S2: Episode 2: How Do You Brew Your Coffee?
Did you know that the flavour of your coffee is influenced by the way that you brew it and especially the brewer that you use? Perhaps more mind blowing is that despite the many and various types of brewing kit available on the market there are actually only two basic methods of brewing coffee. This episode takes a look at the range of coffee brewing kit out there and how your choice of brewer may be affecting your coffee experience. This week’s FACQ tackles the question of the best way to brew coffee - and the answer may surprise you.
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Immersion (the grounds are submerged in water)
Cafetiere, (also called a plunger or French press)
Cold brewers (e.g. the Toddy brewer)
Ibrik or cezve (also called Turkish coffee)
Percolation (water passes throughout the grounds)
Filter cone (also called drip or pour-over: V60, Kalita Wave and Chemex)
Stovetop espresso brewer (also called moka pot or Bialetti)
Espresso machines, including coffee pod machines
Hybrid brewers (these use immersion to extract the coffee then pass the liquid through a filter)
Aeropress
Clever dripper and Hario Switch brewer (basically the same thing but different brands)
Vacuum brewers (e.g. Siphon or Cona)
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Hello and welcome to The Coffee Drinker’s Guide, a podcast for the coffee curious where I explore and explain the world of specialty coffee to make your daily coffee better and more satisfying.
I’m Angela Holder a coffee roaster and writer on a mission to fight back against bad coffee by giving you the knowledge you need to help you get good coffee and a happier (coffee) life in coffee-break sized episodes. So grab your coffee, pull up a chair and take a break…
This week we are exploring the many and various forms of coffee brewing equipment and crucially how they can influence your coffee’s flavour…and later I’ll be answering a question about which one, if any, is the best way to brew coffee so stay tuned for that…
Ok so fess up - how many different types of coffee brewing equipment do you have in your cupboard? I’m willing to bet that whether they’re into coffee or not, the vast majority of households in the UK, and possibly wherever you are listening, have a cafetière lurking forlornly at the back of a cupboard…I know I do and I never use it. It is all too easy to accumulate brewing kit in your search for the ever elusive perfect coffee. And it doesn’t help that shiny new brewing systems seem to come to market all the time, each one promising a better result - while needing less effort or skill - than the last one. But setting aside instant coffee, fundamentally there are actually only two ways to brew coffee. The first is by immersing the coffee grounds completely in water and the second is by passing water through the grounds. Despite the obvious simplicity of both of these methods, the apparently never-ending and ever expanding variety of brewing apparatus available to help you do something so apparently simple as making a coffee is quite staggering. So many ways to brew, so little time..!
Firstly coffee kit and the brew
Since brewers often go by different names for what is essentially the same type of equipment things can get confusing. I’ll quickly go through the most common brewers by their brewing method and you’ll see what I mean. So in the immersion brewing camp there is the cafetiere, which is also known as a plunger or French press; cold brewers such as the Toddy brewer, and the ibrik or cezve which is sometimes known as Turkish coffee. In the other brewing camp where water is passed through the grounds there is the filter cone which is also called drip or pour-over with variants being the V60, Kalita Wave and Chemex; the stovetop espresso brewer is also known as a moka pot or Bialetti; and finally espresso machines, including coffee pod machines, work by passing water under pressure through the grounds. To make things more complicated there are also hybrid brewers that have feet in both camps. The Aeropress, the Clever dripper, the Hario Switch brewer and vacuum brewers such as the Siphon or Cona all use immersion to extract the coffee then pass the liquid through a filter to remove the grounds as part of the brewing process. All of the brewers I’ve mentioned brew coffee at different rates which can be as fast as 20-30 seconds for an espresso shot to 12-24 hours for cold brew. As mentioned at the start, many of these brewers influence or modify the flavour of the coffee they brew so lets take a look at that…
Next coffee kit and the taste
Every piece of brewing equipment I’ve mentioned can produce a great tasting coffee. Likewise they can produce terrible coffee in the hands of the inexperienced, as most of them require some technical brewing skills on the part of the user. Another - and important - thing to note is that each one can make exactly the same coffee taste different. Brewing speed, grind size and the amount of fine particles left in the brew vary according to the brewer you use and have a knock on effect on the flavour of the coffee. This can be experienced both as differences in the mouthfeel which is the weight, thickness and texture of the coffee liquid in the mouth and in the emphasis on different aspects of bitterness, sweetness or fruit in the coffee by different brewers. For example, a light roast or very fruity coffee may taste aggressively intense and sour when brewed by an espresso machine, but may taste bright, sweet and pleasant when brewed by the filter method. Whether a coffee tastes good or bad through a particular method is down to a mix of technique, the influence of the brewing apparatus and method on the extraction, and personal flavour preference. So if you like extreme sourness in your espresso and know your way around an espresso machine, by all means reach for that lightly roasted fruity bean!
Finally coffee kit and the bean
So this begs the question: do certain coffees suit certain brew methods? While the easy thing would be to say “always use this coffee with that brewer", it doesn't quite work that way as there are always exceptions to coffee rules! But broadly speaking, the faster the brewing method the more potential there is for the coffee to be under-extracted which emphasises fruity and sour flavours; while longer brewing methods can produce more body and sweetness, but also risks over-extraction which increases bitterness. To reduce the risk of poor extraction either way you can buy coffees with qualities that lessen the potentially negative effects of the brewer you use. For espresso that means medium to dark roasts and coffees low in fruit. For cafetiere, medium roasts and coffees that have a low or moderate amount of fruit work well. For filter brewing any coffee should be great, but it especially suits light roasts and complex, highly fruity coffees. If you are unsure what to go for, using a blend that has been designed for a specific brewing method can be a good starting point. Then if you want to break out into a single origin coffee, check the constituents of the blend listed on the packet and pick one of those to try out. A key thing to remember is that no brewer will magically make poor quality coffee beans taste amazing. So no matter how good or or how expensive your brewer is, your brew will only taste as good as the beans you put through it. Word to the wise.
And now its time for a Frequently Asked Coffee Question…
And this episode’s question is…
So what is the best way to brew coffee?
Every piece of coffee brewing equipment I’ve talked about in this episode has its pros and cons in terms of its ease of use or influence on the brewed coffee flavour. Because of this, there really is no 'best' method, apparatus or machine for brewing as what suits one person may not suit the next. It depends on how much effort you want to put into acquiring the skills to use a particular brewer, how much cleaning up you are happy to do afterwards and of course on what style of coffee you like. But in general: vacuum, Siphon or Cona brewers arguably produce the purest and cleanest flavour, the Aeropress is the most adaptable to different drink styles, pour-over or filter is the easiest to clean up after, cold brewers need no technical brewing skills whatsoever and an espresso machine requires the most faffing about to get a good result! If you want to know more about the different types of brewing equipment, I am planning to explore individual brewers in future episodes, starting with the cafetière. Be sure to hit follow so that you don’t miss these episodes when they drop.
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coffee Drinker’s Guide and that was all about coffee brewing kit. I hope that you have a better understanding of the various ways to brew coffee now. If there’s a particular brewer you’d be interested to hear more about, send me a text message via the link in the show notes and let me know. In the next episode we explore the influence of the coffee itself on the flavour in your cup with a deep dive into the mainstay coffee species of the specialty coffee world, Arabica. Be sure to hit follow so that you don’t miss it. Also tell a coffee friend about the show and rate and review this podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts to help other coffee curious people find the show too. If you have a question about coffee or a topic that you would like me to cover please get in touch. I’m on Instagram @thecoffeedrinkersguide or email me at thecoffeedrinkersguide@gmail.com. Thanks to my executive producer Viel Richardson at Lusona Publishing and Media Limited. You can find him at lusonapub.co.uk. Until next time I’m Angela Holder thanks for sharing your coffee break with me - the best way to tackle life is one coffee at a time and here’s to better coffee!
The Coffee Drinker’s Guide is a Blue Sky Coffee Project.