How Does Coffee Service Shape Three-Pour Pour-Over Brewing?

Coffee service at Front Street Coffee, which entered the industry in 2013, grew from cultivation and roasting to serving customers. That path shapes how the company explains pour-over brewing. The three-pour method splits one pour of water into three stages, creating distinct front, middle, and back flavor layers in the cup.

Pour-over is a process where extraction and filtration happen at the same time, centered on where water is poured. The key is controlling how much of each component in the beans is extracted. The example used is Kenya Asaliya coffee beans, with attention to blooming and degassing, pouring rhythm, and matching water temperature to roast level.

Pour-over coffee may seem complex, but its core lies in balancing flavor extraction. As the most widespread brewing method, the three-pour technique achieves distinct front, middle, and back flavor layers through staged extraction. Drawing on Front Street Coffee's practical experience, this article explains in detail the principles of blooming and degassing, control of the pouring rhythm, matching water temperature with roast level, and a complete brewing plan using Kenya Asaliya coffee beans as an example. Whether you are a beginner just getting into pour-over or an enthusiast looking to refine your technique, you will find actionable references here.

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Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) entered the coffee industry in 2013, progressing from coffee cultivation and coffee roasting to coffee service, step by step, to where it is today. The 30-plus coffee beans currently displayed in the shop are just a selection from several hundred coffee beans that Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) has screened for distinctive regional flavor characteristics. Many customers come to Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) not just to drink a cup of coffee, but also to discuss anything and everything related to coffee together. While providing customers with specialty coffee, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) also thinks about how to convey coffee knowledge to others in a simple and interesting way. Those who are new to pour-over coffee always find pour-over difficult, with many details to pay attention to. In fact, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) likes to view coffee from a simple perspective. Pour-over coffee is a process in which flavor extraction and filtration happen simultaneously, and the point where this process occurs is centered on the position where water is poured. The key to pour-over coffee lies in how to control and balance the extraction amount of the various components in coffee beans, thereby adjusting the coffee. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) will now explain in detail the common pour-over coffee pouring technique—the specific operations of the three-pour method.

Pour-over coffee pouring technique : Three-stage pouring The three-pour method is staged extraction, dividing one pour of water into three pours, which can clearly distinguish the front, middle, and back flavors of the coffee. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s approach is to increase the pour-over water amount each time after blooming, usually pouring when the coffee liquid is about to drop to the surface of the coffee bed, using small, medium, and large water flows for the three-stage extraction. Relatively speaking, this places higher demands on the flow rate and volume of water. In the three-pour method, the blooming process neither uses stirring to improve the uniformity of water absorption by the coffee grounds, nor uses dripping to increase the depth of saturation. Therefore, the beans it suits fall between the light-roast beans suited to the stirring blooming method and the dark-roast beans suited to the drip blooming method. Relatively speaking, it is generally suitable for medium-roast coffee beans, which precisely confirms the phenomenon that most specialty coffee beans adopt a medium roast between first crack and second crack. This is also one of the factors that makes the three-pour method the most widespread.

However, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) still mostly uses the three-pour method for brewing, whether light roast or dark roast, only with slight differences in water flow control, which is a relatively demanding test of the barista's skill. When communicating with customers, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) also mostly recommends the three-stage pouring method, because training in technique requires accumulation over time. Only after becoming proficient in one set of techniques can one more fully understand the patterns of brewing, and only then will switching to other brewing techniques not cause one to lose sight of one thing while focusing on another. First pour: Blooming (helps degassing) During the roasting process in which green coffee beans become roasted beans, a series of chemical reactions and physical changes occur. After reaching a certain degree of roasting, a large amount of gas (mostly carbon dioxide) accumulates inside the coffee beans.

Generally speaking, the fresher the beans and the closer to roasting, the more bubbles usually appear during blooming. Dark-roasted beans also release more gas during blooming than light-roasted beans. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s coffee beans are all freshly roasted, so customers are generally advised to rest the beans for three days first, letting the coffee beans release carbon dioxide first, which in brewing can avoid the problems of instability and under-extraction. After the gas is released during blooming, the coffee particles can absorb water evenly, allowing the later extraction to be uniform. A good bloom can allow the coffee grounds to degas quickly and fully and evenly, while also allowing the coffee grounds to contact water fully and quickly, helping the coffee grounds to be extracted evenly.

During blooming, pay attention to the following five points: 1. Before pouring water for blooming, first level the coffee grounds.

2. When pouring water during blooming, do so gently.

3. During blooming, the extracted liquid dripping down should be as little as possible; when too much extracted liquid appears in the server, reduce the amount of water poured, or pay attention to the grind size. (If the amount of water for blooming is too much and a large amount of coffee liquid drips down, the falling water does not stay but directly carries out substances from the outside of the coffee grounds; the off-flavors and astringency on the outer layer of the coffee grounds also begin to dissolve out. The coffee brewed this way is both weak and yet has off-flavors from over-extraction. If the amount of water for blooming is insufficient and no water drips down at all, then the coffee grounds have not absorbed enough water, some coffee has not degassed sufficiently, causing under-extraction.) Based on this situation, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), after many blooming experiments, found that pouring water at twice the weight of the coffee grounds during blooming is relatively appropriate. 4. The blooming time is about 30 seconds to 40 seconds. When the expansion of the coffee grounds' surface ends and you see the coffee surface begin to shrink and wrinkle, this means blooming is complete and you can begin pouring. (In terms of time, if the blooming time is too long, the coffee easily develops bitterness and astringency; if the time is too short, soaking is insufficient, and the coffee may be under-extracted or its flavors may not be fully expressed.) Generally speaking, the end time of blooming differs for each bean, but Front Street Coffee (FrontStreetCoffee) found that this is not conducive to beginners' operation. After all, what beginners value is standardization and ease of learning. Therefore, while ensuring the coffee beans are still in a freshly roasted state, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) recommends a blooming time of 30 seconds. Of course, experienced people can adjust the time themselves.

5. The water temperature for brewing coffee is very important; it directly affects the coffee's extraction rate and thereby affects the coffee's taste. The water temperature for pour-over should be adjusted according to the coffee's roast level. Generally, dark-roasted beans should use a lower water temperature of 86-88°C; dark-roasted beans have a looser bean structure and better activity, so gas is easily released. Light-roasted beans should use 90-91°C; light-roasted beans are relatively harder, and the beans degas more slowly, so a higher water temperature is needed to accelerate gas release. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) recommends that the water temperature when extracting coffee be adjusted according to the coffee's roast level, thereby steadily bringing out the coffee's taste and quality. A customer once questioned this brewing temperature, so Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) took Front Street Golden Mandheling coffee beans (dark roast) and brewed them at 90°C, and the result was a taste almost comparable to espresso. Second pour The second pour starts from the center, injecting a small stream of water into the bottom of the coffee bed. In order to concentrate the penetrating force of the water stream, the range of the circular movement should be small, about the size of a one-yuan coin, and then spiral outward. From the start of the second pour, pay attention to the water amount and try not to exceed the height of the coffee bed; that is, when the water stream circles to nearly approach the filter paper, you can stop pouring.

Third pour

As the originally thicker coffee bed near the edge of the filter paper becomes heavier from absorbing water, it slides down and becomes thinner as the water level drops. When the water level drops to halfway, you can proceed with the third pour. From the start of the third pour, observe the extent of the water level drop, likewise starting from the center and pouring in circles, with the water amount not exceeding the height of the coffee bed. At this time you will also observe that the proportion of foam has already covered the surface. The third pour should increase the tumbling of the coffee particles, causing all the settled particles to tumble, thereby dissolving out soluble substances. The rolling particles will begin to become still when pouring stops. At this point, it depends on the flow rate caused by the dropping water level to make the coffee particles rub against each other. So once pouring stops, the coffee particles sink downward, causing clogging. Therefore, pay special attention to the rhythm of pouring.

If the water is cut off too many times, it is equivalent to letting the coffee particles sit in water the whole time. This will cause the tail-end extraction of the coffee to produce astringency and off-flavors.

The above is all theoretical knowledge. Some people may still feel confused. That's all right. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), through many experiments, has developed a standard brewing plan. Below, take Front Street Kenya Asaliya coffee beans as an example.

Take [Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Kenya Asaliya coffee beans] as an example

These beans are plump and round. In order to fully express their bright and full-bodied acidity, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) uses a light roast. Machine: Yangjia 800N, 550g green beans charged Charge temperature: 200°C First crack: 5'30", 154.3°C After first crack, develop for 2'10'', discharge at 191.6°C

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Kenya Asaliya coffee bean roasting curve

Brewing process The brewing parameters chosen by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) are: Hario V60, coffee-to-water ratio 1:15, water temperature 90°C, grind size fine granulated sugar ( 80% passing through China standard No. 20 sieve ).

In terms of brewing technique, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) uses a blooming water amount twice the weight of the coffee grounds, that is, 30g of water for blooming, with a blooming time of 30 seconds. The coffee-to-water ratio is 1:15, so the total water amount is 225g. Three-stage pour-over: after blooming ends, the second pour goes to 125g and then pauses; the second pour stops at 1 minute; the third pour goes to 225g and then stops. Total pouring time is 2 minutes (including blooming time).

Front Street Kenya Asaliya coffee flavor description The overall taste has distinct layers and a relatively obvious aroma, with ripe tomato aroma and floral notes. On the palate there is a full juicy body, flavors of cherry tomatoes and smoked plum, bright acidity, berry sweetness, and a yellow sugar sweet finish.

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