Lets talk coffee

Once a again I am writing a blog based on one of my mistakes. I admit that I am at best a novice coffee connoisseur but it is really annoying to make these mistakes.  However, mistakes are how we learn the best right? (Or at least that’s what I tell myself )

So onto the mistake. This morning I was feeling a bit drained and decided to make some of the great Ethiopian Sidamo coffee that was brought to us by LaGrange Coffee Roasters.  I decided to use a chemex and was making about 60 grams of coffee for the early morning office crowd. I ground up the coffee with a Hario Skerton Hand Grinder. I pre-wet my Chemex White Square Coffee Filter and got ready to do my pour-over. Everything’s good right? Wrong! I missed one important aspect, the position of the filter. Now this may seem like a very trivial aspect to the overall process, but as I found out today it is the little things that matter. I placed the 3 sided filter into the chemex but with the thin side towards the spout. Bad idea! Using my buono kettle (I love that thing) I began my slow pour. After the bloom I began moving the water in concentric circles and emptied about half of the water until the Chemex was almost full. However, instead of my usual steady drain of coffee, I began to see a sputtering effect around the spout area. It almost appeared that the water was boiling out by the way that the air flow was misdirected by the spout. Also it was leaking down the sides. I kept trying to pour down the middle but I couldn’t get a heavy steady stream. It was a straight up botched brewing! Ugh, I was so upset, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I had to pull the coffee filter out completely full of water at 4 minutes 20 seconds. I saved the coffee somewhat, but it only brewed about half of the allotted amount. The result was a minor over-extracted cup of coffee that was displeasing to me all around. I did everything the same as I normally do, right? So what was the problem? It was the filter. With a three sided filter I had to make sure and put the thick side facing the spout. This helps with air flow and keeps the extraction even (and from coming out the sides and top).

Due to my competitive nature, and desire to do things correctly, I decided to brew another batch. You know what they say, “Practice makes permanent (not perfect)”- so I must practice it correctly to get it right. I repeated the same process, only I changed the filter and made sure it was in the correct position. This resulted in a much better cup of coffee, extracting perfectly, ending around 4 minutes. Another lesson to put away in the record books. Sometimes I wonder how many mistakes I must make in order to brew well. I wonder how many mistakes the inventor of the chemex, Peter Shlumbohm, made just to get his design perfect?