What Water Temperature is Best for Brewing Coffee: Optimal Temperatures for Different Coffee Varieties

What Water Temperature Does FrontStreet Coffee Recommend for Brewing Different Coffee Varieties

1. Warm the Cup

Everyone knows that when coffee encounters cold temperatures, the tannic acid in its composition becomes active, making the coffee very acidic. Therefore, before we start brewing coffee, we should first pour hot water into the coffee cup to warm it.

2. Grind the Beans

The grind size for pour-over coffee should also be appropriately adjusted according to the characteristics of the coffee beans. The powder from dark-roasted coffee beans should be slightly coarser than that from medium-dark roasted beans.

Specifically, dark-roasted coffee beans like Charcoal Coffee should be ground to a level 4, while medium-dark roasted beans like FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain should be ground to level 3.5. If the coffee powder is too coarse, the resulting coffee won't be rich enough; if it's too fine, the coffee will taste bitter and astringent.

Additionally, there's the issue of coffee bean quantity. For one cup of coffee, use 12-14g of beans. For two cups, you should use the formula (single serving - 2) × 2. For three cups or more, it's simple: 3 cups use 30g, 4 cups use 40g, and so on.

3. Assemble the Equipment

Pour-over coffee mainly consists of three parts: filter paper, filter cup, and server. If you're particular about it, there should be a warming plate beneath the server to avoid the coffee getting cold during brewing. The sizes of the filter paper, filter cup, and server should match. For example: two-person filter paper should be paired with a two-person filter cup.

4. Transfer the Ground Coffee

Pour the ground coffee into the assembled filter paper, then gently tap the filter cup to compact the coffee powder and make the surface even. This ensures that all the powder will be evenly saturated with water in the subsequent steps.

5. Warm the Server

Pour a small amount of hot water into the bottom server, swirl it around a few times, then pour it out. Then place the compacted coffee powder onto the server.

6. Bloom

The purpose of blooming is to release the coffee's aroma and prepare for the second brewing. The water temperature for blooming should be 93°C. Pour water from the center of the coffee powder in circular motions for 2-3 rounds, ensuring all the coffee powder is evenly saturated. It's best when 3-5 drops of water drip down.

After absorbing water, the coffee powder will expand, changing from its previous flat surface to an upward-curving arc shape. At this point, you can smell the light, rich aroma emanating from the coffee powder. This step is one of the decisive factors in determining whether a cup of coffee will be successfully brewed, making it especially important.

7. Brewing

After blooming, place the brewing kettle on a damp cloth to cool down. After 25-30 seconds, when the water temperature drops to 89-91°C, you can begin brewing.

Generally, medium-roasted coffee beans (which we call inert beans) should be brewed at 91°C, as this temperature better extracts the aroma from the coffee beans. For dark-roasted coffee beans (active beans), the brewing temperature should be 89°C, which is sufficient to extract the aroma and bitterness from the coffee beans. If the water temperature is too low, the coffee will taste somewhat weak; if too high, it will taste over-brewed and exceptionally bitter.

The water flow during brewing can be slightly coarser than during blooming, but it must remain stable. The amount of coffee can be controlled by the number of circles and the speed of the water flow. Whether brewing one cup or three cups of coffee, the water flow should only start from the center and spiral outward, then return from the outer circle to the center, stopping at the center to complete the brewing process.

During brewing, be very careful that the water flow doesn't hit the filter paper, otherwise the coffee will taste very astringent. The amount of brewed coffee should generally be 0.5 units more than the marked line on the bottom server; otherwise, the brewed coffee amount will be insufficient.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473