Why Does Pour-over Coffee Taste Better in Coffee Shops?
Contents:
1. Mood – a key element in the coffee drinking experience
2. Professional Coffee Grinder and Equipment
3. Controlling and adjusting the extraction yield and concentration creates significant variations in pour-over coffee.
It's strange how the coffee tastes so good when I drink it at the coffee shop, but when I buy the beans and brew it at home, I can't achieve the same flavor. Is it the grinder, the pour-over kettle, or is it me that affects the taste of this cup of coffee?
Mood – a key element in the coffee drinking experience
The difference in coffee flavor can be attributed to extraction rate and coffee concentration. However, there is an important factor - your mood. Enjoying coffee requires a relaxed state of mind, an active body, and focused attention. Have you ever noticed that when you're discussing business in a coffee shop, you can't really taste the coffee flavors? But when you go to enjoy coffee with friends, from selecting the beans to waiting for the barista to prepare the equipment and grind the beans, your taste buds and senses are already prepared. As you smell the aroma of the coffee grounds, you can detect scents of rose, mango, and grape. Watching the pour-over process and discussing the origin of the coffee, it feels like you have traveled to the other side of the world, envisioning the hand-picked coffee cherries and the post-harvest processing. At this moment, the coffee, with its enchanting aroma, is presented before you. Taking a gentle sip, you can feel the bright acidity and smoothness, with a lingering aftertaste of fruity sweetness that delights your palate. The mood for enjoying coffee is perhaps the easiest thing to overlook during the preparation.
Professional Coffee Grinder and Equipment
However, in reality, to achieve these aromas and flavors, one needs to pay attention to various aspects with the dedication of a coffee shop professional, such as bean selection, grinder, pour-over kettle, various utensils, and water quality. Among the mentioned factors, the biggest difference should lie in the grinder. At the Justin Coffee shop, they use an EK43S grinder, while the owner, Mr. Jia, uses a Mazzer Kony grinder at home. With the same beans and brewed by the same person, the coffee brewed at the shop simply tastes better than at home, with differences in aroma richness, flavor complexity, sweetness, acidity, and more.
If you've mastered the two points mentioned above—having the mood for coffee and using professional grinders and equipment—what else can make coffee taste different? It's the extraction rate and coffee concentration that were mentioned earlier. For the same coffee beans, a low extraction rate will result in a more acidic taste, while a high extraction rate will lead to bitterness and astringency. Similarly, if the coffee concentration changes, low concentration will result in a flat taste, while high concentration will create an overly strong and bitter sensation.
│Further reading: 4 Key Factors in Coffee Extraction
Controlling and adjusting the extraction yield and concentration creates significant variations in pour-over coffee.
If you can control and adjust the extraction rate and concentration, you can achieve significant variations in pour-over coffee. In a coffee shop where they roast their own beans, the baristas have a higher level of control over the beans' characteristics. This includes aspects, such as the roast level—whether it's light or dark; the roasting rhythm—whether it's slow or fast; the moisture content—whether it's normal, too high, or too low; the mouthfeel—whether it's light-bodied or full-bodied; the flavor intensity—whether it's concentrated or multi-structures; the flavor profile—whether it's floral and fruity or caramel and nutty, among others. The mastery of these bean characteristics influences the setting of extraction rate and concentration, resulting in each cup of coffee being unique.
│Futher reading：Perfect Pour-Over Coffee Golden Ratio
For example, let's consider a coffee bean with floral and fruity notes. Using the standard parameters for pour-over brewing, such as a water temperature of 90℃ and a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15, if you want to enhance the concentration of the floral and fruity flavors based on the bean's characteristics, you can adjust the variables. By using a lower extraction rate combined with higher concentration, you can switch to a lower water temperature, like 80℃, and a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:12 for pour-over brewing. This will provide a more enjoyable tasting experience.
The extraction rate and coffee concentration for pour-over coffee can vary for each person, and that's part of the charm of pour-over coffee. The roasting philosophy at Justin Coffee involves finding the optimal roast profile for each bean, allowing you to use your preferred brewing method at home and experience the unique flavors of every bean.
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