Which Country Invented Pour-Over Coffee? The Origin and Characteristics of Pour-Over Coffee

With the rise of the specialty coffee trend, coffee culture continues to spread, with sales of both coffee equipment and coffee beans steadily increasing. As a shop specializing in specialty coffee, FrontStreet Coffee not only aims to brew a delicious cup of coffee for every guest but also strives to spread coffee culture. If you follow FrontStreet Coffee's official account, you'll find daily updates on the latest coffee news. All the coffee information you see consists of articles carefully written by each FrontStreet Coffee barista, with the goal of spreading coffee culture to more people. Beyond taste, a delicious cup of coffee contains many human stories.

However, most people may not be interested in coffee culture but simply want to drink a delicious cup of coffee, which is perfectly fine. Drinking coffee, drinking coffee—how can one understand coffee without trying it? Understanding requires continuous coffee drinking to find your favorite coffee flavors. With the acceleration of life's pace, the rise of drip bag coffee has precisely met the needs of this group, but choosing a suitable drip bag coffee is no easy task.

For instance, FrontStreet Coffee has at least two hundred types of coffee beans in its shop, with different processing methods, different roast levels, and different countries of origin. Where would one even begin? Very few customers have tasted all the coffee beans on FrontStreet Coffee's menu. How to help every customer who visits FrontStreet Coffee choose suitable coffee beans is also our homework.

Recently, many customers have been inquiring about drip bag coffee knowledge—Which FrontStreet Coffee drip bag is the most delicious? How to brew delicious FrontStreet Coffee drip bags? Can FrontStreet Coffee drip bags be brewed multiple times? This article will address these questions about drip bag coffee.

1. The Origin of Drip Bag Coffee

The history of drip bag coffee originated from Japan's UCC Ueshima Coffee Company, which invented this very simple and efficient form of coffee. Nowadays, people don't have extra time to enjoy a cup of carefully crafted pour-over coffee made by a barista at a coffee shop, so when drip bag coffee was promoted in the market, it was immediately favored by many coffee enthusiasts. Among customers who come to FrontStreet Coffee to drink coffee, many ask if the shop sells drip bag coffee, which shows how vast the market for drip bag coffee is.

2. Can Drip Bag Coffee Be Brewed Multiple Times?

Drip bag coffee is similar to agricultural products—agricultural products emphasize freshness, while coffee emphasizes optimal flavor, which is the coffee's optimal tasting period. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee generally recommends that everyone try to drink coffee during its optimal tasting period, otherwise the flavor of drip bag coffee will gradually change over time. You might ask: Can drip bag coffee actually be brewed multiple times?

FrontStreet Coffee has also noticed that many people compare instant coffee with drip bag coffee. Compared to drip bag coffee, instant coffee is much simpler—no need to consider water temperature, just brew directly with suitable hot water. However, everyone should be clear that instant coffee is obtained by evaporating the moisture from coffee extract to produce dry coffee extract, which cannot be considered real coffee. The coffee powder used in drip bags is ground from freshly roasted coffee beans, extracting real black coffee through drip filtration. The brewing methods for instant coffee and drip bag coffee are different—you cannot pour out the coffee powder from a drip bag like you would with instant coffee, otherwise, your cup of coffee will be full of coffee grounds, making it undrinkable and greatly affecting the coffee's texture. Moreover, this brewing method is incorrect. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends everyone to read the brewing instructions carefully before brewing drip bag coffee.

Generally speaking, drip bag coffee cannot be brewed a second time, because coffee can only extract about 3% of its flavor compounds, and other flavor compounds are difficult to extract. Typically, coffee can only be extracted once. FrontStreet Coffee has previously experimented with whether drip bag coffee can be extracted a second or even third time. FrontStreet Coffee found that after the first extraction, subsequent brews basically have no flavor.

Actually, a small package of FrontStreet Coffee drip bag typically contains 10 grams of coffee powder, which can generally only be brewed once. When you repeatedly brew it, you might notice that the coffee still tastes quite strong and think it's still drinkable. In fact, this is not the case, because when you brew drip bag coffee for an extended time, the longer the coffee steeps, the more caffeine is released. This is because the coffee has been over-extracted. Over-extraction releases bitterness and astringency from the coffee, meaning the optimal flavor of this coffee is essentially gone. Even if this coffee is within its optimal tasting period, multiple brewings will dilute its optimal flavor, so FrontStreet Coffee generally does not recommend customers repeatedly brewing the same drip bag coffee.

Even if this drip bag coffee is still within its tasting period, FrontStreet Coffee does not recommend brewing a coffee multiple times because drip bag coffee itself is designed as an instant brew coffee that allows you to prepare a fragrant black coffee anytime, anywhere, perfectly experiencing the sweetness, acidity, bitterness, and rich aroma of coffee. The flavor of repeatedly brewed drip bag coffee is basically lost.

3. How to Choose a Suitable Drip Bag Coffee for Yourself

When drinking coffee, of course, you want to drink the coffee flavors you like. Some people might prefer the lemon and citrus notes of FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, others might enjoy the rich body of FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesian Mandeling, or perhaps the intense floral aroma and fruit juice-like texture of FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Geisha—these are all excellent choices. However, FrontStreet Coffee has a prerequisite: the drip bag coffee you purchase must be fresh and ideally within its optimal tasting period. Otherwise, no matter how delicious this coffee might be, you won't be able to truly taste a delicious cup. Experienced baristas and even enthusiasts can often judge how long coffee has been stored by its smell, but for us ordinary coffee enthusiasts, it's better to identify coffee freshness through the following methods.

1. Check the Production Date

First, when purchasing drip bag coffee, look at the roast date on the packaging. The roast date indicates when the coffee beans were roasted. When we talk about coffee freshness, we generally refer to the roast date rather than the expiration date.

2. Check the Tasting Period on the Packaging

Coffee bean packaging includes a degassing valve designed to release carbon dioxide from inside the coffee package to prevent the bag from swelling and bursting. FrontStreet Coffee's drip bags do not include a degassing valve, because while the valve allows you to squeeze and smell the coffee aroma, it also causes the coffee to release its fragrance and shortens its lifespan. Therefore, even if drip bags are equipped with degassing valves, it only increases their cost without extending their optimal tasting period.

FrontStreet Coffee also recommends against buying several months' worth of drip bag coffee at once just because of bulk discounts. Drip bag coffee emphasizes freshness, and if you buy too much and can't finish it, it will pass the optimal tasting period, and the brewed coffee will definitely not taste as good.

3. Choose Your Preferred Coffee Flavor

Drip bag coffee is essentially simplified pour-over coffee, so like pour-over coffee, the final flavor is determined by the coffee beans inside the drip bag. Drip bag coffee can be either single-origin or a blend. However, the FrontStreet Coffee drip bags sold by FrontStreet Coffee are generally single-origin coffees, with fewer blends. Generally, the packaging of drip bag coffee will indicate the coffee's flavor, with terms like jasmine fragrance, citrus, lemon, cream, etc., describing the flavor profile of the drip bag coffee.

For example, FrontStreet Coffee offers a FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Red Fruit Coffee, which has the typical nutty, chocolatey, creamy, and peanut flavors characteristic of Brazilian coffee. There's also FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Butterfly Coffee, which is a Geisha blend bean with 70% premium Geisha heritage and small amounts of Caturra and Catuai. When brewed, it has a particularly strong floral aroma, with prominent citrus, floral, honey notes, and high sweetness. There's also FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya Asalia Coffee with its cherry tomato-like bright acidity, and many others, all very suitable for making into drip bag coffee.

Some FrontStreet Coffee customers also choose their suitable drip bag coffee based on coffee processing methods. There are many coffee bean processing methods—for example, Brazil often uses the natural process to handle coffee beans. The natural process better preserves the coffee bean's flavor, enhancing its aroma and sweetness. The reason FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon has relatively high sweetness is because it uses the natural process. There's also the washed process, like FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee, which uses the washed process for a very clean taste with distinct lemon-citrus notes and a subtle jasmine fragrance. Then there's Costa Rica's honey process, like FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rica Canet Estate Musician Series, which uses the raisin honey process—selected coffee cherries are dried like raisins before hulling, and the processed coffee beans are then dried. Therefore, Costa Rican coffee beans have a relatively full body and sweet taste.

Of course, all of the above are very suitable for making into drip bag coffee. Some coffees with special processing methods are also very popular when made into drip bags, such as FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry Coffee, which undergoes refined washing and then fermentation in whiskey barrels. This processing method gives the coffee beans a rich fermented wine aroma. Similarly, FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Lychee Lan follows the same principle, but FrontStreet Coffee's Lychee Lan coffee beans are placed in brandy barrels, so the flavor differs significantly from FrontStreet Coffee's Sherry Coffee. This FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Lychee Lan coffee beans have a brandy-like wine aroma with a hint of tropical lychee fruit flavor, making it an excellent choice for drip bag coffee.

4. How to Brew a Delicious and Fragrant Drip Bag Coffee

At this point, you probably have a general idea of your taste preferences, and next you need to understand how to brew a delicious drip bag coffee. Before that, FrontStreet Coffee suggests you also understand the grind size of drip bag coffee. Coarser coffee powder has lower extraction efficiency, and vice versa. However, the coarseness of coffee powder also affects sweetness—too coarse coffee powder leads to under-extraction, making the coffee taste watery, while too fine coffee powder causes over-extraction, making the coffee difficult to swallow. FrontStreet Coffee has explored the grind size for drip bag coffee multiple times and finally adopted a medium-fine grind size for drip bags, which better facilitates brewing aromatic coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee considers drip bag coffee equivalent to simplified pour-over, with certain requirements for brewing time, temperature, and water amount. Water temperature for drip bag coffee is quite important and is determined by the flavor characteristics and roast level of different origins. For dark roasts, FrontStreet Coffee drip bags are best brewed with water at 88°C, while for light roasts, it's best to use water at 90-92°C. However, friends don't need to worry about not being able to identify coffee roast levels. FrontStreet Coffee's official account has published relevant knowledge about drip bag coffee and brewing methods, so feel free to make your purchases.

Additionally, FrontStreet Coffee would like to share the brewing method for FrontStreet Coffee's drip bags.

Brewing Process for FrontStreet Coffee Drip Bags

1. Warm the Cup

Prepare your cup and first pour in some hot water to warm it. The purpose is to prevent the brewed coffee from cooling down too quickly. Coffee flavors continuously change as temperature decreases, and if it cools too quickly, you'll miss many different taste experiences.

2. Water Temperature

First, we need to prepare sufficiently hot water because only at high enough temperatures can more aromatic compounds be released from the coffee powder. When brewing pour-over coffee, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using water at 86-93°C. If the temperature is only around 80°C, the brewed coffee tends to be bland and flavorless, while boiling water easily extracts burnt, bitter flavors. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee lets boiled water sit uncovered at room temperature for 1-2 minutes to allow the temperature to drop to around 90°C.

3. Hang the Coffee

Gently shake the drip bag to let the coffee powder settle, preventing it from spilling when opened. Then pour out the hot water from the cup, tear open the seal on the drip bag, extend the paper hangers on both sides, and shake to level the coffee powder. Finally, hang it on the rim of the cup.

4. Pre-wet

The first pour should be just enough to wet the coffee powder—too much or too little will affect the flavor. Then wait for 20 seconds to allow the coffee powder to fully absorb the water. The strength of the coffee can be adjusted by the pre-wetting time. Extending it to 40 seconds will result in stronger coffee.

5. Pour Water

For the second pour, you can fill to about 80% of the filter paper's capacity. It's best to use a thin, steady stream of water. Wait until the water level drops to the pre-wet height, then continue pouring to 80% full until you've extracted 150-180cc. Once extraction is complete, you don't need to wait for all the water in the filter paper to drip out—simply discard it.

6. Enjoy Your Coffee!

Remember that you can taste different flavors as the temperature changes!

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473