The pitfalls of micro managing your coffee brewing
Written by:
Dušan Matičič
Head roaster and Brand strategist at GOAT STORY
Dušan Matičič
Head roaster and Brand strategist at GOAT STORY
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Has the coffee obsession gone too far?
Everyone obsesses over micro managing their brewing ...
Water Temperature
Micro grind setting changes
Optimizing flow of water from the kettle
Stressing over a bag of coffee left opened for more than 30 seconds
Ditching your brew if you didn't hit the water target of 247g exactly
Blah blah blah ...
Look. Do you want to know how to make a great cup of coffee?
It's a VERY obvious detail that most coffee lovers overlook.
Beans.
Yep, the coffee beans you're using are infinitely more important than anything else.
Shhhh. I’ll stop you there.
Before you roll your eyes and close this blog
Hear me out.
I'm not some guru who's roasted a few kg's of coffee and am now being a smartass.
Nor am I someone who has cupped a few dozen cups of coffee.
No.
Last year alone we sent out more than ten thousand bags of coffee to 87 countries.
I cup and test 20-30 samples each month and try out coffee from each roast.
Now that might not sound like much. But I usually roast 10-20 roast batches every week. I cup every coffee. And I try it as filter and espresso.
I learned one thing when doing all this.
There is no magic recipe for the perfect cup.
There is no one grind setting to stick to.
Nor a water temperature.
Or a rule of thumb how long can you keep a bag of coffee open.
If you and I were to brew the same coffee with the same equipment, we would probably get a different cup of coffee.
Too many things can be different. Water. Grind setting. Humidity. Mood
But that's OK.
No two cups of coffee are meant to be the same.
And no one cup of coffee needs to be 100% perfect.
Coffee ... well, it should be fun. So don't stress about it.
You messed up your brew today? No stress. You'll make it better tomorrow.
Did someone mess with your grind setting? No stress. You can live with it.
Forgot to put water in your filter pitcher and you're stuck with tap water? Now this one's tough but still ... you'll live.
But let's get back to where I started this little coffee rant.
The beans.
You can mess things up while brewing coffee. But you can mess things up even worse if you use crappy coffee.
There is no way to fix crappy coffee beans.
Even if you mess it up big-time, you probably won't know the difference.
Now try this ...
Get a good bag of coffee. The one we like to call specialty.
Open the bag.
It smells great. It looks great.
It's not super dark and oily. It's like 50 shades of brown. Pale brown, beautiful brown.
Coffee shouldn't be burned. It should simply be roasted.
Roasted smartly. Until every bean reaches its peak flavor.
(Yeah, that's why I need to try each roast batch)
And coffee should have flavor.
Not the flavor of »coffee« like you're used to.
Every coffee bean is a reflection of its origin.
The soil.
The climate.
The rest of the vegetation growing around it.
And it's a reflection of the people who grow it.
The farmer.
The picker.
The people who process the coffee.
And a reflection of how a roaster sees and feels the coffee. That's me, by the way ;)
Now ...
What's my point?
Get better coffee and stress less about it.
HERE:
Easy.
Peasy.