Coffee review

What is the three-hand tempering method? How to make espresso quickly? What are the tips for making espresso parameters?

Published: 2025-11-11 Author:
Last Updated: 2025/11/11, As we all know! The state of coffee beans and weather are constantly changing every day, which will directly affect the extraction of espresso and make the taste of coffee different every day due to these changes. If we want coffee to maintain the same taste, we have to adjust parameters to correct the taste of coffee. And this is

As we all know! The state of coffee beans and weather are constantly changing every day, which will directly affect the extraction of espresso and make the taste of coffee different every day due to these changes. If we want coffee to maintain the same taste, we have to adjust parameters to correct the taste of coffee. And this is a required lesson for baristas who work morning shifts every day-adjusting the flavor of concentration.

However, blending concentration is not a pleasing task for most baristas, especially those who have just started the business for a long time, because most of the package of coffee beans may be wasted if you are accidentally blended. There are even times when the taste of the coffee is not adjusted well, and I get poisoned (vomiting) after drinking it, and complain repeatedly. So, are there any methods or techniques that can help us quickly adjust the concentrate without wasting more than half of the bag of coffee beans or time adjusting the concentrate?

Of course there is! Most of the time, we actually have the skills to quickly find the parameters corresponding to espresso and create a satisfactory taste in just a few clicks. The method is also very simple. We only need to "drink" to find out the problem of espresso coffee, and then prescribe the right medicine to make espresso coffee in a short time, achieving the so-called three blending processes, or even less.

What is the problem with espresso? Qianjie mentioned earlier that the reason why we want to adjust the concentration is because its taste will change due to its own condition and weather, and it will become less delicious than the previous day, so we have to adjust it. Then the question we need to find is where it tastes worse than the day before. Once we know why it tastes worse, we can know how to adjust it!

With the same ratio, there are only two reasons why coffee is not good: insufficient extraction and excessive extraction. Their corresponding manifestations on coffee are: sour, thin/bitter in taste, and highly mixed. Insufficient extraction means that we have not extracted enough substances from coffee powder, and there are not enough sweet and bitter substances to balance the sour taste, so the taste of coffee will be mainly sour and sharp. Then, because there is not enough substance, the concentration of the coffee is reduced and the taste becomes a little thin; excessive extraction refers to the dissolution of too much substance from the coffee powder, such as the dissolution of a large amount of bitter and miscellaneous substances, which leads to the fact that the coffee is too bitter and then has a heavy feeling.

Then when we taste any negative situation from espresso, we only need to prescribe the right medicine to easily correct the taste of the coffee! For example, if the problem shown by coffee is insufficient extraction, then we can increase the extraction rate of coffee by increasing the efficiency of extraction; if it is excessive extraction, we can prevent excessive bitter and miscellaneous substances by reducing the efficiency of extraction. Dissolve it~Of course, that is, but it is still difficult to adjust it in practice. Like many friends, when debugging, there is often either no change or an extreme and large change, from insufficient extraction directly to excessive extraction. So next, Qianjie will come to share how we can quickly make a cup of concentrate.

How to mix a cup of concentrate? Before debugging concentration, we need to first set a general extraction formula, and then adjust the coffee parameters based on this formula. The purpose is very simple, that is, to establish a reasonable benchmark range in advance, so that the waste of resources caused by blind adjustment can be effectively avoided. Take Qianjie as an example. Qianjie will use a "powder-to-liquid ratio of 1:2" and a "30-second extraction time" when adjusting espresso. That is, if 20 g of powder is used, the liquid weight needs to fall to about 40 ml, and then the extraction time needs to be about 30 seconds. (These parameters are not fixed and can fluctuate slightly)

This time of about 30 seconds can ensure the extraction rate of the concentrated coffee to a certain extent, so that the espresso coffee produced will not be too far away from being good to drink. At the same time, this ratio allows espresso coffee to enjoy a certain concentration and can be used as a base to make various fragrant and delicious fancy coffees. Front street concentration is to first adjust the parameters to the range set by the formula, and then make subtle adjustments based on the taste of the coffee. This is the secret of the three tempering and grinding methods! Powder quantity, grinding, and liquid weight are the three variables that we need to control when extracting and concentrating. But because both of them will be restricted, for example, the powder bowl used will limit the amount of powder you use, and the concentration will limit your proportion, the main object of our adjustment is grinding. Of course, Qianjie does not mean that the powder amount and liquid weight cannot be adjusted, but the range of adjustment they can be adjusted is relatively small and is more suitable for changing when fine adjustments are needed.

The thickness of coffee grind is related to the extraction rate and time. While other parameters remain unchanged, the finer the coffee powder is ground, the longer the extraction time and higher the extraction rate will be; the coarser the ground, the shorter the extraction time and lower the extraction rate. Combining the above two points, Qianjie believes that everyone should know how to quickly make a cup of espresso! Here is also an example of Qianjie. The coffee beans used in Qianjie Italian style are classic combinations of Qianjie in the bean list. The perfectly concentrated expression extracted from them should have just the right high concentration, balanced taste, and outstanding butter cookie, chocolate, and caramel flavor.

When adjusting it, Qianjie will first extract a cup of concentration according to the golden ratio of 1:2 to initially measure whether the grinding degree is appropriate. Because the degree of grinding is related to the extraction time, the criterion for measurement is not only taste, but also time. It is easy to understand, which is to see if the extraction time can reach the 30-second range (± 3 seconds) set by us when the powder amount and liquid weight are fixed. If you can, it means that there is no problem with a high probability of grinding. Next, you only need to make subtle adjustments to the amount of powder or liquid weight according to whether the taste is appropriate! But if it is far beyond this range, then we need to judge whether to adjust the grinding based on the taste.

The amount of powder used here in Qianjie was 20 g, the weight of the extracted liquid was 40 ml, and the extraction time was 23 seconds, which greatly deviated from the set target. The taste performance is also like the insufficiently extracted coffee described by Qianjie, with a sharp and sour taste and a thin taste. Therefore, after tasting this cup of concentrated water, Qianjie adjusted the grinding scale of the two-bay bean grinder. (You need to taste it first, in case the coffee extracted with this parameter tastes good~) Because the extraction of espresso is extreme, every time the grinding is fine, the extraction time will be 3~4 seconds increase while other parameters remain unchanged. After adjusting and grinding, the same liquid weight was extracted from the front street with the same amount of powder. At this time, the extraction time reached 31 seconds, which was within the set formula time range. The taste of coffee is not much different from the concentrated performance under ideal conditions that Qianjie believes is. The taste is balanced and the flavor is outstanding, except that there is a little bitterness at the end.

So in this case, if the coffee is a little over-extracted, we don't need to go to great lengths to adjust the grinding. We just need to reduce the liquid weight by 1 - 2 ml, or reduce the powder by 0.2 - 0.3 g, we can reduce the extraction rate of the coffee and get a cup of relatively perfect espresso! The above is the idea of the three blending and grinding methods. You can refer to it, and then you can pick out a cup of delicious espresso more easily and quickly in the actual extraction. Finally: The coffee bean spike event on Qianjie is about to start, everyone can pay attention to the time~

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