How to Brew Drip Coffee for the Best Taste? Can Drip Coffee Be Used to Make Latte? What's the Difference Between Cold Brew and Milk Extraction Coffee? What Water Temperature Should Be Used for Drip Coffee?

Drip bag coffee has gained popularity due to its portability and the ability to easily make a delicious cup of black coffee without complex operations. Although it lacks the rich aroma of freshly ground coffee due to being "pre-made" (pre-ground), drip bag coffee can still be quite delicious when brewed properly. That's why it's often jokingly referred to as the "instant noodles" of the coffee world - both convenient and tasty.

But did you know? Just like instant noodles, drip bag coffee also has many different preparation methods. Besides the traditional drip brewing, we can also use other methods like immersion and cold brew to create black coffee with different flavor profiles. Not only that, we can even use drip bags to make a concentrated coffee and then add milk to create a delicious milk coffee (though it can't compare to milk coffee made with an espresso machine)!

These "recipes" have all been shared individually by FrontStreet Coffee in the past. Recently, many friends have given feedback that they're somewhat difficult to search for, so FrontStreet Coffee is compiling them all today to share the different "cooking" methods for drip bag coffee with everyone.

I. Pour-over Brewing

First, FrontStreet Coffee wants to share the pour-over brewing method, which involves extracting coffee by manually pouring water. This is the most traditional brewing method for drip bag coffee. The advantage of pour-over brewing is that it can quickly produce a drip bag coffee with rich layers and prominent flavors in a short time. However, there's a prerequisite: we need to get the parameters right - the water must be hot enough, the time must be long enough, and the amount of hot water must be appropriate. Otherwise, it will be difficult to extract the coffee's flavor, and you'll most likely end up with coffee-flavored water.

Although it may seem complicated, it's actually not that difficult. Since the grind size of drip bag coffee is already fixed, we can basically use a set of fixed parameters to brew all drip bags, except that the water temperature needs to be adjusted according to the roast level of the coffee beans. This is also where the convenience of drip bags lies. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will use FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia · Flower Queen drip bag to demonstrate most brewing methods for drip bags. When FrontStreet Coffee uses pour-over brewing to brew it, the water temperature will be in the range of 90-93°C (for dark roast coffee beans, you can use water at 88-90°C); the coffee-to-water ratio is 1:15; and the extraction time is two minutes (that is, the time the water and coffee grounds are in contact).

Because FrontStreet Coffee's drip bags contain 10g each, according to the 1:15 ratio, we need to inject 150ml of water. And FrontStreet Coffee will divide this 150ml of hot water into five pours, with each pour being approximately 30ml. The purpose of this is to allow the water and coffee grounds to have more sufficient contact time, resulting in a more flavorful brewed coffee.

Then, after several experiments by FrontStreet Coffee, if each pour of water for a 10g drip bag is filled to half of the drip bag, the water amount is approximately 30-40ml. That is to say, when the water is filled to the half position of the drip bag, its water amount happens to be our target amount for each pour. Through this visual estimation, we can estimate the total pour amount without a scale.

Without further ado, let FrontStreet Coffee share how to brew a good cup of drip bag coffee!

① First, we pour a segment of hot water, filling to half of the drip bag (about 30ml), then wait 20-30 seconds before starting to pour the next segment of hot water. The purpose of this is to release the gases from within the coffee grounds, allowing us to more easily brew a delicious drip bag coffee.

② Next, we pour four more segments of hot water according to the planned water amount. Each segment of hot water is poured to half of the drip bag, and after all the hot water has dripped through, we start pouring the next segment of hot water.

③ When the last segment of hot water is finished, we can remove the drip bag and enjoy the delicious drip bag coffee.

Total time: 2 minutes and 5 seconds. And the Flower Queen coffee brewed this way tastes just as FrontStreet Coffee said - not only are the layers very rich, but its flavor profile is also very prominent. We can clearly taste the sweet and sour aroma of citrus, cream, strawberry, and berries. The mouthfeel is light, with an oolong tea fragrance in the aftertaste.

II. Immersion Brewing

Compared to pour-over brewing, the second method that FrontStreet Coffee wants to share is very simple! Because it's immersion extraction, we just need to pour the coffee grounds from the drip bag and hot water into the same cup and let it steep for a period of time to get a cup of drip bag coffee with a rich taste and balanced flavor! When using this method to make drip bag coffee, we only need to pay attention to two extraction parameters: time and water amount. As for water temperature, you can directly use boiled water for brewing. Because immersion extraction has a higher fault tolerance and doesn't easily dissolve the bitterness from the coffee grounds, the requirements for water temperature are not so high - water temperature above 94°C can be used.

If you want to drink stronger coffee, you can use a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:14 or 1:15, which means for a 10g drip bag, use 140ml or 150ml of hot water to brew; if you want a less intense flavor, you can use a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:16-17, which means 10g of coffee grounds with 160-170ml of hot water. The extraction time is 7-9 minutes, depending on the water temperature used - the higher the temperature, the shorter the time, and vice versa.

① First, we tear open the drip bag and pour the coffee grounds into a prepared container (preferably one with a spout), and set the drip bag aside for later use.

② Immediately after, we pour hot water to mix with the coffee grounds. Here FrontStreet Coffee uses a ratio of 1:15, so the amount of water poured is 150ml.

③ After pouring the water, we take any tool to stir the coffee (10 times is enough) and start timing.

④ At the 5-minute mark, we take out a tool to stir again (10 times is enough), then continue waiting.

⑤ When the time reaches 8 minutes, we can take out the drip bag and place it over another cup.

⑥ Finally, we just pour the brewed coffee into the drip bag to filter out the coffee grounds. After filtering is complete, remove the drip bag, and a cup of drip bag coffee is ready.

Compared to the pour-over method, the immersion-brewed drip bag coffee has less rich layers, but its body and flavor balance will be higher. At the same time, this cup of Flower Queen has a higher sweetness, and the aftertaste will be more lasting. Because FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia · Flower Queen drip bag is used, the flavor profile is still mainly citrus, berries, strawberry, and cream aroma - very good!

III. Cold Brew

FrontStreet Coffee believes everyone is quite familiar with the cold brew method, as FrontStreet Coffee just shared it recently. We only need to prepare a sealable bottle, pour the coffee grounds from the drip bag and room temperature water into it, seal it, and put it in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning when you wake up, you'll have a pot of delicious cold brew coffee. Similarly, the coffee beans used for the drip bag are Flower Queen, with the following extraction parameters: 30g of coffee grounds, coffee-to-water ratio of 1:10, refrigeration time of 8 hours or more. Since cold brew coffee uses a relatively large coffee-to-water ratio, we need at least 30g of coffee grounds to make a cup of cold brew. You can also decide how much coffee grounds to use according to your needs.

Step 1: We take out the drip bag and pour the coffee grounds into the sealable bottle, remembering to keep the drip bag itself.

Step 2: Pour an appropriate amount of room temperature water. Because FrontStreet Coffee uses 3 drip bags totaling 30g of grounds, according to the 1:10 ratio, the amount of water poured is 300ml.

Step 3: Use any tool to stir the coffee grounds and water until all coffee grounds can fully contact with water.

Step 4: Seal the bottle, then place the bottle in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours. (The longer, the stronger)

Step 5: When the time is up, take out the coffee, then prop up the drip bag you kept yesterday over a cup.

Step 6: Pour the coffee into the drip bag to filter out the coffee grounds. After filtering is complete, put it back in the refrigerator to ferment for 2 hours (optional), and至此, the cold brew coffee is ready.

The Flower Queen coffee extracted using cold brew tastes completely different from the previous two methods! Both in terms of flavor and mouthfeel. Besides the citrus, strawberry, and berry flavors, the cold brew version also has an additional charming fermented wine aroma that combines with Flower Queen's original fruity notes, as if tasting a fruit-rich wine. The mouthfeel is very refreshing, with both oolong tea and wine notes in the aftertaste - very good!

IV. Milk Coffee

Finally, it's time to share how to make a rich milk coffee using drip bags! And this "dish" can be made in two ways. The first is the cold brew method mentioned above, just replacing the water used for cold brewing with milk, with all other aspects including parameters and method being exactly the same - very simple. Since FrontStreet Coffee just shared this recently, we won't elaborate too much here.

Another method is to first brew a concentrated black coffee with hot water, then add milk. Although this method is more complex than the former, it can produce a milk coffee more quickly. This method will use the second method shared in FrontStreet Coffee's article: immersion. However, the water amount, coffee grounds amount, and water temperature will have very strict requirements, otherwise it will be difficult to brew the coffee strong enough, and the resulting milk coffee will have a watery taste.

Then the coffee's roast level should preferably be dark roast, so that the coffee's flavor won't be easily masked by milk. So this time FrontStreet Coffee will use PWN · Golden Mandheling drip bag from FrontStreet Coffee's bean list for making it, using two bags, which means 20g of coffee grounds, with a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:5, water temperature of 100°C, and extraction time of 2 minutes. The preparation steps are as follows:

① Pour the coffee grounds from 2 drip bags into the same container.

② Then we pour 100ml of 100°C boiling water and start timing.

③ Take out a spoon or other stirring tool and stir the coffee in the pot for 30 seconds. The purpose of stirring is to accelerate the dissolution of flavor substances, so that we can make a rich black coffee in a short time.

④ After stirring, let it sit for 1.5 to 2 minutes. When the time is up, you can take out the drip bag and place it over a cup.

⑤ Pour all the coffee from the pot into it, filter out the coffee grounds, and we'll have a cup of concentrated drip bag coffee.

⑥ Finally, we just need to add an appropriate amount of milk to the coffee, and a delicious milk coffee is ready! FrontStreet Coffee added 180ml of hot milk here, with a ratio of 1:3. If using light roast beans, the ratio can be larger.

Although the milk coffee made this way is not as rich and thick as espresso-based coffee, it can still be considered very good! When drinking it, you can clearly taste the coffee's flavors of chocolate and nuts, and the mouthfeel is quite silky. Under limited conditions, it can be considered a pretty good milk coffee. So above are the four different "recipes" for drip bag coffee shared by FrontStreet Coffee. Interested friends might want to give them a try - they can all make quite good drip bag coffee!

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