Introduction to the skill of how to practice the size and height of water injection around the circle of hand-brewed coffee

The water flow is intermittent, sometimes large and sometimes small, the water flow is not vertical, the circle is not round enough, and the water breaks through the powder wall. Have you ever been worried about these water control problems when you flush your hands at home?

Obviously, the brewing parameters and water injection strategy are set in advance, but once the timing starts, the hands seem to become "out of control", the water is always erratic, and in the end, the taste of the coffee can only be "resigned to fate." From Qianjie's point of view, instead of reflecting on his mistakes afterwards, he should first practice the basic skills of water control.

When the hand is flushing, why should the current be steady?

The so-called "stable" requires us to achieve uniform flow, can accurately control the size and strength of the flow, and the speed of the circle, and can flow smoothly, cut off the water neatly.

Only when the water is controlled steadily, the coffee powder can be extracted evenly, the actual parameters can be closer to the original brewing plan, and the taste of coffee can be closer to the ideal state. Especially for beginners, adequate water control training can help improve the feeling of getting out of water and breaking water, and it can be applied to all kinds of advanced cooking schemes at will.

Choose a handy hand flushing pot and adjust the water injection position.

There are many styles of handmade pots on the market, most of which are "gooseneck + olecranon". This design allows us to better control the thickness of the water flow. When buying a hand pot, the weight of the kettle should not be too heavy / light (about 300-500g). It is recommended to buy the size of 600ml capacity in Qianjie, so that when adding water to 6: 7 minutes, it will not cause unstable water flow or muscle soreness due to overweight.

During practice, Qianjie will keep the same amount of water, using the position of holding the pot with the right hand, spreading the arm and holding the pot slightly down parallel to the shoulder. If the arm is too saggy, the point of strength concentrated on the wrist will not make the strength, it is easy to cause muscle soreness and then start to shake hands. Holding the pot with one hand may be unstable at the beginning of the practice. You can use your left hand to "pinch" the lid and keep the strength of the water injection steady.

Water injection training, what do you want to practice?

1. Keep the current vertical

Although the gooseneck design can better control the flow, but sometimes the water in the kettle is too full, or tilt a little more, the water will float outward, forming a certain arc of parabola. When the water column is curved, it is very easy to break through the powder wall on the edge of the filter cup, and the coffee may be watery and thin. If the flow appears at a slightly larger angle, it is easy to form turbulence inside the powder layer and interfere with the extraction. Therefore, to control the vertical flow is the first step to practice the basic skills.

If you always form a parabola floating out of your coffee, and the flavor is insipid, Qianjie suggests practicing a fixed-point vertical flow first. You can find a water container with a small inlet (such as a straw) to keep the water column falling vertically.

two。 The size of the current

How much water is used for water injection is the most entangled problem for many beginners. The size of the water flow generally affects the extraction time and the tumbling degree of the powder layer, thus changing the flavor of the coffee. The use of large or small water flow mainly depends on the changes of the powder layer and your own cooking habits. Affected by the size of the spout, the intensity of water injection and other factors, everyone's specific values of small flow and large flow are not the same.

When practicing the size of the current, taking a moderate balance point can make us get started more quickly. As a reference, the flow of coffee in front of the street is generally controlled at 5~7ml/s. First of all, you need an electronic scale to measure. After putting a container on it, inject water with the usual method of water injection, time for 10 seconds, and divide the total amount of water injection by 10 to get the flow rate. )

3. The height of the current

The higher the water column, the stronger the penetration, the stronger the strength of scouring the coffee powder layer, and the higher the extraction efficiency. In contrast, the lower the contact level of the water column, the softer the penetration, and the tumbling effect of the coffee powder layer is not so obvious. Therefore, if you want to flush out the flavor of coffee and be sure to be stable, the height of the current also needs to find a compromise reference value. Baristas in front street usually control their height at 3-5cm when injecting water.

4. Circle water injection

In addition to the details of size and height, circling is also a headache for many people when injecting water. When you find that the coffee powder wall is thin on one side and thick on the other after brewing, it is most likely due to poor water injection in circles. Circular water injection requires us to do two things: first, the flow line is round enough. If the water injection circle is not round, it can easily lead to the uneven thickness of the powder bed, and finally the coffee will show uneven extraction. The second is to circle in the same direction. If the circle is clockwise, then the whole water injection process should be injected in a clockwise direction.

During the water injection exercise, Qianjie suggests that it should be injected from the center, and then circle outward like the path of "smell incense". When you reach the maximum circle, slowly circle and contract toward the center until you get back to the center point.

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