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

There are countless ways to brew coffee, but the one that left the deepest impression on FrontStreet Coffee is, without question, the classic Matsuyama-style pour-over from Japanese coffee culture. The whole process can be summed up in a single word: extreme. That extremeness shows up both in the parameters and in the technique.

On the parameters side, the extremes are plain to see: an extraction temperature as high as 100°C, a bloom lasting 180 seconds, a full three minutes, and a coffee-to-water ratio that reaches 1:5. On the technique side, they are just as striking: a lid placed over the bed for a true bloom, an exceptionally high pouring height, and a generous amount of bypass water added at the end.

Extreme in every dimension, this method nonetheless brews a distinctive and thoroughly enjoyable cup. It is said the technique even became a "national-level" brewing method in Japan. That raises an obvious question: how can something so extreme still taste so good? Every effect has its cause. Today, FrontStreet Coffee takes you through why Matsuyama-style brewing has to be this extreme.

What is Matsuyama-Style Brewing?

Matsuyama-style brewing was developed in 1962 by Matsushita Yoshikazu, who created it in pursuit of stable, repeatable coffee. More than 60 years have passed since then. At the time, measuring tools such as thermometers and digital scales were not yet widely available, so it was difficult for people to control and reproduce extraction parameters freely the way we do today.

Brewers therefore needed another path, a method that could replace measurement and still guide extraction. Matsuyama-style brewing, which let people brew consistently good coffee with the same parameters time after time, became one of the more systematic brewing methods in Japan at that time. It also explains why boiling water is used: only that way could the temperature of the hot water be judged accurately without a thermometer. This in turn gave birth to the "extreme" signature move of Matsuyama-style brewing, the highly entertaining high-position pour.

Freshly boiled water is extremely hot and extracts very efficiently, but pouring from an extremely high position makes the stream lose a lot of heat, because the increased surface contact with the air carries it away. Matsuyama-style brewing generally holds the pour about 30 centimeters above the coffee bed, which brings the water from 100°C down to roughly 95°C by the time it reaches the grounds. Then there is the unusually long bloom. As everyone knows, roasted beans hold a large amount of carbon dioxide, and that gas gets in the way of hot water extraction, which is why we bloom to release it.

Because carbon dioxide keeps escaping over time, freshly roasted beans and beans roasted a week or a month earlier hold different amounts of it. Those differences change extraction efficiency and therefore the flavor in the cup. To deal with this, Matsushita Yoshikazu reasoned: if the variation in carbon dioxide is the problem, why not release all of it completely, so that every coffee extracts the same way?

So, centered on the idea of "stability," he extended the bloom to three minutes, letting freshly roasted beans and beans roasted a week or a month earlier extract without interference from carbon dioxide, which reduced the differences caused by the gas. Interestingly, before and after blooming, Matsushita Yoshikazu also made two small, special moves. The first was to use a spoon to spread the thickened center of the coffee bed out toward the edges before adding the bloom water. This move matters because Matsuyama-style brewing uses a conical metal filter holder, which makes the grounds pile up in the middle. When there is too much coffee there, the grounds at the bottom of that pile may not meet the hot water, so they cannot degas properly. Spreading the center out lets the bloom moisten the bed more evenly.

The second move is covering the bed with a lid. Many people assume this is to keep out dust, but that is not it at all. The lid simply keeps aromatic compounds from escaping in large quantities during the bloom.

Even after the temperature drop, 95°C is still fairly high and can easily pull out bitter, over-extracted flavors, so we need other ways to rein in extraction efficiency and bring the overall balance back. Grind size is the best lever. That is why Matsuyama-style brewing grinds the beans coarser than conventional methods. Besides dodging the high heat, a coarse grind has another advantage: it basically prevents water from pooling, so a true wash extraction is possible and the coffee will not turn bitter from prolonged soaking. (Left: conventional grind; right: Matsuyama-style grind.)

The last characteristic is that the brewed liquid is extremely small, only about five times the weight of the beans. For example, 30g of coffee yields just 150ml of coffee liquid. Matsushita Yoshikazu believed the essence of coffee is concentrated mainly in the first half of extraction, while bitter compounds in the second half are released too easily. So we only brew a liquid five times the weight of the beans, then use the bypass method to dilute the concentration down to a comfortable range.

This sequence of moves reduces the differences caused by varying roast dates and also prevents over-extraction. Most importantly, the coffee's flavor performance is excellent and the concentration can be freely adjusted. That is why FrontStreet Coffee considers Matsuyama-style brewing the most memorable of all. Now, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce how the process is carried out.

Matsuyama-Style Brewing Equipment and Process

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

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

1. Place the filter paper on the filter holder, then add the coffee grounds. 2. Use a spoon to push the grounds piled in the center out toward the edges, preparing the bed for brewing. 3. Raise the pouring height to 30 centimeters above the coffee bed, then pour in circular motions from the center outward until all the surface grounds are moistened, 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, use bypass water to dilute this high-concentration coffee to a drinkable strength. FrontStreet Coffee generally dilutes it with water at a 1:1 ratio. Shake well, and it is ready to enjoy.

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Matsuyama-style brewing calls for a dark roast with low acidity, so a bean that stays sweet and full-bodied even at a coarse grind and a long bloom is ideal. FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Indonesian Golden Mandheling fits perfectly: it is roasted dark, its acidity is very low, and the cup is mellow and lingering, packed with herbal and dark chocolate aromas and a faint earthy note that layered drinkers love. The Brazil Queen Estate is another easy choice, with low acidity, a balanced body, and rich nut and cocoa aromas backed by clear caramel sweetness.

If you would rather take the edge off the intensity while keeping the body, the Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 is a classic: it balances acidity, sweetness, bitterness, and aroma with cream, caramel, chocolate, nut, and honey notes and a clean, long finish, which is exactly why so many people call it the specialty coffee that almost everyone likes. Meanwhile, for the fruit-forward, floral pour-overs that suit the same V60 setup, the Yirgacheffe Gudingding and the Ethiopia Hualui bring distinctive jasmine, citrus, and tropical fruit notes that still come through cleanly.