Basics of Making Coffee by Hand (1) Posture

Among the many methods of making coffee, hand brewing can not only give full play to the rich and fresh aroma of coffee in taste, maintain the pure taste and rich and soft taste of coffee, and maximize the personality of coffee, but also has the advantages of easy operation, easy to learn and easy to make. The appliance is easy to manage and so on. But this does not mean that hand-brewing coffee is to brew coffee at will without any foundation, nor does it mean that a good cup of coffee can be brewed in any way.

Hand-brewing coffee seems simple, but in fact, in the brewing process, there are certain requirements for brewing mode, water temperature, extraction time and extraction quantity. From a small point of view, the steaming time, the thickness and flow rate of brewing water, the interval time of each water injection and so on will have a subtle impact on the taste of coffee, among many factors that affect the taste of hand-brewed coffee. A change in any small factor will change the taste of the final coffee. There is no standard for the taste of hand-brewed coffee, but the basic requirement of a good hand-brewed coffee is to have fresh aroma, pure taste, no miscellaneous astringency, acidity, bitterness, sweetness and other rich taste and achieve a balanced harmony. after drinking, the aftertaste of the coffee is obvious and clean.

In the past few years, in the process of coffee training in Xiumen, students have also encountered all kinds of problems in the learning process of hand-brewing coffee. I would like to sum up these problems and summarize some basic operational norms according to personal experience and understanding. I hope it can be helpful to those who are beginners in hand-brewing coffee.

(1) posture

Hand-brewing coffee can be said to be a kung fu job, which can be fully reflected in the control of brewing water. Good brewing should keep the water flow fine and uniform, soft and stable, on the basis of maintaining the stability of the coffee powder layer in the brewing process, maximize the extraction of good flavor components to avoid the extraction of bad flavor components. In that case, the most basic thing to maintain a stable flow is to have a good posture, so that you can operate the hand pot more stably and achieve the stability of the current and the stability of brewing.

There is no standard posture in the operation of hand-brewed coffee, according to personal physical conditions, operating habits, bar and operating equipment differences will be different, but the basic operating principle is to maintain a stable, comfortable, easy to operate and beautiful and generous posture.

First of all, keep a good posture. You can maintain an upright posture with your feet about 10 centimeters open, or you can keep your legs together at a 60-degree angle. In addition to standing upright, the legs can also be separated back and forth, with the center of gravity on the front leg to keep stable, and the back leg to help keep the body's center of gravity stable. In short, according to personal physical conditions and habits, it is basic to adjust a stable and comfortable posture before operation.

Secondly, hold the pot with your hand. Here, we should pay attention to keep the water in the hand flushing pot nine percent full, so that it is easy to control the flow. For beginners, the hand punch pot has a certain weight, and the stainless steel handle is easy to slip and unstable, so it is also very important to find a more suitable position to firmly manipulate the hand punch pot according to your own operating habits. it is recommended to hold the upper part of the handle in the position of "lifting the pot" rather than in the position of "lifting the pot". In addition, we should pay attention to the thumb not leaning against the pot wall so as not to burn.

Third, the distance between the pot and the body. During the operation, the body and the bar should maintain a certain distance to ensure that there is sufficient room for movement, but not too far away, about 10 centimeters or so, depending on the individual's situation, and the filter pot is generally placed at a distance of about 10 centimeters from the body at the bar. Too close or too far can not operate freely.

Fourth, keep your eyes on the water flow and the angle of coffee powder. When injecting water with your head down, make sure that the filter and coffee powder are under the vertical control of your eyes, rather than squint at the current or coffee powder.

Fifth, the way of holding the pot when injecting water. Hold the pot by hand, but be careful not to use your fingers or wrists, nor with your forearms. Bring the big arms close to the body and use the strength of the big arms to support the pot to rotate. In the whole process, the forearms and wrists only play a supporting and communicating role. Do not use wrists to support the kettle body, not only the current is easy to tremble, long hours of work will also cause sprain.

In short, the posture of making hand-brewed coffee is not standard, because of the person, because of the height of the bar, because of the size of the hand-flushing pot, it should be adjusted according to specific conditions, as long as it is stable, relaxed and easy to control. and in the preliminary practice of water injection must lay a solid foundation, as far as possible to keep the flow vertical, slender, slow and uniform stable operation.