What Are the Advantages of Hand-Drip Coffee Stirring and Blooming Method? How to Use the Crazy Barista's Stirring Technique?

The Agitation Method in Pour-Over Coffee Brewing

In the pour-over coffee brewing process, we continuously stir the coffee grounds by pouring water in circular motions to increase the dissolution rate of flavor compounds. Compared to most other extraction methods, the parameters used in pour-over coffee are not as extreme, so we need to constantly stir with water flow to increase the dissolution rate of substances.

Around this time last year, FrontStreet Coffee shared an even more extreme method than water flow agitation—the "agitation method," which involves using tools to stir the coffee grounds. Similar to water flow agitation, the purpose of using tools for agitation is also to increase the dissolution rate of flavor compounds. The essence of coffee extraction is the process of soluble substances migrating from coffee grounds to water, and through agitation, we can induce water movement, thereby achieving more efficient extraction of coffee grounds. However, the improvement brought by tool agitation is somewhat higher than water flow agitation.

But because FrontStreet Coffee's content last year didn't emphasize how to use the agitation method, today, FrontStreet Coffee will supplement with several different application approaches for the agitation method, hoping to help everyone better understand and use the agitation method~

1. Using During the Bloom Stage

As the name suggests, this involves adding agitation during the pour-over bloom stage, which is also the most common scenario where many coffee experts apply the agitation method. Adding agitation during the bloom can effectively promote extraction uniformity.

Here we need to briefly introduce the purpose of blooming. FrontStreet Coffee has mentioned this almost every day recently, so everyone must be very familiar with it: the purpose of blooming is to release the carbon dioxide hidden within the coffee grounds that hinders extraction, creating better extraction conditions for the subsequently injected hot water. For this purpose, we use a small amount of hot water to wet the dry coffee grounds. However, because water has inertia and flows to places where it can move easily, the small amount of hot water we use during blooming may not necessarily wet all the coffee grounds. This leads to those coffee grounds that didn't contact hot water and didn't release gas during the bloom stage being unable to quickly dissolve their flavor compounds during the subsequent extraction process, resulting in extraction differences and lack of uniformity.

However, if we add agitation during the bloom process, we can break up the structure of the coffee grounds, allowing water to contact the coffee grounds more evenly, reducing the impact caused by channeling effects. The specific method is also very simple—just after pouring the hot water for blooming, take any tool to stir the coffee grounds, back and forth, left and right, or in circles, about 5 times is sufficient.

2. Using When Extraction Efficiency is Insufficient

The second scenario for using the agitation method is when extraction parameters don't meet our settings, such as when the water temperature is a few degrees lower than the target, or when the grind is a few levels coarser than the target. Adding the agitation method becomes a good remedial approach. Because when parameters deviate too much, conventional brewing is actually quite difficult to completely dissolve the flavor compounds from the coffee. But as long as we can increase the dissolution efficiency of flavor compounds through additional methods, we can achieve a relatively complete extraction even when extraction parameters don't meet the conditions.

For example, FrontStreet Coffee originally used these parameters to brew a pot of light roast coffee: 15g of grounds, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, EK43 grind setting 10, 92°C water temperature. But due to carelessness, the EK grind setting became 12, or the water temperature was only 88°C. In such situations where parameters differ greatly from the original settings, by adding agitation during the brewing process, we can achieve relatively complete extraction in the brewed coffee. (To be honest, chopsticks are really useful, but disposable ones are not recommended as they can introduce odors)

The number of agitations needs to be determined by your deviation value—the more the parameters deviate from the target, the more agitations needed during the brewing process. It's worth noting that agitation should best be concentrated in the early stages of coffee brewing, first to dissolve large amounts of acidic and sweet compounds early on, and second to avoid excessive release of bitter compounds in the later stages.

3. Proactive Use During the Brewing Process

Of course, besides the situations mentioned above caused by passive factors, many friends also choose to proactively add the agitation method during the brewing process. For example, by adjusting to a coarser grind to reduce extraction efficiency in parameters, thereby allowing the use of the agitation method, with the goal of more easily brewing a cup of coffee. Another approach is to take very extreme parameters and then add the agitation method during brewing. For example, the cold brew方案 shared by FrontStreet Coffee some time ago used finer grinding, higher water temperature, combined with the agitation method for brewing. This allows achieving complete extraction with minimal water in a short time.

Precautions When Using the Agitation Method

However, it's important to note that because the agitation method significantly improves extraction efficiency, if you don't want to drink a cup of extremely bitter coffee after agitation, it's best to make certain adjustments to the parameters beforehand. In other words, plan your extraction in advance—when adding the agitation method, determine which parameters need to be increased and which need to be decreased, to ensure that the coffee won't be over-extracted due to excessive extraction efficiency after brewing.

For example, in the cold brew with agitation plan mentioned above by FrontStreet Coffee, although the coffee grind is finer and water temperature is higher, because the amount of water used for brewing is reduced and the extraction time isn't as long as before, the brewed coffee doesn't show signs of over-extraction. Another point to note is that when using the agitation method, it's best to determine the intensity and frequency of agitation based on the coarseness of the grind, because fine particles easily migrate to the bottom and clog the filter paper due to agitation. The finer the grind, the more fine particles. When our coffee grind is very fine, when using the agitation method, we need to try to avoid agitating the bottom layer of coffee grounds and performing overly vigorous agitation, in order to reduce clogging phenomena and prevent the coffee from becoming over-extracted due to blockages.

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Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473