How to Brew Coffee Beyond Its Flavor Window? What Is the Flavor Window of Coffee? How to Make Pour-Over Coffee Delicious?

As we all know, coffee beans have an optimal flavor period, which is within 5 to 45 days after roasting (when stored properly). This is because coffee during this period neither has excessive carbon dioxide hindering extraction, nor lacks abundant aromatic compounds. Therefore, brewed coffee will exhibit rich aromatic characteristics while maintaining a full-bodied taste.

When coffee passes its optimal flavor period, it enters a flavor decline phase. Coffee brewed using the same method will not only lack the impressive aromatic performance it once had, but its mouthfeel will also become increasingly thin. Many friends often end up with coffee beans that have exceeded their optimal flavor period due to stocking up too many beans or other reasons, then face the dilemma: the brewed coffee doesn't taste good, but throwing it away feels wasteful—a situation of "unpleasant to consume, yet regrettable to discard."

However, beans past their optimal flavor period aren't necessarily unpalatable—it's just that their aromatic compounds are less "abundant," and their condition has changed significantly, making brewing good coffee more challenging. In short, as long as we use the right methods and techniques, even when coffee beans have passed their optimal flavor period, we can still brew a delicious coffee with excellent color, aroma, and taste (relatively speaking, though certainly not as good as fresh beans).

How to Brew Aged Coffee Beans for Better Taste?

As the saying goes, "know yourself and your enemy, and you'll never be defeated." If we want to brew delicious coffee with "less than fresh" beans, we first need to understand the brewing "challenges" involved! Only then can we "prescribe the right remedy," identify corresponding solutions based on these challenges, and thus brew a good cup of coffee. So, the question arises: for coffee beans that have been stored too long, what are the brewing difficulties?

If you haven't figured it out, let's review the performance of brewed coffee. If we brew aged/"less fresh" coffee using conventional methods, the coffee will easily exhibit the following three negative situations: thin mouthfeel, weak aroma, and even noticeable bitterness, impurity, and astringency from over-extraction. These situations correspond to the problems of: too low concentration (likely under-extracted), insufficient aroma, and over-extraction.

One can imagine that the main reasons for these three situations are insufficient compounds and excessive extraction efficiency. Facing this situation, we need to improve in two aspects! One is to increase the coffee dosage, and the other is to reduce extraction efficiency. Methods such as lowering water temperature and adjusting to a coarser grind can reduce coffee extraction efficiency, preventing over-extraction due to excessively high efficiency. Increasing the coffee dosage is to enhance the coffee's flavor performance, as too many flavor compounds have been lost. If we still want to experience relatively rich flavors from the coffee, we need to superimpose coffee compounds by increasing the dosage to obtain higher coffee concentration, thereby improving the coffee's aroma and taste.

Practical Brewing Method

Besides parameter adjustments, we can also appropriately modify our brewing methods. However, since words alone aren't intuitive enough, FrontStreet Coffee will directly share how to operate through practical demonstration. For this sharing, FrontStreet Coffee is using a Guatemala washed Geisha, which has been 50 days since roasting, making it very suitable as the brewing subject for today's sharing. The parameters are as follows:

Coffee dosage: 20g
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:13 (high concentration, low extraction)
Grind size: Ek43 setting 10.5 (originally 10, 0.5 settings coarser)
Water temperature: 92°C
Dripper used: V60
Brewing method: Three-stage pour

Although the beans aren't very fresh, we still need to perform the bloom step to prevent carbon dioxide from hindering extraction. However, we don't need as much water and time for blooming here—firstly, because the drainage speed is too fast for the coffee grounds to absorb completely, and secondly, because there isn't that much carbon dioxide to release. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee uses 30ml of water for blooming, which is 1.5 times the coffee dosage (usually 2 times), and the time depends on when the coffee bed dries out, typically around 20 seconds.

After 20 seconds, we pour in 50% of the target total water volume (130ml) using a slightly smaller water flow in large circles. The purpose of the small water flow is to extend the extraction time of this stage, allowing the sour and sweet flavors to dissolve as much as possible during this phase.

When the coffee liquid has finished filtering through, we inject the remaining 100ml of hot water using a large water flow in small circles. The main purpose of this extraction stage is to dilute the coffee concentration, so we can use a large water flow to shorten the extraction time and avoid over-extraction (of course, this still depends on the situation—if the flow rate of the second stage is too fast, continue using a small water flow).

When all the liquid in the dripper has filtered through, we can remove the dripper and end the extraction. The total time was 2 minutes, which is just right. Although the flavor and aroma performance don't match that of coffee within its optimal flavor period, it still showed very good results. If you have coffee beans that have been stored for too long, why not try this method to improve the coffee's flavor and aroma? That way, you won't have to struggle with whether to keep or discard less fresh coffee (but don't store it for too long either)!

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