What Does "High, Fine, Fast, and Large" Mean in Coffee Brewing? How to Brew Sweet-Tasting Pour-Over Coffee?

While human joys and sorrows may not be universally shared, our preferences for flavors tend to be remarkably similar. For instance, most people prefer sweetness over sourness or bitterness. This is why many pour-over brewing methods have been developed specifically to enhance the sweetness in coffee. Today, FrontStreet Coffee will share the "High, Fast, Fine, Large" approach – one such method designed to create a sweet cup of coffee.

Like many coffee enthusiasts, when FrontStreet Coffee first encountered this peculiar name, we were quite puzzled. The name seems disconnected and doesn't immediately reveal its brewing philosophy. However, upon closer examination, we discovered that this distinctive name is actually quite direct. What does this mean? Each character in "High, Fast, Fine, Large" represents an extreme brewing parameter: extremely high water temperature, extremely fine grinding, extremely fast brewing (shorter extraction time), and extremely large water flow. By combining these four extreme parameters, we can quickly produce a cup of coffee with prominent sweetness. At this point, you might wonder: how exactly do these four parameters create sweetness in coffee?

The Science Behind Coffee Sweetness

First, we need to understand that the sweetness in coffee doesn't refer to pure sweet taste, as coffee contains minimal sugar compounds that would register as sweet on our palate. Instead, the sweetness we perceive from coffee comes primarily from sweet aromatics, as well as the sweet sensation that emerges through the balance of acidity and bitterness (for detailed explanations, you can refer to FrontStreet Coffee's article "Why Coffee Tastes Sweet Without Added Sugar"). If we want to highlight sweetness in coffee, besides selecting coffee beans with less bitterness and acidity and more abundant sweet aromatics (such as medium to light-medium roasted beans), we can also adjust brewing parameters to increase the proportion of sweetness in the cup, preventing acidity and bitterness from overwhelming the sweet notes.

How the "High, Fast, Fine, Large" Method Works

The "High, Fast, Fine, Large" approach allows coffee to be extracted quickly while reducing the presence of bitter compounds. This is because the acidic, sweet, and bitter compounds in coffee dissolve at different rates due to their varying molecular sizes. Acids dissolve fastest, followed by sweet compounds, with bitter compounds dissolving slowest. Therefore, by completing the extraction in a short time, we can avoid the extensive dissolution of bitter compounds. Meanwhile, the extreme water temperature and grinding ensure sufficient extraction within the short timeframe, preventing under-extraction.

Important Considerations

However, it's important to note that due to the extreme nature of these parameters, this brewing method is not suitable for dark roasted coffee beans that contain high levels of bitter compounds. This is because bitter compounds dissolve throughout the entire extraction process, not just in the later stages. If we use this method to brew dark roasted coffee, over-extraction is very likely to occur. In other words, this brewing approach is more suitable for light-medium and light roasted coffee beans. That said, let's get to the specifics! FrontStreet Coffee will now demonstrate how this "High, Fast, Fine, Large" brewing method works in practice.

Practical Brewing Demonstration

High, Fast, Fine, Large! Since this is a brewing philosophy rather than a rigid recipe, we need to adjust the specific parameters based on the coffee beans we're using. However, this isn't difficult – we can simply make small adjustments to our usual brewing routine. For this demonstration, FrontStreet Coffee is using the Sidamo Arlo from our bean selection. This light-medium roasted coffee offers higher error tolerance and is better suited for this extreme brewing approach. Additionally, it possesses a remarkably high tropical fruit sweetness, which has helped it stand out among Ethiopian beans in recent years.

Parameters are as follows:

Water temperature: 94°C (compared to 92°C for regular brewing)
Grind size: 9 on the EK43 (compared to 10 for regular brewing)
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:16
Brewing method: Single-pour technique
Dripper used: V60

Since approximately 85% of the water is poured in one go during the second stage, we can use a small spoon or stirrer to create a small depression in the center of the coffee bed before the bloom. This helps ensure more even and thorough wetting and degassing during the bloom phase.

For the brewing process, we begin by wetting the coffee grounds with twice the amount of water as the coffee, followed by a 30-second bloom.

After the bloom, we pour all the remaining target water using a large water flow with circular movements. The pouring pattern can be flexible – large circles, small circles, or even back-and-forth spiral patterns like a mosquito coil work well.

Next, we simply wait for all the coffee liquid to drip into the server below, then remove the dripper to complete the extraction.

Total brewing time was 1 minute and 25 seconds, similar to the single-pour method, but with more complete extraction. Using a refractometer, FrontStreet Coffee calculated that this Arlo coffee achieved an extraction rate of 19.35% with a concentration of 1.31%.

Tasting Notes and Conclusion

Mango, pineapple, and citrus were the prominent flavor notes that FrontStreet Coffee identified when tasting this Arlo coffee. As expected from the description, the sweetness was indeed突出 (outstanding). The mouthfeel was light with an oolong tea-like finish.

Interestingly, if we reverse this approach, we arrive at a completely different brewing philosophy: low water temperature, slow brewing, coarse grinding, and small water flow. This is also a method that can produce sweet coffee, but with the additional benefit of enhanced mouthfeel. Moreover, it has higher "forgiveness" and is also suitable for dark roasted coffee beans. However, FrontStreet Coffee won't go into detail about this reverse method here – you can explore it based on the explanations above!

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