How to Brew Coffee as a Connoisseur
Being Consistent
Learning and understanding the taste of coffee is all about consistency.
Consistency in your proper brewing techniques will mean that differences you find from coffee to coffee will actually be the uniqueness of coffee and not any problem with your brewing.
This is the key to enjoying really great coffee and discovering the great tastes that are possible.
The most important thing you can do for consistency in your brewing is to use proper brewing ratios.
What is a brew ratio you ask?
That is the ratio of water to ground coffee used in the brew, as measured by grams.
To keep a consistent ratio, it’s also necessary that you brew by weight instead of volume.
Once you start doing this, brewing becomes incredibly simple.
A standard brewing ratio to begin any brew method with is 16:1 – that is, 16 grams of water for every gram of coffee.
Just remember that – 16:1
And that amount of water is how much you are brewing with – how much water is going to be put over the grounds (or into the French Press if you are following along with that method).
That last point is also why brewing by weight, on top of a scale, makes things so much easier.
If you try to weigh your coffee beforehand, everything changes as you heat things up (mostly, you’ll lose water as the coffee heats, so it becomes very hard to know how much you are actually brewing with unless you measure while brewing).
Here’s the practical example.
Let's say you want to brew a full 800 ML in a French Press.
800 ML of water is approximately 800 grams of water (it’s not 100% precise, but that hack works well enough).
800/16 = 50 = how many grams of coffee you will put in your French Press.
It’s that simple.
Now if you do this every time, you’ll be able to resolve issues surrounding the taste of your coffee.
Is it too bitter? Use a coarser grind.
Is it too sour? Use a finer grind.
(I'll get into more detailed troubleshooting of your brews in a later segment)
Then you can start playing around with the ratio as well – maybe you’ll enjoy 15:1 more, or 17:1.
They all create slightly different experiences but allow you to tailor your brewing to how you enjoy the taste.
But none of this is possible if you aren’t consistent.
In the next segment, I'll get into the critical importance of the water you use while you brew, and why this matters to your brewing consistency and for you to be able to taste all that coffee has to offer.