Traditional Japanese Brewing Method "Matsuyama-style"! Must Matsuyama-style Pour-over Coffee be Bypassed? Three Schools of Japanese Pour-over Coffee

The Remarkable Matsuyama-Style Pour-Over

While there are countless brewing methods, the one that left the deepest impression on FrontStreet Coffee is undoubtedly the classic Matsuyama-style pour-over from Japanese coffee culture! The Matsuyama-style brewing process can be described in one word: "extreme." This "extremity" manifests both in parameters and in brewing techniques.

In terms of parameters, we can see these "extremes": extraction temperature as high as 100°C, bloom time lasting 180 seconds (a full three minutes), and coffee-to-water ratio reaching 1:5. In terms of brewing techniques, we can observe these "extremes": using a lid for true blooming, extremely high pouring height, and incorporating a significant amount of bypass water.

Despite being extreme in every aspect, the coffee brewed using this method possesses a distinctive and delightful flavor. It's said that this method even became a "national-level" brewing technique in Japan. This naturally raises the question: why can such an extreme method still produce delicious coffee? As the saying goes: every effect has its cause! Today, FrontStreet Coffee will take you on a deep dive into why Matsuyama-style brewing needs to be so "extreme"!

What is Matsuyama-Style Brewing?

"Matsuyama-style brewing" was developed in 1962 by Matsushita Yoshikazu, who created this brewing method in pursuit of stable coffee production. It has been over 60 years since its inception. At that time, measuring equipment (thermometers, electronic scales, etc.) was not yet widely available, making it difficult for people to freely control and replicate extraction parameters for each brew as we do today.

Therefore, people needed to find alternative paths and seek other methods that could replace measurement to assist extraction. Matsuyama-style brewing, with its ability to enable people to consistently brew good coffee using the same parameters, became a relatively systematic brewing method in Japan at that time. This is precisely why boiling water is used for brewing - only in this way could people accurately control the temperature of hot water without a thermometer. This also led to the birth of the "extreme" operation of Matsuyama-style brewing: the highly entertaining "high-position pouring"!

Although freshly boiled water is extremely hot and has very high extraction efficiency, pouring from an extremely high position causes the water to lose significant heat due to increased surface area contact with air. Generally, Matsuyama-style brewing controls the pouring height at about 30 centimeters from the coffee bed, which can reduce the water temperature from 100°C to around 95°C when it contacts the coffee grounds. Then there's the extremely long bloom time! As we all know, coffee beans accumulate a large amount of carbon dioxide after roasting. This carbon dioxide hinders hot water extraction, so we need to eliminate it through blooming.

However, because carbon dioxide continuously releases, there are certain differences in carbon dioxide content between freshly roasted coffee beans and those roasted a week or a month later. These differences cause variations in extraction efficiency, leading to flavor differences in the coffee. Therefore, to address the impact of carbon dioxide, Matsushita Yoshikazu thought: since the differences in carbon dioxide content are causing these effects, why not eliminate all of it completely? Wouldn't this allow all coffee to undergo the same extraction?

So, Matsushita Yoshikazu centered around the concept of "stability" and extended the bloom time to three minutes, allowing freshly roasted beans and those roasted a week or a month to extract without the obstruction of carbon dioxide, reducing extraction differences caused by its presence. Interestingly, before and after blooming, Matsushita Yoshikazu also performed two special "small movements." One was using a spoon to spread the center thickness of the coffee bed to the surrounding areas before adding bloom water! This movement is necessary because Matsuyama-style brewing uses a conical metal filter holder, which causes coffee grounds to accumulate in the center. When there's too much coffee, the grounds at the bottom of the center might not contact hot water due to the thick coffee bed, preventing adequate degassing! Therefore, spreading the center of the coffee bed allows more uniform moistening during blooming.

The second is covering with a lid! Many friends might think this is for dust prevention? That's definitely not the case! The purpose of the lid is simply to ensure that aromatic compounds don't escape in large quantities during the blooming period.

However, even with the temperature reduction, 95°C is still relatively high and can easily extract bitter "over-extraction" flavors. Therefore, we need to use other methods to reduce extraction efficiency, bringing the overall extraction efficiency back to balance. Grind size is the best control method. Consequently, when performing Matsuyama-style brewing, coffee beans are ground coarser than in conventional brewing methods. Besides avoiding high temperatures, coarse grinding has another advantage: it basically doesn't cause water pooling, meaning true wash extraction can be achieved, and coffee won't develop bitter flavors from prolonged soaking. (Left: conventional brewing grind; Right: Matsuyama-style brewing grind)

The final characteristic is that the brewed coffee liquid is extremely minimal, only about 5 times the weight of the beans (for example: using 30g of coffee to extract only 150ml of coffee liquid)! This is because Mr. Matsushita Yoshikazu believed that the essence of coffee is mainly concentrated in the first half of extraction, while bitter substances in the latter half are too easily released. Therefore, we only need to brew coffee liquid five times the weight of the beans. Finally, we use the bypass method to dilute the coffee concentration to an appropriate range.

This series of operations not only reduces differences caused by varying roasting dates but also prevents over-extraction. Most importantly, the coffee exhibits excellent flavor performance, and concentration can be freely adjusted! This is why FrontStreet Coffee believes Matsuyama-style brewing left the most profound impression! Finally, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce the operational process of Matsuyama-style brewing~

Matsuyama-Style Brewing Equipment and Process

For Matsuyama-style brewing, we first need to gather the necessary equipment: a metal filter holder, pour-over kettle (narrow spout is best), dark roast coffee beans (FrontStreet Coffee uses Indonesian Golden Mandheling), filter paper (recommend choosing stiffer paper), and a small saucepan lid.

The parameters are as follows: coffee dose: 30g, coffee-to-water ratio: 1:5, grind: 40%-45% retention on #20 sieve screen, water temperature: 100°C. Now let's take a look at how Matsuyama-style brewing is performed~

①: Place the filter paper on the filter holder, then pour in the coffee grounds. ②: Use a spoon to push the coffee grounds accumulated in the center toward the surrounding areas, preparing for brewing. ③: Raise the pouring height to 30 centimeters from the coffee bed, then pour in circular motions from center outward until all surface coffee grounds are moistened, then cover with the lid and wait for a three-minute bloom. ④: When the time is up, pour hot water from the same height until the target liquid weight is reached, then remove the filter holder to end extraction.

⑤: Finally, we use bypass to dilute this high-concentration coffee to an acceptable concentration. Generally, FrontStreet Coffee dilutes it with a 1:1 ratio of water. After shaking well, we can start enjoying~

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