If you search YouTube for V60 brewing videos and guides you’ll find about three billion different ones. Some with agitation, some without; pouring fast, in the middle, making circles; 40-60 or 30-70 or whatnot.
I always think to myself that they’re mostly just fluff.
It all depends on grind size and temperature. Doesn’t matter how you pour (well, within limits I would think) as long as you get your temps and grind right for the pouring technique you’ve chosen.
Admittedly, I haven’t tried a ton of different ones, maybe three or four. But this is the feeling what I’ve got.
Maybe there are some edge cases, like Ethiopian coffees being more prone to clogging the filter so less agitation might be a good idea.
Not a difficult thing to perform controlled tests on.
edit: Downvote if you like, but I’m not kidding. Keep water temp, grind, bean type/quantity etc all controlled, vary the pour method between trials. Taste. Do the cups taste the same?
Not hard.
I do believe blooming is good, the first pour should be gentle and get the grounds wet, and the second pour should be from higher up, to agitate the grounds. There are probably other ways to get the same results. People tend to mess around with whatever techniques they can, do something that makes a better cup, and settle on that as the way to do it. There’s more than one good way.
My go to coffee is Vietnamese coffee and if you don’t bloom the grounds in the phin before filling it the coffee comes out watery and weak. I’m not even that particular about my coffee either, but blooming makes a massive difference in how coffee tastes.
I bought a “pour over” coffee maker for busy mornings and I love it. It even has a bloom feature that pauses the pour a bit before resuming. I was skeptical, but I did need a new machine, and it makes a better coffee than any other automated method I’ve had.
Disagree based on my chemex experience with large brews at least (4-6cup). I thought it was fluff too and just kinda winged it but kept getting weak sauce brews. I’m now timing my pours precisely and it’s forcing me to have higher water volumes in the cone which is improving my extraction vs what I was drifting towards which was a pour and let soak through method. I’ve seen people say you have to even do it counterclockwise😂, so clearly some of the technique stuff is over the top, but timing is key at least for bigger brews.
The only thing I’ve found that makes much difference is pre-wetting filters. The rest feels awfully like tarot and crystals for people that like caffeine.
It’s all placebo effect. That James Hoffman guy is the worst. “In our taste tests…” Are your taste tests double blind? I highly doubt it.
“You gotta jiggle it three times after 36 seconds then add 13 drops of 210.3° water between the filter and the brewer. Equally spaced, of course.”
The worst part is the pseudoscientific rationalization about what each step does to the final product.
“This step balances the acidity and oxygenation.”
It’s hilariously ironic that the example you use is the one guy using actual science. The OG with a caffeine analyser, refractometer, particle size analyser and who will strap temperature and pressure probes to anything and everything to measure how they perform.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to try different coffees prepared different ways, then that’s unfortunate for you. If you have and you can’t taste the differences, maybe that’s on you? The only people I’ve ever met with so little ability to distinguish tastes were smokers.
All I know is I have yet to get a consistent cup of coffee. Thought moving from ground to whole bean would help, then from drip to pour over. From manual grinder to electric. With all other variables the same, I still have not been able to make a consistent cup. Getting rid of fines has made the biggest impact on consistency, how I have poured, in my opinion, has made the least.
It’s easier to be more consistent with a immersion brewing method compared to percolation. The only variable in immersion brewing would be grind size and water temperature.
What’s the 40-60 ratio?
Basically that after blooming with small amounts of water you pour 40% of your entire brew size, wait, and pour the remaining 60%.
Some people say that the first pour determines how sweet the coffee is and yeah, I have a hard time believing it.
It’s referring to a process called the 4:6 method invented by Tetsu Kasuya.
Probably seconds. 40 second bloom, pause, 60 second something else. Just a guess.
