Tag · 6 articles
Brewing Guides
Water just off the boil, 92–96 °C, suits most filter coffee. But a UC Davis study found that once strength and extraction are matched, brewing at 87, 90 or 93 °C tastes the same — temperature mostly changes how fast you extract.
4 min read
Espresso
Fix the dose, weigh the shot, adjust the grind, then taste. A dialing-in method that converges in a few shots instead of a bag of coffee — and how to tell a grind problem from a puck problem.
6 min read
Brewing Guides
Water is 98% of your coffee and it is not a neutral solvent — dissolved magnesium and calcium actively pull flavour out of the grounds. Here are the targets, the chemistry, and what to do about your tap.
5 min read
Brewing Guides
Sour means under-extracted, bitter usually means over-extracted — but not always. Here is how to tell a brewing fault from a roasting one, and why caffeine is only about 15% of the bitterness.
6 min read
Brewing Guides
Grind size is the main control you have over extraction. Here is the physics behind it, approximate micron ranges by method, and why your grinder number means nothing on anyone else’s grinder.
6 min read
Brewing Guides
Filter coffee wants 55–60 g of coffee per litre of water. Here is where that range came from, the arithmetic that tells you whether you hit it, and why the 2023 research says there is no single correct number.
9 min read