How does novice Xiaobai quickly get started and make coffee? Newbies learn to make coffee by hand and share the specific steps and process process!

The day before yesterday, Qianjie shared with you the equipment you need to prepare for getting started with hand-brewed coffee. So today, Qianjie will come back to share with you another issue that everyone Xiaobai friends are concerned about after starting the equipment: how to quickly identify problems and make progress ~

To be reasonable, learning to make coffee by hand is really not as difficult as everyone thinks. Although Qianjie usually shares many insignificant details, the main impact on brewing is the parameters used during extraction: Grinding, water temperature, ratio, and time. As long as we can grasp these four parameters, it is really a matter of cake to make a good cup of coffee. To know whether the parameters we use are correct, in addition to being familiar with the underlying logic of extraction, it is more important to first understand "how to taste a cup of coffee."

Quick hand-brewed coffee tip 1: Learning how to taste a cup of coffee is still different from drinking coffee. Drinking coffee focuses on the taste of coffee or its function, while tasting coffee means that we need to be more Invest in experiencing this cup of coffee more comprehensively, not only its taste, but also its taste, aroma, aftertaste, touch, and layer changes. Simply put, we need to know how to judge whether a cup of coffee is good or not, and then how the coffee in this region is different from the coffee in other regions, such as the difference in flavor or taste.

There are two tips that can help us quickly master this skill. The first one is "drink too much" that is often mentioned on Qianjie, because only by drinking too much can we master and familiarize ourselves with the basic flavor of a producing area/beans/processed/good coffee; the second one is "drinking by contrast". What does it mean? That is, we can compare two coffees from different origins/treatments/varieties, brew them at the same time and drink them alternately.

Compared with drinking alone, comparison makes it easier for us to understand the differences between different coffees and their own characteristics. Many details that cannot be captured by drinking alone will become more obvious under comparison. Examples include sun and water washing, Ethiopia and Mantelin, rose summer and kadura, and of course, it can also be under-extracted coffee and normally extracted coffee. But whether we drink more or compare it to it, we need to drink the right coffee. Because as Qian Jie said, we need to know what a cup of coffee looks like under normal conditions, so that we can quickly identify its shortcomings and make adjustments and corrections in a timely manner. Then, if we have not learned how to brew a cup of coffee, if we want to drink a cup of coffee that is properly extracted and in normal condition, in addition to going to some reliable coffee shops to place an order, we can also achieve this through cup testing. purpose.

The cup test uses immersion extraction. We only need to mix a suitable amount of coffee powder and hot water in a bowl and wait for a while to enjoy the delicious coffee with normal extraction. Because it is an immersion extraction, the extraction will not be troubled by the freshness of the coffee beans, nor will it worry about over-extraction. In most cases, cup testing can really help us better understand a cup of coffee. Therefore, Qianjie Association recommends that when you are not very good at making a cup of coffee, or are not familiar with the properties of a bean and what extraction parameters are used to use, first use cup testing to get the flavor. The specific process of cup testing is in "Cup Testing", Qianjie shared it in detail in the article "Cup Testing", and interested friends can understand it for themselves.

Quick Start Hand-Making Coffee Tip 2: Recording For Xiaobai friends who have just started, Qianjie believes that recording is really important. There are many things we need to record, such as information about brewed coffee beans (origin, processing, variety, degree of roasting, baking date), parameters used during brewing (grinding, water temperature, ratio, time), and the final coffee performance (aroma, flavor, taste, taste). By recording these contents, we can review our own operations and the taste of coffee after brewing, and gain an in-depth understanding of the freshness of coffee beans and the impact of each parameter on coffee extraction during brewing.

How to use records to gain an in-depth understanding of the impact of parameters on extraction? It's simple, you can try using multiple different parameters to brew the same coffee, and then compare the differences between them. However, it should be noted that there are many variables that affect coffee extraction, such as water temperature, grinding, ratio, time, and water injection. When adjusting the brewing parameters, it is best to limit only one of the variables to change, and then the rest The parameters are all fixed. Here, Qianjie takes a simple example. When Qianjie cooked Qianjie Essi Huakui in the bean list for the first time, the amount of powder used was 15g, and the degree of grinding was the 10th scale of Ek43 (75%~80% sieving rate of No. 20 sieve, fine granulated sugar particles), the water temperature was 92°C, the ratio of powder to water was 1:15, the extraction time was controlled at 2 minutes, and the three-stage brewing was carried out.

The flower essence boiled with this parameter has the flavors of strawberry, berry and cream. It tastes sweet and sour, has a light taste and a long finish. Then if we want to understand the impact of a certain parameter on coffee extraction, then we can then brew another pot of flowers, but adjust the parameter you want to know in the original extraction formula. For example, if you want to know the impact of grinding on coffee, then you can adjust the grinding to a coarse or fine degree; if you want to know the impact of water temperature on coffee, then increase or lower the water temperature, and then all other parameters are fixed to brew the flower, so that you can intuitively feel what changes in this parameter will bring to the coffee.

If we make great efforts to change all the parameters according to our feelings every time without knowing the effects of the parameters, then our mastery of the brewing speed will not only be slowed down, but it will also be difficult to brew a good cup of coffee.

Quick hand-to-hand coffee making technique 3: Flexible application Once we are familiar with the normal state of a coffee and understand the impact of each parameter on coffee extraction, we can then start to try how to flexibly use this knowledge to brew a pot. The coffee you want. Let's take the example of the flower kui mentioned in front of Qianjie! When you find that the characteristics of the flower essence you brewed are not as excellent as you imagined, such as the appearance of under-extracted acidity and thin taste, you can try to correct it by adjusting parameters. Extraction rate!

Adjusting fine grinding, increasing water temperature, extending time, etc. are all options you can choose from. However, how detailed you need to adjust the details, how high you can raise it and how long you can delay it all depends on your own experience accumulated. When you can quickly adjust a reasonable parameter to brew a pot of delicious coffee, you are basically completely at hand making coffee. In addition to deepening your foundation, you can also try to make some new gameplay. For example, where does the impact of dismantling different brewing methods come from, and what different impacts will different filter cups and different brewing devices bring... Compared with when we first started, the way we view them at this time will be very different, so we can easily dissect their principles and use them flexibly.

All in all, drinking more, recording more, trying more, and comparing more are the key points for us to quickly start making coffee. It's not difficult, but it's not that simple ~

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