Among all drip coffee methods, drip bags are the simplest. You only need a pack of drip bag coffee, a cup, and hot water to brew a decent single-origin black coffee. There are no complicated techniques or parameters, and you don't need to worry much about cleanup afterward—it couldn't be more convenient.
However, although drip bag coffee is easy to use, Front Street Coffee believes that to achieve 70% of the quality of pour-over coffee, attention to some details is still necessary.
First, there is essentially no difference between drip bag coffee and pour-over coffee in terms of brewing, so the parameter considerations for pour-over can still be applied to drip bag coffee.
In terms of grind size, this is not something we need to worry about. Drip bag coffee comes pre-ground, with the powder already placed in the drip filter bag. Generally, coffee factories or coffee shops have good grinding equipment, so there's no need to worry about particle size.
For water temperature, Front Street Coffee recommends using the same temperature as for pour-over coffee: 90-93°C for medium-light roasts, and 86-89°C for medium-dark roasts. Many people, for convenience, directly use water from a water dispenser, which typically heats water to around 80°C. Coffee brewed this way tends to be weak and sharply acidic. But if you directly use boiling water, it's easy to extract burnt and bitter flavors. So if we don't have a thermometer, Front Street Coffee suggests letting boiled water sit uncovered at room temperature for 1-2 minutes to cool slightly to around 90°C, then it's ready for brewing drip bag coffee.
Regarding the ratio, many people just fill the cup completely, which usually results in coffee that tastes bitter and thin. A pack of drip bag coffee contains about 10 grams of coffee powder. At a ratio of 1:15 to 1:18, adding about 150 to 180 milliliters of water is more reasonable. If you don't have a scale, you can find a cup with measurement markings.
Second, it's best to use a tall cupwith a capacity of 250 milliliters or more, to avoid the water soaking the drip bag. If soaked too long, it can easily develop a bitter taste.
Third, the specific method of operation.
1. Prepare a cup, a drip bag coffee pack, and hot water.
2. Tear open the outer packaging, take out the inner bag, tear along the "open" line, spread the "ears" of the drip bag, and hang it on the cup.
3. Pour hot water into the drip bag, filling to 1/2 of the filter bag for the first pour, and wait 10-15 seconds.Fourth, for the second pour, fill to 9/10 of the drip bag, then wait for the coffee liquid to fully drip through before pouring hot water to 9/10 again. After the coffee liquid fully drips through again, pour to 9/10 one last time. Once all the coffee liquid has dripped through, you can remove the drip bag.
Note: There are four pours in total. The first pour is to 1/2, and the remaining three pours are each done after the coffee liquid has fully drained, filling to 9/10 each time. After several tests, Front Street Coffee found that with this pouring method, the total water added is basically around 150ml. If you have a digital scale or a cup with markings, you can also rely on these tools to brew with the appropriate coffee-to-water ratio.
Fifth, choose the flavor you like
All fifty-plus single-origin coffee beans from different regions on Front Street Coffee's bean list can be made into drip bag coffee packs. But as the saying goes, good coffee beans taste great no matter how you brew them. So Front Street Coffee believes that to easily brew a delicious cup of black coffee, you should first choose the drip bag that suits your taste, and then brewing will be twice as effective with half the effort.
The current seasonal drip bag packs are the main seven regions' coffees listed by Front Street Coffee, including: Front Street Ethiopia · Washed Yirgacheffe (jasmine floral, citrus fruit notes), Front Street Indonesia · Lintong Mandheling (herbal caramel, rich nutty), Front Street Brazil · Cerrado (mellow nutty), Front Street Colombia · Huila (peanut, cream), Front Street Costa Rica · Tarrazu (nutty, toffee), Front Street Yunnan Small Lot (fruity, tea-like), and Front Street Guatemala · Huehuetenango (citrus, smoky).
Simply put, if you like floral notes, you can choose Front Street Ethiopia Yirgacheffe drip bags; if you prefer refreshing fruity acidity, you can buy Front Street Costa Rica drip bags; if you like intense flavors, you can pick Front Street Brazil, Front Street Colombia from the Americas, or Front Street Indonesia Mandheling from Asia; and if you seek a balanced taste, Front Street Coffee would recommend Front Street Guatemala or Front Street Yunnan Small Lot.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
