Coffee: The Pour-Over

When we last left our heroes, they had roast the beans, then some better beans, then tested their grinder and were finally promising to actually make the damned coffee.

We take you now to the final installment: Actually Making the Damned Coffee.

These are some Very Important Points that dictate how we do this:

• coffee freshness
• how much coffee
• what kind of filter
• how much water
• water temperature
• timing

Just skip to the end if you're bored already, but you'll miss all the fun.

Twenty-eight grams of Honduran beans from Kafka's. Their beans come from Hermiker, and the roaster's notes are here. They were roast 5 days before we bought them. The bag looks beat-up because we re-used it. Long story, nvmd.

One of the coffee-related gifts we gave ourselves this Christmas is a Swissgold filter basket. While gold isn't chemically inert, it doesn't react with the colloidal* flavour particles in the coffee. A paper filter absorbs them, but this one lets them through.

Some people like the extra particles and oils that the Swissgold filter allows into your brew, but others don't.

We have tested this filter against two kinds of paper filters and with three different kinds of beans: Honduran, Nicaraguan and Costa Rican. We prefer the Honduran in the gold filter and the others in paper.


Gah. This is taking so long! I just want a cup of coffee, not a Wikipedia article!

The set-up: coffee pot, pour-over cone, filter basket. A ceramic pour-over cone would be nice, but it needs to be pre-heated and is not essential.

Grind dem beans, dem beans!

Grounds in the basket.

Pre-heat the pot in the microwave.

A folded towel insulates the scale against the hot coffee. Probably not an issue, but it also makes a firm base for the tower of equipment.

We use the i-Pod's built-in timer, but you can also get some helpful apps specifically made for brewing coffee. We started with a free one from Intelligentsia Coffee. They also have helpful brewing guides in the app and on-line (PDF). We did notice that they never actually say how many cups each method makes, which could lead to some embarrassing situations. This specific site is a great resource for brew methods, too.

Another coffee-specific Christmas gift to ourselves: a fancy-panty kettle with a spout designed for a slow, controlled pour. We have found that 455 grams of water ends up with just the right amount of water for our coffee if we take it off the boil right away.

Most pour-over methods suggest a water temperature between 195 and 205 degrees Fahrenheit. This is one of the rare occasions where we prefer to use Fahrenheit since the smaller increments allow for greater control.

At last! Pouring the hot water! Only 65 grams to start, though; just enough to soak the grounds.

The "bloom" will rise and let the grounds release their CO2. Coffee that was roasted less than a week before needs to rest for at least 60 seconds at this point. Coffee older than 7 days can rest for less time, but not less than 30 seconds.

During the bloom/rest, the kettle is returned to a low burner, heating back up to the magic temperature range again.

When the bloom is finished we start the final pour: s-l-o-o-o-w-l-y, in circular motions, keeping the water level constant, soaking all the grounds and staying clear of the edges.

s-l-o-o-o-w-l-y

The pour should take two full minutes.

For 28 grams of coffee the added water should be about 415 grams. We poured a little too much here while fiddling with the camera. (We don't want to spoil the ending for you, but things worked out just fine.)

The Swissgold filter is a bit fragile, we hear, so we gently tap out the grounds before giving it a good rinse.

At long last, we pour from the pot into mugs that were pre-heated in the microwave.

Some people think that anything added to coffee adulterates the taste, but there are so many ways to enjoy it. We have it black for a week or two, then with a little milk or cream. Different beans and roasts show variations on their flavour profiles with each style. We have dropped sugar completely, however, and it's wonderful.

Now that we have this method down, do we do this every day? Absolutely not. We still love our little stove-top moka pot/caffettiera and a microwaved mug of milky instant coffee is a real pleasure.

The fun is in trying a new system and dialing in the variables and the process until you can get a reliable brew. Trying different beans and roasts is just like discovering new wines; when you get it right they reveal all kinds of wonderful flavours.

Not everyone is happy about the rise of the pour-over method, though, especially as a business model.


*Murano Glass is another example of a colloid, which coincidentally has gold chloride added to create its signature ruby colour.

Porlex Coffee Mill

There are so many factors that go into finessing a better cup of coffee from your beans, and things can quickly spiral out of control into esoteric details and eye-watering expense.

One example: your coffee grinder. If you have one it's probably because you realize that pre-ground coffee quickly goes stale and that fresh-ground coffee greatly improves the flavour of your morning cup.

Traitor.

You may be as surprised as we were to find out that your reliable little $20 whirring-blade grinder is secretly acting against you, messing up your precious beans by chopping them unevenly.

So what? So when you add hot water the smaller pieces get "over-extracted" and larger pieces get "under-extracted". These quickly become very important terms when improving your coffee-making, and no, they don't average each other out.

A burr grinder works like a pepper mill, crushing beans between two rotating cones, and producing a nice, even grind which is essential for a good brew. This is what they use at your local café and why your nice, relaxing cup of coffee there is regularly interrupted by a mechanical, screeching aural assault.

If you start doing research on burr grinders you will find surprising things like this:

Spend at least the same amount on the grinder as you do on the espresso machine...

And shocking things like this:

The Espresso Parts' Mazzer Robur Competition Model: $3,564.00 

(That is only a grinder. You still need something to make the coffee.)


You may remember a post we made about Aya's Turkish coffee grinder. Some notable Japanese companies have been improving on that basic model and we recently bought one from Porlex.

Porlex Ceramic Coffee Mill

 Beautifully simple.

The deep grooves in the ceramic cone draw the beans in towards the relentless teeth.
Who can save them? No-one! This is their terrible fate.

Let's try with me!

The long handle transferred lots of power to the mechanism, making quick work of our test batch, and producing a consistent sand-like grind.

The four-pointed adjustment nut controls the fineness.

Not had enough yet? Here's a review of the Porlex, comparing it to others by Hario, at Sweet Maria's (another excellent coffee site).


Next time: can we please just have a cup of coffee now?

Turkish Coffee Grinder

Many years ago, Aya bought a brass coffee grinder in Istanbul. She only used it once and we have had it on the shelf for ages. After reading more about how important it is to have a proper grind for a good cup of coffee, we decided to give the thing a try.

In a nutshell, a consistent grind means the hot water acts on each grain more or less equally, drawing out ("extracting") just enough of the good stuff.
A consistent grind helps achieve a consistent extraction.

Our whirling-blade grinder gives a very inconsistent grind. Sometimes there are large bits, even whole beans, remaining while some grounds are too fine. We have also read that the blades can overheat the grounds, giving a burnt flavour.

The Turkish grinder is a beautiful thing; good heft and a lovely, warm colour.

Beans in the top.

Cap and handle on; first grind.

The first test was far too fine, since the grinder is naturally meant for Turkish coffee. These grounds may look big, but are actually clumps of extremely fine coffee powder. This would jam up our little stove-top pot.

There is a big nut at the bottom, so we gave this a turn and tried again.

Second grind.

After a few tests, turning the nut back and forth, we got a nice fineness.
The grind is very, very consistent.

The grounds are packed in and gently tamped down. If tamped down too hard, the grounds will expand as they get wet, jamming the flow of hot water and activating the pressure valve.

Screw on the top.

Onto the fire.

Mmm, coffeecoffeccoffeecoffeecoffeecoffee.

Foam from a jar of hot milk which has been shaken energetically.
More on this in another post some day.

A thing of beauty.

We have tasted this coffee a few times already, but this time it was very different. The flavour was deeper, richer and had a cocoa-like finish that carried on for a startlingly long time. There was no bitterness at the end of a sip. We wouldn't have guessed it was made from the same beans.

Pursuing the variables that go into making a good cup of coffee can be taken way too far. See, for example, some of the contributors to this very informative site. Having a proper grinder, however, now seems a necessity.

More From Our Trip To Japan In April, 2010

Sakai is a metal-working city, with a long history of manufacturing swords, guns, and, after the war, bicycles. We have some nice kitchen knives from Sakai which we bring back with us regularly to be sharpened by the people who made them.

This is how they make some kinds of knives; grinding forged steel blades one at a time on the big wheel. Keith got to try on a fresh blade (that could be fixed if he messed it up). The handles are very wobbly and it takes both force and concentration to get an even grind along the edge.



Aya's uncle sent us some madai (真鯛, or "red sea bream") he had caught near his home on Kyushu. They came in a special cooler-truck and the door-to-door delivery was about $25. Same-day delivery in Japan is just operating on a completely different level.

Bunches of fresh garlic in the local market.

Spring turning to summer; the sakura at the top of the hill in full bloom while the green bamboo grows lush below.