Brewing/Tasting Suggestions
Portioning: Most people enjoy their coffee in a range of 1:15 to 1:20 coffee to water ratio.
Grinding: A good starting point is in the middle range of the band shown in the Grind Size Reference chart.
Brewing: Typically the best brew temperature is between 195°F and 205°F, most coffees will do well being brewed in this range.
Drinking: Coffee is most flavorful between 120°F and 140°F. Coffee much hotter than this will make it difficult to taste all of the flavor notes.
Troubleshooting: When trying to improve your coffee experience with a roast don’t change too many variables at once, ideally change just one at a time. Some of the variables are, from more significant to less significant, brewing method, brewing ratio, grind size, brew time, and brew temperature.
Reheating the coffee will change the flavor profile and may not be as enjoyable as the cooler cup of coffee with its natural flavor profile evolution.
Grinding
To determine a good grind size you must first decide how you are going to brew your coffee, then pick a section of that band to grind to. Grinding finer will make extraction happen more quickly, and grinding coarser will make extraction happen more slowly. Extraction, the amount of coffee put into solution from the dry grounds, will help determine where on the Brew Guide you land. Solids concentration is based on the dry grounds extraction combined with the ratio of coffee to water.
Brewing
Have a flavor profile target in mind then after you brew and taste your coffee, evaluate where you landed, and if it isn’t where you want it to be make a note of the corrections needed for next time. You can have an enormous influence on which flavor characteristics of the coffee you highlight or diminish by the steps you take in preparing the brew. However, you can never make the coffee have a flavor that was never there in the first place so start with the good stuff!
