Drip bag coffee is highly sought after because it is very convenient to carry and, without any complicated operation, you can easily make a delicious cup of black coffee. Although because of the "pre-made"(pre-ground)aspect, it does not have as abundant an aroma as freshly ground coffee, as long as it is brewed properly, drip bag coffee is also quite delicious. So people often joke that it is the "instant noodles" of the coffee world: convenient and tasty.But did you know? Just like instant noodles, drip bag coffee also has many different cooking methods. Besides the traditional pour-over brewing, we can also use immersion, cold brew, and other methods to make black coffee with different tastes. Not only that, we can even use drip bags to brew a stronger cup of coffee, then add milk to make a rich and delicious milk coffee(though it just can't be compared with milk coffee made by an espresso machine)!And these "recipes" are ones Front Street has shared in detail separately in the past. It's just that recently many friends have reported that searching for them is rather troublesome, so today Front Street is gathering them together to share with everyone the different "cooking" methods for drip bag coffee~The first preparation method Front Street wants to share with everyone is pour-over brewing, that is, extracting coffee by manually pouring water. This is the most traditional brewing method for drip bag coffee.The advantage of pour-over brewing is that it can quickly brew a layered, richly flavored drip bag coffee in a short time, but there is a prerequisite: we need to get the parameters right. The water must be hot enough, the time long enough, and the amount of hot water appropriate; otherwise it will easily fail to extract the coffee's flavor, and what you end up with will most likely be a cup of water with a hint of coffee flavor.Although it looks complicated, it is actually not that difficult. Because the grind size of drip bag coffee has already been fixed, we can basically use one fixed set of parameters to brew all drip bags, only the water temperature needs to be adjusted according to the roast level of the coffee beans. And this is also the convenience of drip bags.In this article, Front Street will use Front Street Ethiopia Huakui drip bags to demonstrate most of the brewing methods for drip bags. When Front Street uses pour-over brewing to brew it, the water temperature will be in the range of 90~93°C(dark-roasted coffee beans can be brewed with 88~90°C water); the coffee-to-water ratio is 1:15; the extraction time is two minutes(that is, the contact time between water and coffee grounds).Because Front Street's drip bags are 10g per pack, according to the 1:15 ratio, the amount of water to be poured is 150ml. And Front Street will divide this 150ml of hot water into five pours, averaging about 30ml per pour. The purpose of doing this is to give the water and coffee grounds more sufficient contact time, so the final brewed coffee will taste richer.
Then, after many experiments by Front Street, if each pour for a 10g drip bag is filled to half of the drip bag, the water amount is about 30~40ml. In other words, when the water is poured to the halfway point of the drip bag, the amount of water is exactly our target amount for each pour, and through this visual estimation, we can estimate the total amount of water without a scale.Sowithout further ado, next let Front Street share how to brew a good cup of drip bag coffee!
① First, we pour in one round of hot water, up to half of the drip bag (about 30ml), then wait 20~30 seconds before starting to pour the next round of hot water. The purpose of doing this is to release the gas inside the coffee grounds, allowing us to more easily brew a delicious cup of drip bag coffee.② Then, we pour four more rounds of hot water according to the planned amount. Each round of hot water is poured up to half of the drip bag, and after all the hot water has dripped through, we begin pouring the next round.③ After the last round of hot water is poured, we can take out the drip bag and enjoy the delicious drip bag coffee.Total time: 2 minutes 5 seconds. And the Huakui coffee brewed this way tastes just as Front Street said: not only is it very layered, but its flavor expression is also very prominent. We can clearly taste the sweet and tart aromas of citrus, cream, strawberry, and berries. The mouthfeel is light, and the aftertaste is oolong tea aroma~Compared with pour-over, the second method Front Street wants to share is very simple! Because it is immersion extraction, we only need to put the coffee grounds from the drip bag and hot water into the same cup and let it steep for a period of time, and we can get a cup of drip bag coffee with a rich mouthfeel and balanced taste!When making drip bag coffee this way, there are only two extraction parameters we need to pay attention to: time and water amount. As for water temperature, just use boiled water for steeping~ Because immersion extraction has a relatively high tolerance for error and will not easily dissolve out the bitterness from the coffee grounds, the water temperature requirement is not so high; water above 94°C can all be used~If you want a stronger cup of coffee, you can use a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:14 or 1:15, that is, for a 10g pack of drip bag coffee, brew with 140ml or 150ml of hot water; if you want a less strong taste, you can use a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:16~17, that is, 10g of grounds with 160~170ml of hot water. The extraction time is 7~9 minutes, depending specifically on the water temperature used: the higher the water temperature, the shorter the time, and vice versa.① First, tear open the drip bag, then pour the coffee grounds into a prepared container (preferably one with a pouring spout), and set the drip bag aside for later use.② Next, pour in hot water and mix it with the coffee grounds. Here Front Street uses a ratio of 1:15, so the amount of water poured is 150ml.③ After pouring the water, take out any tool and stir the coffee (10 circles is enough), and start timing.④ At 5 minutes, take out the tool and stir again(10 circles is enough), then start waiting again.⑤ When the time reaches 8 minutes, we can take out the drip bag and place it over another cup.⑥ Finally, we just need to pour the steeped coffee into the drip bag to filter out the coffee grounds. After filtering is complete, remove the drip bag, and a cup of drip bag coffee is done.Compared with the brewed version, the steeped drip bag coffee is not as layered, but its body and balance of taste are a bit higher. At the same time, this cup of Huakui has higher sweetness, and the aftertaste is also more persistent. Because it uses Front Street Ethiopia Huakui drip bags, the flavor expression is still mainly the aromas of citrus, berries, strawberry, and cream, very nice~Front Street believes everyone is relatively familiar with the cold brew method, because Front Street just shared it not long ago. We only need to prepare a sealable bottle, then pour the coffee grounds from the drip bag and room-temperature water into it, seal it well, put it in the refrigerator to chill overnight, and when we get up the next day we can have a pot of delicious cold brew coffee~Likewise, the coffee beans used in the drip bags are Huakui. The extraction parameters are as follows: 30g of grounds, coffee-to-water ratio 1:10, refrigeration time 8 hours or more. Because cold brew coffee uses a relatively large coffee-to-water ratio, we need to use at least 30g of coffee grounds to make a cup of cold brew. You can also decide how much coffee grounds to use according to your own needs.Step 1: Take out the drip bags and pour the coffee grounds into a sealed bottle. Rememberbe sure tokeep the drip bag packets.Step 2: Pour in an appropriate amount of room-temperature water. Because Front Street uses 3 drip bags for a total of 30g of grounds, according to the 1:10 ratio, the amount of water poured is 300ml.Step 3: Use any tool to stir the coffee grounds and water until all the coffee grounds can fully contact the water.Step 4: Seal the bottle well, then put the bottle in the refrigerator to chill for 8~12 hours. (The longer, the stronger.)Step 5: After the time is up, take out the coffee, then prop up the drip bag packet saved from yesterday over some cup.Step 6: Pour the coffee into the drip bag packet to filter out the coffee grounds. After filtering is complete, put it back in the refrigerator to chill and ferment for 2 hours (optional). At this point, the cold brew coffee is done.The Huakui coffee extracted by cold brew tastes completely different from the previous two! Whether in taste or mouthfeel. Besides the flavors of citrus, strawberry, and berries, the cold brew version also has an extra alluring fermented wine aroma. Combined with Huakui's original fruity charm, it is like tasting a cup of wine rich in fruit flavor. The mouthfeel is very icy and refreshing, and the aftertaste has both oolong tea and wine aroma, very nice~Finally, here is the share on using drip bags to make a rich cup of milk coffee! And there are two ways to make this "dish." The first is the cold brew above, except that the water used during cold steeping is replaced with milk. In all other respects, whether parameters or method, it is completely the same, very simple. Because it was shared not long ago, Front Street will not elaborate too much here.The other way is to first brew a strong cup of black coffee with hot water, then add milk. Although it is a bit more complicated to operate than the former, it can obtain a cup of milk coffee more quickly~And this method will use the second method shared in this article by Front Street: immersion. Except that the water amount, coffee amount, and water temperature all have very strict requirements; otherwise it is very difficult to steep the coffee strong, and the milk coffee made will taste rather watery.Also, the coffee is best dark-roasted, so that the coffee's taste is not so easily masked by the milk. Therefore, this time Front Street will use the PWN·Golden Mandheling drip bags from Front Street's bean list for production, two packs in total, that is, using 20g of coffee grounds. Then the coffee-to-water ratio is 1:5, the water temperature is 100°C, and the extraction time is 2 minutes. The production steps are as follows:① Pour the coffee grounds from 2 drip bags into the same container.②Then we pour in 100ml of 100°C boiling water and start timing.③ Take out a spoon or other stirring tool and stir the coffee in the container for 30 seconds. The purpose of stirring is to speed up the dissolution of flavor substances, so that we can make a strong cup of black coffee in a short time.④ After stirring is complete, let it sit for 1.5 to 2 minutes. When the time is up, take out the drip bag and place it over a cup.⑤Pour all the coffee in the container into it. After filtering out the coffee grounds, we have a cup of relatively strong drip bag coffee.⑥ Finally, we only need to add an appropriate amount of milk to the coffee, and a cup of rich and delicious milk coffee is done! Here Front Street added 180ml of hot milk, for a ratio of 1:3. If using light-roasted beans, the ratio can be a bit larger.Although the milk coffee made this way is not as rich and full-bodied as espresso, but! It can also be said to be very good. When drinking it, you can not only clearly taste the coffee flavors of chocolate, nuts, and so on, but the mouthfeel is also quite silky. Under limited conditions, it can be considered a pretty good cup of milk coffee.So the above are the four different "recipes" for drip bag coffee shared by Front Street. Friends who are interested might as well give them a try; they can all make quite good drip bag coffee~ The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
