying and sun-drying mature coffee cherries until the moisture content drops to about 11%, at which point they can be hulled and deseeded. Naturally processed beans possess abundant fruit aromas with a subtle fermented character. Anaerobic fermentation, on the other hand, adds an anaerobic step to the natural process - first placing the coffee cherries in barrels, extracting air for fermentation, and then proceeding with the sun-drying steps~ Double anaerobic natural processing splits the anaerobic step into two stages before and after, allowing better control over the fruit's fermentation time and guiding the beans toward the desired flavor development.

During the anaerobic process, the fermentation degree varies between beans, resulting in different colors on the bean surface (due to varying degrees of candied fruit preservation). After roasting, the bean surface will display different colors based on the candied fruit content! Beans with less candied fruit will appear lighter in color, while beans with more candied fruit will show darker surfaces due to caramelization reactions! Now, let's move on to the brewing process for Sidra!

Brewing Preparation

If you're experiencing bland and thin Sidra coffee like the friends who asked at the beginning, it indicates that your coffee is under-extracted! This phenomenon is most likely caused by water temperature and grind size issues. Therefore, by adjusting these two aspects, we can brew properly extracted Sidra coffee with suitable flavor! Let's first discuss grind size, as this is where most friends encounter problems. The internal structure of anaerobically processed beans becomes quite loose after heavy fermentation. Therefore, if we use the grind size for regular processing, we'll experience incomplete extraction during brewing due to too-fast flow rates, which results in thin texture and bland flavor in the entire cup of coffee! This is because the concentration is too diluted from insufficient extraction.

Therefore, we should adjust the grind slightly finer than our original setting to slow down water flow, allowing for more complete extraction. Taking FrontStreet Coffee's grinding as an example, FrontStreet Coffee uses setting 10 on the EK43 for regular light roast beans, but when dealing with anaerobic beans like Sidra, we adjust 0.5 finer, which is setting 9.5 on the EK43!

Regarding water temperature, since Sidra is a medium-light roast bean, FrontStreet Coffee uses 92°C water temperature combined with a finer grind, making the extraction efficiency just right~ The brewing dose is 15g with a 1:15 ratio (meaning 225ml of hot water is injected). This powder-to-water ratio is perfect for releasing Sidra's flavors without causing over-dilution. Combined with three-stage brewing, it allows the coffee's layers to be more prominent!

Brewing Process

First, let's enter the blooming stage! Inject twice the amount of water as the coffee dose from the center of the filter, which is 30ml of hot water, for a 30-second bloom! Visually, we can observe that due to the loose characteristics of anaerobic beans, the coffee bed's blooming and degassing are very pronounced!

After the blooming stage ends, we can inject the second portion of hot water! The second portion is 120ml, which we inject in even circular motions from the center outward until all is poured! It's worth noting that this stage should use a small water flow to avoid raising the coffee bed too high, which would accelerate drainage and result in thin coffee.

When the water level is about to bottom out, we inject the final portion of hot water. This final injection is done with a large water flow in circular motions at the center of the coffee bed! The circular range should be controlled to about the size of a coin~

Once the coffee drip filtration is complete, you can remove the filter, swirl the coffee liquid, and enjoy the delicious Sidra coffee~

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FrontStreet Coffee

No. 10, Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473