- Beans: “Market Blend” (Ethiopia/Guatemala)
- Medium roast (5/8)
- Roaster: Zeke’s Coffee (Baltimore, MD)
- Roast date: 10/2/2023
- 17g coffee / 250g water (1:14.7)
- JX: 2 rotations (20 on the grind chart / 60 total clicks)
- Water at 95°C
- Recipe: A Better 1 Cup V60 Technique (see below)
- Preheat V60, pre-moisten filter, add coffee, and tare scale
- Make small indentation in center of coffee grounds
- 0:00: Pour 50g to 60g of water to bloom, then return kettle to base
- 16g coffee → 50-55g water; 17g coffee → 55-60g water
- 0:10 – 0:15: Gently Swirl
- 0:45 – 1:00: Pour up to 100g total (40% total weight)
- Hold kettle for the remainder of the brewing process
- 1:10 – 1:20: Pour up to 150g total (60% total weight)
- 1:30 – 1:40: Pour up to 200g total (80% total weight)
- 1:50 – 2:00: Pour up to 250g total (100% total weight)
2:00 – 2:05: Gently swirl- Drawdown finished around 2:55
I picked this bag up last night at the grocery store, after using up the last of the beans I bought in Minneapolis. I brewed my first cup with what has become my go-to starting pourover recipe for medium roasts. It turned out pretty good. It probably helps that I really like dark chocolate, as that was the most prominent flavor I noticed. If the cups consistently turn out like this, I don’t think I need to spend much time tweaking the recipe. As the weather gets cooler, I might want to start thinking about preheating my mug (or switching to an insulated mug) when brewing with water below boiling, so the coffee stays hot a little longer, and I’m not tempted to drink it too quickly.
I noticed that the grocery store also carries beans from Rise Up Coffee Roasters, which is based on the Eastern Shore. I may try one of theirs after I finish my other bag of Zeke’s, which is getting pretty low.
10/12: The same recipe tasted a little bitter this morning. This afternoon, I made another cup using a coarser grind (JX setting 25, or 2.5 rotations), and it was better, but a little bit watery tasting. So, maybe the ideal grind setting is somewhere in between 20 and 25.
10/13: Brewed at grind setting 22 (2 rotations + 6 clicks). Maybe a little better than yesterday’s cup, but still a little bit under-extracted.
10/14: Brewed at grind setting 21 (2 rotations + 3 clicks) and also increased starting water temperature to 99°C. Not perfect yet, but moving in the right direction. Could be that medium roasts need a higher starting temperature with pourover than with immersion? I always preheat the dripper, but I’m sure the water still loses a fair amount of heat while sitting in there percolating. This will be even more noticeable when the air temperature in the room is cooler (e.g. winter).
Epilogue: I eventually figured out a recipe that produces consistently good cups. Synopsis: grind setting 23 (2 rotations + 9 clicks), ratio 1:13 to 1:14, 99°C water to bloom, and 81°C-85°C water to brew. So, my 10/14 hypothesis was wrong — cooler brew water, and a slightly stronger ratio, turned out to be the difference makers.