Recommendations on how to approach brewing a new coffee

For Christmas, we received gifts of roasted coffee and thought it would be a great opportunity to explain how we approach brewing a new coffee.

Start with the coffee roaster’s brewing recommendations: Most coffee roasters will provide some guidance on how they recommend you brewing their coffee.  They will provide information about recommending brewing methods, water temperatures, grind size, and coffee to water brewing ratios.  If provided, you will find this information on the coffee bag or on the company’s website.  Since they want you to have the best experience possible and likely are very familiar with the coffee, it stands to reason that their recommendations are likely going to be reliable starting points.  If this information is not provided, this is (from our perspective and experience) a huge red flag that often predicts a poor quality product.   

Compare and contrast with what is familiar to you: If you are someone that has experience brewing a variety of coffees and roast levels, draw on that experience and brew the coffee in a way that you have had success with similar coffees.  Take notes.  Compare and contrast the two approaches.  Take note of the differences in flavors, aromas, and mouthfeel.  We like using a 0-10 scale and rating the coffees in terms of sweetness, acidity, bitterness, and body.  If you have the ability to brew the same coffee side by side with two different approaches, taste them blindly (e.g., mark the cups on the bottom) side by side and decide which you prefer and why.

Experiment with water temperature: One of the coffees we received as a gift was a light roast from a very well-regarded US roaster.  They recommended brewing the coffee with 200F water.  While we ourselves have often had great success with brewing light roasts at this water temperature, we also have had great success brewing at 208F.  Since we have two pouring kettles and pairs of the same pour over brewing devices, it was easy enough for us to brew the same coffee side by side at both temperatures and to taste the coffee blindly.  In multiple blind tastings, we found that the coffee brewed at 200F had a lot more nuanced flavors and was more enjoyable.     

Experiment with coffee to water ratios: The same coffee roaster recommended brewing the coffee with a coffee to water ratio of 1:16.6 (e.g., 15 grams of coffee to 249 grams of water).  We often find that we prefer a 1:15 ratio (e.g., 15 grams of coffee to 225 grams of water).  After we had settled on the water temperature we preferred, we next tested brewing ratios.  We brewed the same coffee with the same water temperature but for one pour over we used a 1:15 ratio and for the other we used a 1:16.6 ratio.  In multiple blind tastings, we preferred the 1:15 ratio. 

Be open to trying new things but embrace your preferences: While we recommend flexibility and being open to trying new things, at the end of the day taste is subjective and significantly influenced by one’s cultural palette.  It is okay to like what you like.  We have a strong preference for lightly roasted coffees.  Most do not.  There is a clear consumer preference across the world for more developed, darker roasts with traditional coffee flavors.  This is okay.  Just like with the above mentioned light roasted coffee, we preferred a hybrid approach between the coffee roaster’s recommendations regarding water temperature and a more concentrated coffee to water ratio of 1:15.