Pour-Over Coffee Watering Techniques! How to Water Coffee Properly? The Impact of Pouring Flow Rate on Coffee! How to Brew Pour-Over Coffee?

Even when using the same beans and the same parameters (grind size, ratio, water temperature), the coffee you brew at home simply doesn't taste as good as what you drink in the café. FrontStreet Coffee believes this is a question that troubles many friends learning pour-over coffee at home, but the answer is actually quite simple: your water pouring technique isn't quite right. Or rather, you've overlooked the importance of pouring technique.

What makes pour-over coffee different from other extraction methods is that it requires human involvement throughout the entire process, with continuous water pouring. The main purpose of this is to create turbulence that accelerates the dissolution of flavor compounds, while ensuring that coffee grounds in different positions receive nearly identical extraction rates. And because it's human-controlled, subtle variations can affect the extraction rate. FrontStreet Coffee often mentions that coffee beans contain 30% soluble substances, but we don't need to extract all of these soluble compounds, as not all of them are desirable. According to Golden Cup extraction theory, coffee has a widely accepted extraction rate range: 18% to 22%.

In other words, if you want to brew a delicious cup of coffee, you need to control the extraction rate within this range. To achieve this goal, in addition to using fault-tolerant parameters, understanding the principles behind pouring technique is also crucial. This is why different people using the same beans, same equipment, and same parameters can produce coffee with different tastes. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee is here today to share the underlying logic of water pouring. Once we understand why we pour water in a certain way, we'll know how to adjust extraction rates—in other words, we'll know how to pour!

Segmented Pouring

Let's start with the logic behind segmented pouring. For most brewing methods, the most obvious difference between them is the number of pouring segments. For example, single-pour involves pouring all the remaining target water amount at once after the bloom, three-pour divides the remaining water after bloom into two segments, while four-six-pour divides it into five segments.

With the same coffee-to-water ratio, more segments mean each pour contains less water, which in turn increases the extraction rate. There are two main reasons for this increased extraction rate. First, segmented pouring extends the extraction time. Because dividing hot water into segments adds waiting time for complete water penetration, this extra contact time between water and coffee grounds results in a relatively higher extraction rate.

The second point, and the most important one, is that water can dissolve flavor compounds from coffee because hot water penetrates the coffee grounds through capillary action, and then the flavor compounds inside the grounds move from inside to outside due to concentration differences. As more compounds dissolve, the liquid concentration outside the coffee grounds becomes higher. When the concentration difference between inside and outside the coffee grounds gradually decreases, the extraction rate also decreases. Segmented pouring is designed to reduce the liquid concentration outside the coffee grounds. By allowing the already concentrated liquid to fully penetrate before adding fresh hot water, this maintains an appropriate concentration difference between inside and outside the grounds for longer periods, ensuring hot water maintains sufficient extraction efficiency. Therefore, combining these two points, when there are more pouring segments, the extraction rate becomes higher.

Pouring Height

The pouring height determines the penetrating power of the water stream. When the water stream position is lower, its penetrating power is relatively weaker, and conversely, when the pouring position is higher, the water stream has greater penetrating power.

The penetrating power of the water stream determines the extraction efficiency of water on coffee grounds. Higher penetrating power means faster dissolution of flavor compounds from the coffee grounds, and vice versa. Just as FrontStreet Coffee often mentions the example of "dissolving granules": when we brew a packet of Banlangen (a traditional Chinese herbal medicine) or other instant powders in daily life, relying solely on hot water for dissolution would take considerable time to achieve complete dissolution (the principle is actually the same as the previous point). Therefore, we need to use a spoon or chopsticks to stir, accelerating the dissolution rate of the granules. The same principle applies to coffee, except instead of a spoon or similar item for stirring, it's the water stream itself.

It's important to note that when the pouring height reaches a certain point, the water stream will transform into falling droplets, losing its penetrating power. Therefore, during pouring, the height is not unlimited. Additionally, the higher the pouring height, the more heat is lost from the hot water, which in turn reduces the extraction rate. For more detailed information, you can refer to this article: "The Impact of Pouring Height."

Circular vs. Fixed Point Pouring

Circular and fixed point pouring are techniques that FrontStreet Coffee often discusses. Circular pouring involves continuously moving the kettle in circles during pouring, causing the water stream's landing point to constantly change. Fixed point pouring, on the other hand, involves holding the kettle spout fixed above the center point of the filter cone, continuously pouring hot water without movement. (Circular Pouring)

Neither method is inherently better—the choice depends entirely on the objective we want to achieve. The purpose of circular pouring is to create vortexes in the filter cone, allowing coffee grounds to follow the movement trajectory of the water flow. While this can also increase extraction rate, the primary purpose is to ensure more uniform extraction of the coffee grounds. Coffee grounds at the bottom of the filter cone mainly come into contact with already highly concentrated coffee liquid, so they release fewer flavor compounds compared to the upper grounds. In other words, they remain in an under-extracted state. Through circular pouring, we can bring the surface coffee grounds to the periphery of the filter cone to form a "ground wall," allowing hot water to better contact the bottom grounds, thereby achieving more thorough extraction. (Fixed Point Pouring)

Fixed point pouring affects only the specific area where the water stream lands, resulting in relatively low extraction efficiency. When surrounding coffee grounds have already achieved sufficient extraction, or when the coffee has reached an adequate extraction rate, we use fixed point pouring to reduce extraction while allowing the coffee liquid to dilute its concentration to a more palatable range.

Water Stream Size

The final aspect is the size of the water stream, which represents the amount of water we pour. A larger water stream means we're pouring at a higher rate, and vice versa. With the same pouring height, a larger water stream has greater penetrating power than a smaller one, and because of its faster rate, it takes less time to reach the target water amount. Without interference from fine particles (which cause blockage), brewing entirely with a large water stream will result in a shorter extraction time than using only a small stream, and vice versa.

Again, neither method is inherently better! Large water stream pouring can raise the coffee bed by creating a greater difference between pouring speed and drainage speed (provided the coffee grounds can be moved), making extraction more uniform; small water stream pouring ensures hot water maintains stable contact with coffee grounds and appropriately extends extraction time, resulting in higher extraction rates. Going into detail would significantly increase the length of this article, so friends who want to understand the effects of water stream size in detail can refer to this article: "The Impact of Large and Small Water Streams on Brewing."

Conclusion

Finally, we need to understand that all these factors are crucial to pouring technique and are interconnected. If we focus solely on extraction parameters while ignoring these pouring influences, it will be difficult to brew delicious coffee. However, once we familiarize ourselves with these principles, not only can we more easily replicate a delicious cup of coffee, but when facing unfamiliar coffee beans, we can also promptly adjust our brewing method based on the condition of the coffee bed during brewing. Brewing a great cup of coffee couldn't be simpler!

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