16 l Tastemakers
Drip coffee*
Percolator coffee*
Cafetière coffee*
*From the Leopold Vienna collection
If you use cold water – think cold brew coffee for example – then you need at least 8 hours to extract the right flavours.
Brewing method and filter There are so many brewing methods nowadays that it can be quite difficult to make a choice. Per method, look at how long your water needs to stay in contact with your coffee. This also determines how much you extract. Fortunately, many of the brewing methods are similar and, for the sake of convenience, we will group them all under the description drip coffee. Drip coffee is coffee where you pour water onto coffee that is in a filter and that drips through at the bottom, for example into a jug. There is also the cafetière and the percolator. With a percolator, your water is in a container that, when heated, will boil. The steam that is released goes through the coffee and ends up in a container above it. A tip to get good coffee out of this is to make sure that the water is already very hot or has already boiled before you
put the filter container with coffee on the percolator. This accelerates the process and decreases the risk of burning the coffee. In addition, you can also use the cafetière for making coffee. Here, you first mix the water with the coffee and
Now you have all the tools to make delicious coffee! when set to taste you push a strainer through it. Because the contact moment between the coffee and the water is considerably longer than with other brewing methods, you extract much of the flavour and you could therefore aim at a slightly coarser coffee grind than that of a drip/filter coffee. If you think your coffee is too bitter, then keep the grind coarser. On the other hand, if your coffee is slightly acidic
and/or watery, grind the coffee a little finer next time.
Brew ratio Having the right brew ratio is of course of the utmost importance when putting in all the effort to ensure a good cup of coffee. This is your recipe or the amount of coffee that you use in relation to the amount of water. Using 1 in 20, this means that you use one part of coffee in 20 parts of water. This way you can calculate how much coffee and water you need if you’re making coffee for 1 person or for 4 persons. The smaller the part water is in relation to your coffee, the stronger the coffee will be. Naturally, this is to your taste. The SCA recommends that you use between 50 and 70 grams of coffee per litre of water. Now you have all the tools to make delicious coffee! It sounds like a lot of work but if you start experimenting, you’ll be able to enjoy delicious coffee for years to come!