Can you make coffee with 5g of beans? What is the minimum number of grams of coffee beans used for hand-brewed coffee? What brewing plan should I use for less flour?

It may be used to make special coffee, or it may just want to taste the flavor of coffee nara ~ Occasionally, a friend will have the idea of "making a small cup of coffee with only a few coffee beans."

But if there is any actual operation, Qianjie believes that it will not be difficult for everyone to find out that it is obviously much more difficult to make a cup of coffee with a small amount of flour compared to making a large amount of flour. In the past two days, a friend has reported to Xiang Street that he tried to make coffee with only 5g of coffee beans, but no matter how hard he made the coffee, he couldn't taste good! Both the taste and taste are very different from coffee brewed with regular powder. The reason why coffee with less powder is so difficult to brew is mainly because the amount of powder is too small, which adds many unexpected difficulties to our brewing.

What are the difficulties in brewing with less flour? Qianjie mentioned in a previous article that different models of filter cups have their own most suitable powder amounts. For example, the V60 filter cup of model 01 will be more suitable for brewing 10 to 20g of coffee powder, while the model 02 will be 20 to 30g. This is not to say that they can't brew other amounts of powder, but when we use these amounts of powder to brew, it's easier to brew a delicious cup of coffee. Why?

The first is because this amount of powder can build a powder bed of just the right thickness in the filter cup! The thickness of the powder bed will affect the amount of coffee powder that hot water can contact. As the powder bed in the filter cup becomes thicker, the hot water will come into contact with more coffee powder as it seeps down. If other parameters remain unchanged, the same amount of water will dissolve different amounts of substances due to the different thickness of the powder bed. The thicker the powder bed, the more flavor substances will be dissolved when the hot water seeps down due to the more coffee powder it comes into contact with, and the higher the efficiency; the thinner the powder bed, the less the powder the hot water contacts when it seeps down. The amount of powder will be relatively small, and the amount of dissolved substances will naturally not be as much, and the efficiency will be relatively low. (5g powder on the left, 15g powder on the right)

A powder bed that is too thick or too thin will increase the difficulty of extraction, because a powder bed that is too thick can easily cause the hot water to come into contact with too much coffee powder and a cup of over-extracted coffee will be flushed out; a powder bed that is too thin can easily cause the hot water to come into contact with too little coffee powder and a cup of under-extracted coffee will be flushed out. Therefore, Qianjie mentioned the applicable powder amount of the filter cup earlier, which means that the powder amount can build a powder bed with the right thickness in the filter cup. When we use powder amounts outside these ranges to brew, the difficulty of making a cup of coffee will increase.

In addition to the thickness of the powder bed, the amount of water also determines the difficulty of brewing. When the more powder is used, the more water will be; conversely, the less powder, the less water will be. Under the premise that the water injection method remains unchanged, the amount of water will affect the extraction time. The more the amount of water, the longer the time it will take for water injection and seepage; the less the amount of water, the shorter the time it will take for water injection and seepage. The reason why many friends can't make a cup of delicious coffee with less powder is because the water is too small, which causes the water to be poured in in an instant. Then, because there is not enough extraction time, the coffee is under-extracted. Then add the powder bed problem mentioned earlier, and it will be more difficult to brew coffee with less powder.

But just because it is difficult to charge does not mean it cannot be charged! We can certainly use a small amount of powder like 5g to make a pot of delicious coffee as 15g powder. Because as long as we properly adjust the extraction parameters or change the water injection idea, we can brew a pot of coffee with the same extraction rate and concentration. (Or should I say a cup...) Water temperature, grinding, time, ratio, and water flow are the five main factors that determine the extraction efficiency of hand-brewed coffee. When coffee is under-extracted because the extraction efficiency of one of the factors is not up to standard, we only need to correct it by improving the extraction efficiency of other parameters, and we can make a cup of coffee with suitable taste and concentration.

To give a simple example here, we will first digitize the extraction efficiency of these factors, so that it can be more intuitive. Take water temperature and grinding for example. When we use water temperature of 92°C and grind it with fine sugar, we can make a cup of coffee with suitable extraction rate and concentration. Assuming that the extraction strengths provided by them are each "5", the sum of them is "10". Only by reaching the extraction strength of 10 can we make a good cup of coffee. But one day, due to our temporary negligence, we ground the coffee powder into coarse granulated sugar particles, resulting in the extraction strength provided by grinding being reduced to "3". If we want to use such particles to make a pot of equally delicious coffee, then we can choose to increase the water temperature during brewing to 94°C or 96°C, so that the extraction strength provided by the water temperature reaches "7". This way, the extraction strength provided by grinding is also "10", so naturally, the same delicious coffee can be made.

Although the actual operation will differ from this example for various reasons, the meaning is almost this. Okay, without saying much, let's share with Qianjie how to use 5g of powder to brew a delicious cup of coffee!

Brewing Share If friends often make small amounts of coffee, then the Front Street Conference recommends buying a V30 filter cup. Because the included angle of V30 is smaller, the same amount of powder can accumulate a thicker powder bed inside it. In addition to allowing water to extract more coffee powder, a thicker powder bed can also give the coffee a more layered feeling due to differences in extraction.

But since many friends only have one V60 or other filter cup in their hands, regular filter cups are still used for sharing this time. Then the coffee beans used in this Qianjie sharing are Qianjie Essi Huakui in the bean list. The parameters are as follows: Amount of powder used: 5g powder to water ratio: 1:15 Brewing water temperature: 92°C Grinding degree: 85% sieving rate of No. 20 sieve (When using 15g powder to brew, the sieving rate used on Front Street is 75%) Use filter cup: V60

As you can see, Qianjie has only adjusted the degree of grinding, and other parameters are the same as when brewing 15g. Why? Because Qianjie will use multi-stage water injection to lengthen the time to 2 minutes, the problem of too little water and too short the time can be avoided. However, because the amount of water allocated to each section has been reduced, it is impossible to increase the extraction rate by disturbing the powder bed, so fine grinding is used to make up for the extraction efficiency without lack of stirring. So first of all, we still use twice the amount of water (10ml) to moisten the coffee powder and steam it for 30 seconds. Since the amount of water used is small (10ml), we need to reduce the flow of water to slow ~ slow ~ it ~

After steaming, we divided the remaining 65ml of hot water into 3 to 4 stages and injected it. Each section is filled with water with a small water flow, and the injection can stop until the water level is about to pass the powder bed. Then wait for the hot water to completely penetrate through the filter cup before injecting it into the next section.

When the target water is all injected, we just need to wait for the coffee liquid to be completely dripped before removing the filter cup and ending the extraction. (Pour it out just enough for one cup)

The total time was 2 minutes and 05 seconds, which was the same as when boiling 15g of powder, and the taste was also the same! This cup of coffee brewed with 5g powder not only has a very balanced taste, but also has a very outstanding flavor. The aroma of strawberry, citrus, cream, oolong tea, etc. is well expressed. Then there was no negative smell during the entire process.

To be conservative, Qianjie also measured the extraction rate of coffee through a concentration meter. The final concentration meter showed a concentration of 1.59%, and the extraction rate was 21.90%, all just right. So to sum up, we can know that as long as the parameters and methods are used properly, even 5g of powder can make a delicious cup of coffee. The brewing method of 6g and 7g beans shared before Qianjie is the same. It's very simple, you can try it yourself ~

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Qianjie Cafe

No. 10 Baoan Front Street, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province