With the rise of the specialty coffee trend, coffee culture has been continuously spreading, and sales of both coffee equipment and coffee beans are constantly increasing. As a shop focused on specialty coffee, Front Street Coffee not only brews a delicious cup of coffee for every guest, but also wants even more to spread coffee culture. If you follow Front Street Coffee's official account, you'll find that it updates the latest coffee news every day. All the coffee information you see consists of articles carefully written by every barista at Front Street Coffee, with the aim of spreading coffee culture to more people. A delicious cup of coffee contains not only flavor, but also more human stories.
   

However, most people may not want to know about coffee culture, but rather want to drink a delicious cup of coffee, and of course that's no problem. Drinking coffee, drinking coffee—if you don't drink it, how can you understand coffee? To understand it, you need to keep drinking coffee and find the coffee flavor you love. With the accelerating pace of life, the rise of drip bag coffee has exactly met the needs of this group of people, but choosing a drip bag coffee that suits you is not an easy thing.

  
Just like Front Street Coffee stores have at least two hundred kinds of coffee beans, with different processing methods, different roast levels, and different countries of origin—where do you even start drinking? Very few guests can finish all the coffee beans on the Front Street Coffee store bean list, so choosing suitable coffee beans for every guest who comes to Front Street is also our homework.
 
Recently, a great many customers have come to ask about knowledge related to drip bag coffee: which one tastes best, how to brew a delicious cup of drip bag coffee, and whether drip bag coffee can really be brewed multiple times. This article will discuss drip bag coffee from the above questions.
 

 
I.Drip Bag Coffee's Origins
The history of drip bag coffee originates from Japan, where UCC Ueshima Coffee invented drip bag coffee. This kind of drip bag coffee is very simple and efficient. Nowadays everyone has no extra time to go to a coffee shop to drink a cup of pour-over coffee carefully made by a barista, so as soon as drip bag coffee was promoted on the market, it was favored by many coffee lovers. Just among the guests who come to Front Street to drink coffee, many ask whether the shop sells drip bag coffee, which shows that the market for drip bag coffee is very broad.
 
II. Can Drip Bag Coffee Be Brewed Multiple Times?
Drip bag coffee is also like agricultural products. Agricultural products emphasize freshness, while coffee emphasizes the best flavor, that is, the coffee's optimal drinking period. So Front Street generally recommends that everyone drink coffee within the coffee's optimal drinking period as much as possible, otherwise the taste of the drip bag coffee will gradually change over time. You may ask: can drip bag coffee really be brewed multiple times?

  
Front Street has also noticed that many people compare instant coffee with drip bag coffee. Compared with drip bag coffee, instant coffee is much simpler—there is no need to consider water temperature, just brew it directly with suitable hot water. But everyone must be clear that instant coffee is a dried coffee extract obtained by evaporating the water from coffee extract, and cannot really be considered true coffee. The coffee powder used in drip bag coffee, however, is ground from freshly roasted coffee beans and extracts real black coffee through drip filtration. The brewing methods of instant coffee and drip bag coffee are different. Drip bag coffee cannot have its coffee powder poured out like instant coffee, otherwise the whole cup will be full of coffee grounds—how would you drink that? It greatly affects the coffee's mouthfeel, and this brewing method is also wrong. So Front Street recommends that before brewing drip bag coffee, you must clearly read the brewing method.

 
Generally speaking, drip bag coffee cannot be brewed a second time, because only 3% of the flavor substances in coffee can be extracted, while the other flavor substances are very difficult to extract. Generally speaking, coffee can only be extracted once. Front Street has also tried before whether drip bag coffee can be extracted a second or even third time, and Front Street found that after the first extraction, the coffee basically has no flavor left afterward.

  
In fact, a small packet of drip bag coffee is generally 10 grams of powder, and 10 grams of powder can generally only be brewed once. When you brew it repeatedly, you may perhaps find that the coffee still tastes quite strong and should still be drinkable. Actually, that is not the case, because when you brew drip bag coffee for a long time, the longer the coffee is steeped, the more caffeine is released. This is because the coffee has already been over-extracted, and over-extraction will release the bitterness and astringency in the coffee. By then, the optimal flavor of that coffee is basically gone. Even if this coffee is within its optimal drinking period, repeated brewing will dilute the coffee's optimal flavor, so Front Street generally does not recommend that guests repeatedly brew the same drip bag coffee.
 
Even if this drip bag coffee is still within its optimal drinking period, Front Street does not recommend brewing a coffee multiple times, because drip bag coffee itself is an instant-brew coffee that can brew a rich, fragrant black coffee anytime and anywhere, allowing you to perfectly taste the acidity, sweetness, bitterness, and mellow aroma in the coffee. The flavor of drip bag coffee brewed multiple times is basically lost.
 

 
III. How to Choose a Drip Bag Coffee That Suits You

When drinking coffee, of course you should drink the coffee flavor you like. Some people may like the lemon-citrus notes of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, some like the mellow body of Indonesian Mandheling, or the intense floral aroma and fruity juice-like mouthfeel of Panama Geisha—these are all very good choices. But on this basis, Front Street has one prerequisite: the drip bag coffee you buy must be fresh and just within the coffee's optimal drinking period, otherwise no matter how delicious the coffee is, you cannot truly taste a delicious cup of coffee. Generally, experienced baristas and even enthusiasts can even judge by smell how long coffee has been sitting, but ordinary coffee lovers like us should still honestly identify whether coffee is fresh through the following methods.
 

1. Check the production date

First, when buying drip bag coffee, look at the roast date on the drip bag coffee packaging. The roast date indicates the date marked when the coffee beans come out of the roaster. What we usually call checking whether coffee beans are fresh generally refers to the roast date rather than the shelf life.

2. Check the optimal drinking period on the packaging bag

Coffee bean packaging will have a one-way degassing valve, the purpose of which is to let the carbon dioxide inside the coffee packaging escape, so that the bag does not expand and burst. Front Street's drip bag coffee does not have a degassing valve, because although a degassing valve can be squeezed to smell the coffee aroma, squeezing at the same time causes the coffee to release aroma and shortens the coffee's life. So even if a drip bag packet is equipped with a degassing valve, it only increases the cost of the drip bag coffee and cannot extend its optimal drinking period.

Front Street also recommends that everyone not buy several months' worth of drip bag coffee at once just because buying more gives a discount. Drip bag coffee emphasizes freshness. If you buy so much drip bag coffee that you cannot finish drinking it, it will pass the coffee's optimal drinking period, and then the brewed coffee will certainly not taste as good.
   

3. Choose the coffee flavor you like

Drip bag coffee is simplified pour-over coffee, so just like pour-over coffee, what ultimately determines the coffee flavor is still the coffee beans inside the drip bag coffee. Drip bag coffee can be single-origin or a blend. However, the drip bag coffee sold by Front Street is generally single-origin coffee, with fewer blends. Generally, the packaging of drip bag coffee will indicate the coffee's flavor, such as jasmine floral aroma, citrus, lemon, cream, and similar terms describing coffee flavor, generally describing the flavor tendency of the drip bag coffee.

  
For example, Front Street has a Brazil Red Fruit coffee, which carries the nutty, chocolate, creamy, and peanut flavors characteristic of Brazilian coffee. There is also a Panama Butterfly coffee. This Butterfly coffee is a blended bean, with 70% high-quality Geisha lineage, plus a small amount of Caturra and Catuai. When brewed, the floral aroma is especially strong, and the citrus, floral, honey, and sweetness are very high. There is also the fresh cherry-tomato-like acidity of coffee from Kenya, and so on—all very suitable for making into drip bag coffee.
 
Some guests at Front Street also choose a drip bag coffee that suits them based on the coffee's processing method. There are many coffee bean processing methods. For example, Brazil often uses the natural method to process coffee beans. The natural method can retain more of the coffee beans' flavor and increase the coffee beans' aroma and sweetness. For example, the reason Brazil Queen Farm has relatively high sweetness is that it uses the natural method. There is also the washed processing method, such as Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee using the washed method, with a very clean mouthfeel, obvious lemon-citrus notes, and a faint jasmine floral aroma. There is also Costa Rica's honey processing method, such as the Costa Rica Musician series launched by Front Street, which uses raisin honey processing: selected coffee cherries are dried like raisins, then hulled, and the processed coffee beans are dried. Therefore, Costa Rican coffee beans have a relatively mellow mouthfeel and relatively sweet sweetness.

  
Of course, all of the above are very suitable for making into drip bag coffee. Some coffees using special processing methods are also very popular when made into drip bag coffee, such as the Honduras Sherry coffee launched by Front Street, which uses fine washing and is then placed into whiskey barrels to ferment. Coffee beans processed this way carry a rich fermented wine aroma. Honduras Litchi Orchid works the same way, except that Litchi Orchid coffee beans are placed into brandy barrels, so the flavor is very different from Sherry coffee. The wine aroma of this Litchi Orchid coffee bean leans more toward brandy, with a slight tropical fruit lychee taste. Making it into drip bag coffee is also a good choice.

IV. How to Brew a Delicious, Rich Drip Bag Coffee

At this point, I believe you already have a rough range for your own taste. Next, you need to understand how to brew a delicious cup of drip bag coffee. Before that, Front Street recommends that everyone first understand the grind size of drip bag coffee. The coarser the coffee powder, the lower the extraction efficiency, and vice versa. But the fineness of coffee powder also carries sweetness. Coffee powder that is too coarse will lead to under-extraction and taste like drinking water, while coffee powder that is too fine will lead to over-extraction, making the coffee powder hard to swallow. After repeated exploration of the grind size for drip bag coffee, Front Street finally adopted a medium-fine grind as the grind size for drip bag packets, which is more conducive to brewing coffee with a rich aroma.

  
Front Street believes that drip bag coffee is equivalent to simplified pour-over, and the brewing time, temperature, and water amount have certain requirements. The water temperature for drip bag coffee is quite particular and is determined according to the flavor of different producing regions and the roast level. If the roast level is dark, Front Street's drip bag coffee is best brewed with a water temperature of 88 degrees; if it is a light roast, it is best to use a water temperature of 90 to 92 degrees. However, friends do not need to worry about not being able to identify the coffee roast level. Front Street's official account has published relevant knowledge and brewing methods about drip bag coffee, so everyone can buy with confidence.
 
In addition, Front Street has attached the brewing method for drip bag coffee for everyone.

Brewing Process for Drip Bag Coffee
 
One: Warm the cup—

Prepare a cup and first pour in some hot water to warm the cup. The purpose is so that the brewed coffee will not cool too quickly. Coffee's flavor keeps changing as the temperature drops. If it cools too quickly, you will miss many different tastes.

Two: Water temperature—

First, we need to prepare sufficiently hot water, because only when the water temperature is high enough can more aromatic substances be released from the coffee powder. When making pour-over coffee, Front Street recommends brewing at a water temperature of 86–93 degrees Celsius. If the temperature is only around 80 degrees, the brewed coffee will easily be weak and tasteless, while boiling water can easily extract burnt and bitter flavors. Therefore, Front Street will leave boiled water uncovered at room temperature for 1–2 minutes to let the water temperature drop slightly to around 90 degrees Celsius.

Three: Hang the coffee bag—

First gently shake the drip bag packet to let the coffee powder settle, avoiding coffee powder scattering when torn open. Then pour out the hot water in the cup. After tearing open the seal strip on the drip bag packet, open the paper hooks on both sides, shake to level the coffee powder, and finally hang it on the rim of the cup.
 

Four: Pre-wetting—

The amount of water for the first pour should just wet the coffee powder. Too much or too little will affect the flavor. Then wait 20 seconds to let the coffee powder fully absorb the water. The strength of the coffee can be adjusted by the pre-wetting time; extending it to 40 seconds can yield a stronger coffee.
 

Five: Pouring—

For the second pour, you can pour until the filter paper is eight-tenths full. It is best to use a thin, slender stream of water. After the water drops to the height of the pre-wetted level, you can continue pouring to eight-tenths full until 150 to 180 cc has been extracted. Once extraction is complete, there is no need to wait for all the water in the filter paper to flow out; simply discard it.
   

Six: Enjoy the coffee! Remember that as the temperature changes, you can taste different flavors!

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.