Brewing

Five recipes, and what to change when it is wrong.

None of this is precious. Weigh the coffee, weigh the water, keep the time roughly right, and you will be ahead of most cafés. Everything below is what we actually brew at the bar.

Before any recipe

Three things that matter more than the machine

Weigh it

A level scoop of a light-roasted Ethiopian and a level scoop of a dark Brazilian differ by about 20% in mass. That is the difference between a good cup and a thin one. Any €20 scale ends the problem permanently.

Grind it that morning

Ground coffee loses most of what you paid for within fifteen minutes. If you cannot grind at home, order pre-ground from us in small bags rather than one large one — we grind on the morning it ships.

Filter the water

Rotterdam tap water sits around 11 °dH. Hard water mutes acidity and scales your kettle. A jug filter costs almost nothing and changes a light roast more than any brewer will.

The recipes

Filter

Start at 1:16.7 — 15 g of coffee to 250 g of water — and move from there. Weaker if it tastes harsh, stronger if it tastes like nothing.

V60 · one cup

The default for anything light on the shelf: Kochere, Bombe, Kiriti, Kayanza Hill.

  • Ratio15 g coffee to 250 g water
  • GrindMedium-fine — a touch finer than table salt
  • Water93–94 °C
  • Total time2:45 to 3:00
  1. Rinse the paper with hot water, tip the rinse water out of the cup.
  2. Add the coffee, flatten the bed, tare the scale.
  3. Pour 50 g and wait 40 seconds. The bed should rise and settle.
  4. Pour to 150 g in slow circles, then to 250 g once it has drawn down halfway.
  5. Give the dripper one gentle swirl. It should finish draining by 3:00.

AeroPress · one strong cup

Forgiving, fast, and the only brewer worth taking on holiday. Good with Aguas Claras and La Serranía.

  • Ratio15 g coffee to 220 g water
  • GrindMedium, slightly finer than for a cafetière
  • Water88 °C — lower than you think
  • Total time2:00 steep, 30 s press
  1. Assemble upright, paper rinsed, chamber on the mug.
  2. Coffee in, water in to 220 g, stir twice.
  3. Cap on, wait until 2:00.
  4. Press slowly and stop the moment you hear air. The hiss is bitterness.

Cafetière · a pot for two

Unfashionable and excellent when you skim it. Best with Kayanza Hill or La Serranía.

  • Ratio60 g coffee per litre
  • GrindCoarse — like coarse sea salt
  • Water95 °C
  • Total time4:00, then wait 5 more
  1. Coffee in, all the water at once, no stirring.
  2. At 4:00 break the crust with a spoon and skim off the foam and floating grounds.
  3. Wait another five minutes without the plunger. The bed sinks on its own.
  4. Press the plunger just to the surface and pour. Do not push it to the bottom.
The recipes

Espresso and moka

Pressure brewing punishes stale coffee and rewards weight. Keileweg No. 4, Fazenda Rio Verde and Blue Hour are built for it.

Espresso · double

  • Dose18 g in the basket
  • Yield36–42 g in the cup
  • Time27–30 seconds from the pump starting
  • Water93 °C at the group
  1. Distribute flat and level before tamping. Uneven beats under-tamped every time.
  2. Tamp once, firmly, straight. Do not tap the basket afterwards.
  3. Weigh the shot in the cup. If it runs fast and tastes sour, grind finer. Slow and bitter, grind coarser.
  4. Change one thing at a time and pull two shots before deciding.

Moka pot

  • RatioBasket full, levelled, not tamped
  • GrindFine, but coarser than espresso
  • WaterPre-boiled, filled to just under the valve
  • HeatMedium, lid open
  1. Start with hot water so the coffee is not sitting over a slowly heating boiler.
  2. When the stream turns pale and starts to sputter, take it off the heat.
  3. Sit the base in cold water for a second or two to stop the extraction dead.
When it is wrong

Read the cup, change one thing

Almost every bad brew is one of four problems, and almost every fix is a grind adjustment.

Sour, thin, empty finish

Under-extracted. Grind finer, or use hotter water, or brew longer — in that order. On espresso this is nearly always the grind. On filter it is often that the bed drained in under two minutes.

Bitter, drying, harsh at the end

Over-extracted. Grind coarser or shorten the brew. If you are pressing an AeroPress until it hisses, stop earlier — that last bit of air pulls the worst of the cup through the paper.

Correct but boring

Usually strength, not extraction. Keep the grind and add coffee: go from 15 g to 17 g per 250 g of water. Failing that, the beans are past it — light roasts fade after about six weeks.

Tastes different every morning

Something is not being measured. Nine times in ten it is the water, poured by eye. Put the cup on the scale and pour to a number.

Fresh beans, flat espresso, no crema

Too fresh, in fact. Coffee roasted for espresso needs eight to twelve days for the carbon dioxide to settle. Before that, the puck channels and the shot tastes hollow. Roast dates are on every bag.

Recipes are easy. Picking the bean is the hard part.

Set acidity, body and roast on the shelf and it will show you what fits — including which of these five brewers each coffee was roasted for.

Browse the shelf