Detailed Illustrated Guide to Brewing Drip Bag Coffee - Essential Knowledge and Brewing Tips

For friends who love black coffee, enjoying a pour-over cup during business trips, travels, or at work can be quite inconvenient. This is where drip bag coffee becomes the perfect choice. Of course, as people's love for coffee has evolved beyond simply sipping it in cafés, there's a growing pursuit of enjoying the brewing process at home.

Drip bag coffee may seem simple, but many people still don't know the specific brewing process. Some treat drip bag coffee like a tea bag, steeping it directly in the cup, which explains why they find the taste weak. FrontStreet Coffee's drip bags are quite popular, especially their Ethiopia Yirgacheffe drip bags—seems like many friends love coffee with floral and fruity aromas!

Why is it called "Drip Bag"?

The earliest drip bag coffee was invented in 1990 by Japan's Yamanaka Industrial Co., Ltd. Its design concept originated from string-hanging tea bags. The inventor wanted to simulate pour-over drip coffee by pre-grinding coffee beans and sealing them in non-woven filter bags. The paper tabs on both sides of the filter bag allow the coffee pouch to hang suspended in the center of the cup. Because they hook onto both sides of the cup like little ears, people call it "drip bag coffee." In 2002, the Japanese patented drip bag coffee and began promoting it to the market. This convenient and clean design quickly became mainstream in the market.

Drip bag coffee is a portable form of coffee made by grinding coffee beans and sealing them in filter bags. FrontStreet Coffee's drip bags are all made by grinding fresh coffee beans and packaging them immediately.

Like pour-over coffee, drip bags use filter extraction, but compared to the operation of pour-over coffee, drip bags are much more convenient and quick. This is why drip bag coffee is often called "walking coffee." Pour-over coffee requires at least these tools: brewing kettle, thermometer, dripper and filter paper, grinder, timing scale, etc. Since drip bags are pre-ground, there's no need to equip grinding tools. The filter bags typically use biodegradable non-woven fabric, allowing water to extract soluble substances from the coffee grounds and seep through the non-woven fabric, eliminating the need for filter paper and dripper.

The pouring technique, time, and ratio for drip bag coffee don't need to be as strictly controlled as pour-over coffee—as long as you ensure sufficiently hot water and an appropriate ratio. However, due to this "casual" brewing method, the flavor profile of drip bag coffee is often not as rich and complex as pour-over coffee. Additionally, since drip bags are pre-ground and sealed in packaging, their aroma isn't as full as freshly ground coffee. If stored for too long (several months), they may develop woody flavors. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee suggests buying coffee beans to grind fresh and brew immediately for a more delicious coffee experience.

FrontStreet Coffee's Drip Bag Brewing Steps:

Most drip bags come in small packages. FrontStreet Coffee's drip bags contain 10g of coffee grounds per bag, using a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, requiring 150g of hot water. FrontStreet Coffee believes that drip bag brewing is quite flexible—if you prefer stronger black coffee, reduce the water amount; if you prefer lighter black coffee, increase the water amount. As long as you like it, that's what matters.

1. First, we need to prepare a container for the coffee, either a sharing pot or a drinking cup, plus a kettle for pouring water.

2. First, tear open the sealed package, take out the coffee drip bag, and tear open the non-woven fabric pocket along the dotted line.

3. Pull apart the two "ears," open the entire drip bag, and hang it on the edge of the cup or sharing pot.

4. In the first stage, wet all the coffee grounds, allowing them to bloom for about 10-20 seconds. In the second stage, pour steadily with a small water flow until the liquid level is near full, then wait for the coffee liquid to drop down until it finishes flowing.

Pour the final amount of water to fill, wait for all the coffee liquid to finish dripping, remove the drip bag coffee pouch, gently shake to evenly mix the coffee, and you can start enjoying it.

Important Details to Note:

Although drip bag brewing is quite casual, there are still some important details to pay attention to:

Drip bag coffee is still coffee—just pre-ground coffee powder, but this doesn't affect the characteristic flavors of different coffee regions; it's just that the aroma isn't as rich and full. Regarding water temperature, pay attention to controlling it between 86-93°C. If the water temperature is too low, coffee extraction efficiency slows down, easily leading to under-extraction. If you can't increase the water temperature, extend the contact time between coffee grounds and hot water, meaning let it steep longer.

If the water flow is too fast, the extraction time for coffee grounds is short, and the coffee flavor tends to be weak. Therefore, it's best to maintain a steady, small water flow throughout the process to ensure more even extraction of the coffee layer.

FrontStreet Coffee's Drip Bag Recommendations

The seasonal random drip bag selection is made by randomly selecting coffee beans from 5 of FrontStreet Coffee's main eight producing regions to create drip bags. The eight major regions are: Frontsteet Ethiopia Yirgacheffe (citrus fruit notes), Frontsteet Indonesia Mandheling (herbal aromatic nuts), Frontsteet Brazil Cerrado (nuts and peanuts), Frontsteet Guatemala Huehuetenango (berry citrus nuts), Frontsteet Honduras Sherry (whiskey aroma cream), Frontsteet Colombia Huilan (dark chocolate soft fruit acidity), Frontsteet Costa Rica Tarrazú/Mirazu/Mozart (sweet orange toffee raisin flavor), Frontsteet China Yunnan (brown sugar tea sensation plum acidity).

Meanwhile, the classic drip bags include: Frontsteet Indonesia Mandheling (herbal aromatic nuts), Frontsteet Honduras Sherry (whiskey aroma), Frontsteet Panama Mariposa (citrus stickiness honey), Frontsteet Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Red Cherry (citrus fruit wine aroma), Frontsteet Kenya Assalia (berry small tomato notes).

The seasonal drip bags include five varieties: Frontsteet Ethiopia Yirgacheffe (citrus fruit notes), Frontsteet Indonesia Mandheling (herbal aromatic nuts), Frontsteet Brazil Cerrado (nuts and peanuts), Frontsteet Panama Boquete Geisha drip bag (citrus oolong tea sensation), Frontsteet Ethiopia Geisha Chaka drip bag (floral fruit acidity).

Regardless of which variety, all of FrontStreet Coffee's drip bags are made by grinding fresh coffee beans and packaging them. Since drip bag coffee is pre-ground, compared to pour-over coffee, it naturally lacks the richness and depth of pour-over. However, drip bag coffee is the best and only choice for those who travel or work and want to drink black coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Suggestions:

Whether coffee tastes good is directly related to the coffee variety, but you must also pay attention to the freshness of coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee believes that coffee bean freshness is a crucial part of brewing. FrontStreet Coffee ships all coffee beans within 5 days of roasting. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "freshly roasted good coffee," ensuring that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee when it arrives. The coffee degassing period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive their coffee, it's at its peak flavor.

For friends who need ground coffee, FrontStreet Coffee gently reminds you: if coffee beans are pre-ground, there's no need for additional degassing because during transportation, the pressure from carbon dioxide buildup in the packaging also helps mellow the coffee flavor, so you can brew a cup immediately upon receiving the ground coffee. However, ground coffee needs to be brewed promptly because coffee grounds oxidize quickly when exposed to air, meaning the coffee flavor will dissipate relatively quickly, and the coffee won't taste as good. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee suggests buying whole beans and grinding fresh for each brew to better appreciate the coffee's flavor.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473