Compared to brewing a cup of tea, there is a much greater variety in and importance attached to the methods used for brewing coffee. Your choice can have a big impact on the taste and enjoyment of your coffee.
Before delving into the methods commonly used in the western world, let’s start with how coffee is typically brewed in Ethiopia, from where most of the coffee sold at Pace is sourced. The most obvious difference in brewing at home in Ethiopia is that the coffee is roasted at the same time as the brewing, so first green (or raw) coffee is roasted in a pan over charcoal, producing lovely aromas of roasted coffee as you sit expectantly waiting for your coffee.
Once roasted and ground with a pestle and mortar, boiling water is poured over the ground coffee which has been placed into a coffee pot (known as a ‘jebena’) and this pot is left over the flame until the pot starts to steam.
Cafetière coffee in the UK, also sometimes known as the French Press method, or more colloquially as the “plunger” method, is one of the easiest methods for brewing coffee. Coarsely ground coffee is left to steep in hot water for 3-4 minutes and then pressed through a mesh filter. The result, provided enough coffee is used (15g per cup is the recommended amount), is a rich, heavy bodied drink.
In recent years, the aeropress method has become a popular way for brewing coffee. Here, (ideally) medium-fine ground coffee is steeped in a vacuum-sealed container before being pressed through a filter. As with the cafetiere method, this brewing method is essentially a ‘pour-over’ drink that requires little budget or skill, and also has the advantage of being easily transportable while still resulting in nice-tasting coffee.
The increasing popularity of home coffee machines means that many people making coffee at home can now brew their own espresso – a concentrated form of coffee, made by forcing hot water through very finely ground coffee under high pressures. Espresso coffee might be easy to make, but it’s also easy to mess up if the coffee is extracted for too long or the grind size is not right. Espresso coffee is the base for many coffee drinks such as flat whites (probably one of the most popular ways of enjoying coffee today), cappuccinos and americanos. A slightly higher budget is required for this “click-of-a-button” brewing method.
Pour-over coffee is a brewing method where hot water is poured over course-to-medium ground coffee sitting in a filter paper. Although this sounds basic, the method is considered one of the best for highlighting distinct taste notes in the coffee and is particularly popular among true specialty coffee lovers. Pour-over brewing includes the V60 method (referring to the 60-degree angle of the cone holding the filter) and chemex method (where the ‘x’ represents the idea of the “ultimate” cup of coffee).
Coffee made with a Moka pot is another relatively cheap and easy way of brewing coffee. Here the Moka coffee-maker sits on top of your stove so that the hot water in the base is pushed up through medium-fine coffee grounds, resulting in a textured, thick drink. This method sits somewhere in the middle of cafetiere and espresso coffee in terms of budget, ease of brew and the resulting texture.
Finally, we should not forget the cold brew method which has a long history going back many centuries. Cold brew is made by immersing coarse coffee grounds for a long period of time (12-18 hours) in cold or room temperature water, resulting in a refreshing drink with a high caffeine content. Perhaps of all the ways of brewing coffee, this method is the most forgiving when it comes to taste.
