What are the characteristics of V60 and kono filter cups? An advanced way to make coffee by hand! How to make coffee with rich layers?

As we all know, the concept of "golden cup extraction" expresses that coffee will have a "wide audience" extraction range, when we control the extraction rate and concentration in this range, then this cup of coffee will be liked by the vast majority of people. For a simple example, take the extraction rate, for example, a coffee bean will have 30% soluble matter, while the gold cup extraction believes that the extraction rate of good coffee is 18% to 22%. In other words, if we flush out 2/3 of the 30% of the coffee beans, then this cup of coffee will be acceptable to most people. Less will make the coffee extract insufficient, and more will make the coffee bitter, miscellaneous, astringent and so on.

Put this on the extraction of a coffee, that is, we need to control the extraction rate of this coffee powder at about 20%. But did you know that even two cups of coffee with the same extraction rate will produce two very different performances under different brewing? One cup is more sour and less bitter, with rich layers, while the other has a balanced taste and mellow taste. So the question is: why is there such a difference?

In fact, it is very simple, because the extraction rate of these two cups of coffee is calculated according to the "average"! It is easy for us to take out 20% of the soluble matter in a coffee bean because there is only one object and it is highly controllable. If it is a 15g coffee bean, we are faced with hundreds of coffee beans, coupled with these coffee beans will be ground into countless small coffee powder, so the calculation is very difficult and unnecessary. Therefore, our way of measuring is to follow the "average". And this is the key point that leads to the difference in coffee performance.

The average value means that the coffee powder may have been evenly extracted, dissolving the same amount of substance, and it also means that different coffee powder dissolves different substances because of the different extraction efficiency. Therefore, even if two cups of coffee with the same extraction rate, they will produce different performance due to the different degree of extraction of coffee powder. In other words, as long as we can understand this, we are free to control the performance of a cup of coffee. For example, the taste is balanced and or is rich in layers.

It is often said in the front street that soluble substances in coffee will dissolve at different rates depending on the size of the molecule. Although they are all released at the same time after contact with water, the amount of release varies. First there is a lot of acid, then bitterness, and the taste checks and balances each other. So, if we want to make a cup of coffee with a balanced taste and a mellow taste, we just need to make sure that most of the coffee powder receives the same extraction rate, or that the bitterness in the coffee can be balanced with the sour taste. If you want to make a rich cup of coffee, you need to make differences in the substances dissolved between the coffee powder as much as possible, so that the sweet, sour and bitter tastes will not tend to be balanced. Coffee can have more layering (refers to the taste rather than the level of temperature change).

Although it looks complicated, it is actually not difficult to operate. So Qianjie skips the complicated theory here and directly shares how to put it into practice.

First, the retention of fine powder, even if the best quality bean grinder, the ground coffee powder will always carry a certain amount of fine powder. Because the grinding of coffee beans is not absolutely uniform, there are both large and small grains, the gap is about as follows. (the picture below shows 15g coffee powder ground by Ek4310 scale)

The smallest particle on the far right of the picture is the fine powder, which is the coffee powder whose particle value is less than 0.3mm, and its existence can break the uniformity of coffee extraction. Because of its small particle size, it will be dissolved out of all substances by hot water very quickly, in other words, it is easier to be extracted. Therefore, when a coffee powder contains the right amount of fine powder, coffee is more likely to flush out a rich sense of hierarchy. If we sift out the fine powder and extract it only with coffee powder of the same size, then the hierarchical sense of coffee tends to be balanced.

Second, the contact time of powder and water the premise of the above comparison is that in the process of cooking, all powder and water contact time is the same. In the actual hand brewing process, the contact time between all coffee powder and water is not the same, because hand coffee is trickling extraction rather than soaking (extraction of powder in water like tea). Therefore, this can also be a key factor in adjusting coffee performance.

We all know that the coffee brewed with the V60 filter cup is more layered, and the coffee brewed from the Kono filter cup will be more balanced. This is why the structure of the filter cup affects the flow velocity, thus changing the contact time between powder and water. The V60 filter cup has faster flow rate and more gaps, so the degree of extraction of coffee powder in different positions is different, while Kono has more time for coffee powder to touch and extract with water because of its slower flow rate and fewer gaps, so the taste of coffee will be more balanced. The performance difference between the conical filter cup and the flat-bottomed filter cup is the same.

Third, the way of water injection, and in addition to these reasons, the way of water injection will also affect the performance of coffee. As we often say, a large flow of water raises the powder bed, or a small current moves around slowly, all by changing the amount and time of coffee powder that the water comes into contact with to change the final performance of a cup of coffee.

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