Over the last few weeks, we have seen so much love for brewing coffee and tea at home. The lovely thing about it is that people have time to really enjoy their coffee more. Grind it by hand (or however). For many, this very odd situation ( I feel weird every time I see or write the word pandemic like it’s someone else’s life) has allowed them(us) time. For me, I have the most important moment in my week and it is about stopping, making time for a delicious brew and a family catch up on messenger.
I have had a number of people getting their coffee and sending pictures and asking questions on Instagram. This is excellent. I have been thinking, when we make coffee at JGC, we usually start with 2 recipes. There is so much noise and complication about how much coffee you can use like it is science beyond the average person. Newsflash, I am the average person and I am not really good with complicated. I am of the mind that if you keep coffee brewing really, really simple then you can make small changes to influence the flavour. This should be all about pleasure and fun! If it goes wrong, what’s the worst that can happen? It will taste OK, not amazing!
Filter Brewing:
Our basic recipe starts at 60g of coffee into a litre of water (this was a number thought up / worked out by SCAE Gold Cup brewing in the 1960s). In 2015 SCA simplified it into a pdf
So a V60 or Aeropress could be 12g into 200g of water as a starting point. You could then increase or decrease. Maybe make your coffee finer rather than just adding more. If it’s taking over 4 minutes for your V60, go coarser etc.
Espresso Brewing;
Keeping to the simplicity theme again:
16-17g of coffee in. Start with a ratio of 1 coffee; to two parts water 32-34g for milk-based drinks and 10-15g more water for espresso.
** When we grind for espresso for home, here, for clients it is not ideal as one grind does not work for every machine and this often means that the best results are going to be average.
These are broad suggestions and a guide.
