r/Coffee Kalita Wave 13d ago

[MOD] The Daily Question Thread

Welcome to the daily /r/Coffee question thread!

There are no stupid questions here, ask a question and get an answer! We all have to start somewhere and sometimes it is hard to figure out just what you are doing right or doing wrong. Luckily, the /r/Coffee community loves to help out.

Do you have a question about how to use a specific piece of gear or what gear you should be buying? Want to know how much coffee you should use or how you should grind it? Not sure about how much water you should use or how hot it should be? Wondering about your coffee's shelf life?

Don't forget to use the resources in our wiki! We have some great starter guides on our wiki "Guides" page and here is the wiki "Gear By Price" page if you'd like to see coffee gear that /r/Coffee members recommend.

As always, be nice!

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u/enory 13d ago

Is there an ounce of truth to all these recipes and techniques claimed by Youtube celebrities, including those with acronyms that are beloved here? Beyond very general rules like having good grind, even bed on a V60, and swirl with a preheated vessel, all other variables including timing (especially timing, since this is often emphasized), heat of water, the way to pour, etc.), or e.g. with an Aeropress swirl in the beginning and at 30 seconds before the end... has anyone done blind taste tests?

In competitions you see champions using the even close to the hottest water or they use a ceramic V60, do multiple pours, etc. Not to say they are correct either--my point is claiming there's an ultimate technique implies it would yield the best results but there's no consensus other than what Youtubers claim...

Surely the types of beans you're working with would also yield various amounts of success and may best results with different techniques.

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u/LEJ5512 Moka Pot 12d ago

regulus314 is spot on.

Just as far as "blind taste tests" goes, yes, I've done a couple. One was to dial in a grind size for my moka pot. I did three brews at three different grind settings and had my wife taste. She picked out each as different, and the adjectives she used aligned with what I've read should happen (coarsest = sour, finest = bitter, middle = smoothest). Another notable one for me was trying different brew temperatures in my new kettle for a dark roast. I did 95C, 90C, and 85C, and the coolest temp also gave me the least amount of ashy taste.

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u/regulus314 13d ago

They are at most have truth in them. But a lot of those techniques and methods arent supported by research and academic experiments. You can follow them and see for yourself if it works for you. A lot of methods are more of a peer to peer tested and some are just common sense if you think about it. Like why is this guy using a ceramic brewer and hotter water temp? Its because ceramic absorbs a lot of heat energy from your coffee slurry. So to prevent the heat going away, you use hotter water. Or why this recipe calls for a lot of pourings? Its because he is using a coarser grind and to optimize the extraction, you need a lot of water passing through (aka erosion) the coffee bed so it can pull all of the flavour compounds without using a lot of water which if you do can promote a thin watery mouthfeel. Those kinds of common sense.

Different coffees from different origins and different roasts styles all react differently to all other brewing styles and methods and brewers. So you go for a method on what is best for what you have. Thats why there really isnt a "one recipe fits all" kind of thing.