Alexander Mills

I’m a loser and booked a trip to Montreal 2 weeks AFTER this raging coffee festival. There’s always next year ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What’s the first variable you change when dialling in a coffee?

There are a myriad of variables that contribute to how good your coffee can taste, but I’d suggest that it’s important to only change one at a time. If your coffee is tasting over-extracted (astringent) and you change your grind size, your brewing temperature, and your pouring pattern all at the same time, how will you know which variable affected what change?

For me, the first variable I change is grind size. I lock everything else in and I attempt to grind as fine as possible without taste astringency. If I do, I dial it back a notch or two and that seems to be the sweet spot for that specific coffee.

If you’re someone who likes to drink across a spectrum of roast levels, consider catering your water temperature to each degree of roast. For light roasts, brew as hot as possible (99C or 210F). For medium roasts, dial it back a bit. And for dark roasts, you might want to be brewing 10 degrees cooler.