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Drip bag coffee is loved by the vast number of coffee enthusiasts for its convenient and handy nature. Therefore, many novice coffee enthusiasts who have just started using drip bag coffee have asked Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) how to brew drip bag coffee, why the taste they brew is not right, and what difference it has from instant coffee and hand-brewed single-origin coffee? So in the following article, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) will explain how to drink drip bag coffee and the specific brewing methods.

The origin of drip bag coffee

According to Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), drip bag coffee appeared in 1990, when Yamanaka Sangyo Co., Ltd. of Japan applied the concept of tea bags to coffee, invented filter drip coffee, and applied for a patent. However, the drip bag designed by Yamanaka Sangyo could not bear the weight of brewing coffee, and it was easy to lose balance during the brewing process, so it was not successfully commercialized. It was not until 1998 that Daiki Shoji improved the original invention and extended the drip bag portion outward, resulting in today's drip bag coffee.

Japan itself is a country that extremely loves drinking coffee. The reason drip bag coffee was developed at that time was that in that era, with economic development, the pace of life began to accelerate. Many people who had already become office workers did not have much time to hand-brew coffee. If they hurriedly hand-brewed, the coffee produced would definitely taste bad, so convenient drip bag coffee was born this way.

For example, most people in China who love drinking coffee nowadays are also office workers. Compared with hand-brewing coffee themselves, drip bag coffee indeed greatly improves convenience. Secondly, the brewing method of drip bag coffee is also much simpler than hand-brewed coffee, so in terms of equipment cost, drip bag coffee also improves cost-effectiveness. However, according to Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), many coffee enthusiasts who have just come into contact with drip bag coffee do not know the correct brewing method for drip bag coffee, so next Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) will teach everyone!

The correct brewing method for drip bag coffee

1. Warm the cup

Prepare the cup for brewing drip bag coffee, and first pour in some hot water to warm the cup. The purpose is to prevent the brewed coffee from cooling too quickly, because coffee will produce different flavors as the temperature drops, that is, the layering of flavors. Therefore, if it cools too quickly, many different mouthfeels will be missed.

2. Water temperature

The brewing water temperature is very important. It is recommended to be between 90 and 99 degrees. If the brewed coffee is too bitter, you can try lowering the water temperature. Conversely, if it is too light or too astringent, you can increase the water temperature, but the range should still be between 90 and 95 degrees.

3. Hang it on the edge

First gently shake the drip bag to let the coffee grounds settle, avoiding coffee grounds scattering when tearing it open. Then pour out the hot water in the cup, tear open the seal on the drip bag, spread out the paper hangers on both sides, and shake it to level the coffee grounds, and finally hang it on the rim of the cup.

4. Pre-wet the drip bag coffee

For the first pour, you should pour in just enough to wet the coffee grounds. Too much or too little will affect the flavor. Then wait 20 seconds to let the coffee grounds fully absorb the water. The strength of the coffee can be adjusted by the pre-wetting time. Extending it to 40 seconds can give you a stronger coffee.

5. Pour water

For the second pour, you can fill it to eight-tenths of the filter paper. It is best to use a thin, slender stream of water. After the water drops to the pre-wetted height, 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; just discard it directly.

The above is the correct brewing method for drip bag coffee. Secondly, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) also learned that many people make the following incorrect brewing methods when brewing drip bag coffee. Drip bag coffee brewed this way will not taste good, so coffee enthusiasts should try not to brew it this way!

Incorrect brewing methods for drip bag coffee

1. The brewing water volume is too high or too low

First, Front Street believes that some coffee enthusiasts who are new to drip bag coffee will directly throw the drip bag into a cup and soak it in hot water. Actually, this is not impossible, but the coffee flavor will be diluted by the water, making the coffee taste weaker. Unless you are someone who likes light American-style coffee, Front Street suggests that a 10g drip bag only needs 150cc-180cc of water. Otherwise, if this amount is exceeded, besides the coffee flavor becoming weaker, it is also easy to extract undesirable flavors. For coffee enthusiasts who want a lighter-flavored coffee, Front Street suggests brewing to 150cc, then removing the drip bag and adding hot water separately.

2. The drip bag is left soaking in water

Although the inspiration for the drip bag came from tea bags, it does not mean it is the same as a tea bag. Although it is also true that the longer it is soaked, the stronger the flavor, during long soaking, caffeine will also be continuously released, causing over-extraction and bringing out undesirable substances in the coffee, namely bitterness and off-flavors. Therefore, Front Street suggests that the drip bag should generally be discarded after brewing for 4 minutes, or it can be used as flower fertilizer, which is also a good choice.

3. The drip bag coffee temperature is not within the optimal extraction range

Drip bag coffee is actually single-origin coffee ground into powder, so its temperature requirements are the same as those for hand-brewed coffee. Therefore, you cannot use too low a temperature to brew it, otherwise the coffee will be under-extracted. So you must also control the water temperature. Front Street suggests using water just off the boil, left to sit for 1-2 minutes, to brew drip bag coffee.

4. Repeatedly brewing drip bag coffee

How many times can drip bag coffee be brewed? The answer is of course only once. Just as Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) wrote in point two, drip bag coffee cannot be soaked for a long time, which naturally also means it cannot be repeatedly brewed, otherwise you will get a cup of coffee that is both bad-tasting and harmful to your health.

The advantages and disadvantages of drip bag coffee

From the above, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) shows that the advantages and disadvantages of drip bag coffee can be seen. The advantage is portability. In addition, the coffee beans used in the drip bag are also single-origin coffee beans. It is just that after being made into a drip bag, the grinding step is omitted, and the flavor can also rival single-origin coffee. The disadvantage is that it cannot be brewed repeatedly, nor can it be directly brewed and dissolved like instant coffee.

At the same time, there is one more point to note: the best-tasting period of drip bag coffee is also shortened by half compared with single-origin coffee. In the following, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) will explain why this is so.

Is Blue Mountain drip bag coffee real Blue Mountain??

Some friends want to drink Front Street Blue Mountain coffee, but do not have coffee equipment to brew it, so simple and quick products like Blue Mountain drip bag coffee appear on the market. But it also makes people doubt whether such an expensive Front Street Blue Mountain coffee made into a drip bag will taste good.

Basically, as long as the drip bag coffee is made from real Blue Mountain coffee beans, you can drink a good Blue Mountain charm. As for Blue Mountain drip bag coffee costing only a few dozen yuan, most of it is not from the Jamaican Blue Mountain production area. At Front Street, Front Street Blue Mountain drip bag coffee is generally not directly listed for sale. If you need to buy it, you can directly purchase Front Street Blue Mountain coffee beans, one bag is 158 yuan/100 grams, and then note that it is to be made into drip bag coffee and add a 20 yuan drip bag production fee. There is one more thing to note about making Front Street Blue Mountain coffee beans into drip bag coffee: it needs to be finished as soon as possible, otherwise the flavor will quickly dissipate.

How long is the best-tasting period of drip bag coffee??

As Front Street said above, a drip bag coffee is actually single-origin coffee ground into coffee powder in advance, so the shelf life should be about the same, but in fact the best-tasting period of drip bag coffee is shorter than that of coffee beans. This is because the production of drip bag coffee first involves grinding coffee beans into powder, which increases the surface area of the coffee exposed to air, making preservation even more difficult. According to Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s practice, only within two weeks can the original aroma of the coffee be fully tasted in drip bag coffee. But this requirement is only for coffee enthusiasts who have requirements for flavor. If there are no excessively high requirements for coffee aroma and flavor, then according to our country's food law, the shelf life of coffee products is within one year, and during this period drinking coffee beans will not spoil.

Making the best-tasting period of drip bag coffee longer is actually very difficult to achieve. According to Front Street's practice, even with vacuum packaging, the disappearance of coffee aroma cannot be suppressed, because from the moment coffee beans finish roasting, carbon dioxide will be released. Therefore, careful coffee enthusiasts can find that when they receive drip bag coffee mailed by Front Street, the packaging will be a little puffy, which means this bag of coffee was packaged when fresh. Therefore, when coffee enthusiasts receive it, it is just at the best-tasting period.

After the carbon dioxide in the coffee has been fully released (about two weeks), it will begin to release aroma. On the surface, no change can be seen, but the coffee has already gradually deteriorated. If left at room temperature for more than two weeks, the coffee's aroma will probably be mostly gone. But because the drip bag is sealed packaging, you can still smell the aroma when opening it, but after brewing it is not so fragrant. That is why Front Street suggests that coffee enthusiasts finish drinking drip bag coffee within two weeks after receiving it, so they can taste its best flavor.

Therefore, coffee enthusiasts can see on the coffee market that many coffee bean packages are equipped with a one-way valve, the purpose being to allow the coffee's carbon dioxide to be released, so as to prevent the package from bursting due to carbon dioxide expansion, and on the other hand to avoid a large amount of air entering. However, many coffee enthusiasts who do not know this will press the one-way valve to try to smell the aroma, but in fact, when squeezing out the aroma, they also shorten the life of the coffee. So even if the drip bag is equipped with a one-way valve, it is not only costly, but also cannot extend its best-tasting period.

The above is the relevant content compiled by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) about the brewing methods and characteristics of drip bag coffee. I hope it can help coffee enthusiasts better understand drip bag coffee, so that they can brew it with the correct method in the future. Finally, many coffee enthusiasts have also asked Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) to recommend single-origin coffee beans suitable for making drip bag coffee. So next, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) will recommend several relatively popular drip bag coffee brands.

Drip bag coffee brand recommendations

1. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Ethiopia Natural Red Cherry Drip Bag Coffee

Region: Yirgacheffe

Altitude: 2000-2200m

Variety: Heirloom

Processing method: Natural processing

Flavor: Tropical fruit, strawberry, berries, cream

This Red Cherry coffee bean from Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) comes from Ethiopia's famous Yirgacheffe region. The origin of the name Red Cherry involves a local project called the Red Cherry Project, which was a coffee quality improvement plan proposed by a Dutch green bean company.

This company is called Trabocca. The reason it created this project was that at the time Ethiopian coffee quality varied greatly, so there was not much room for price increases, and coffee farmers' incomes were also very low. In order to substantively help them, it cooperated with local coffee farmers to launch the Red Cherry Project, solving quality problems at the source. Through manual hand-sorting, only fully ripe coffee cherries are picked, and they are purchased at a higher price. This can improve coffee farmers' requirements for quality and grow better-quality coffee.

2. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Sidamo Huakui Drip Bag Coffee

Country: Ethiopia

Region: Sidamo

Altitude: 2250-2350m

Variety: Local heirloom

Processing method: Natural processing

Flavor: Berries, floral tea, honey, lemon, black tea

This Front Street Huakui coffee bean introduced by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) was the champion of the natural group in Ethiopia's TOH coffee competition in 2017. It appeared before everyone with its unique strawberry cream flavor and made a stunning debut. Therefore, that year this batch of green beans was introduced into China by Beijing green bean trader Hongshun. In the same year, Li Jianfei used this bean to win second place in the China region of the 2017 World Brewers Cup. This Ethiopian bean stood out particularly among many Geisha competition beans, so it was given the name Huakui.

3. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Honduras Sherry Drip Bag Coffee

Region: Marcala

Estate: Mocha Estate

Altitude: 500-1700 meters

Variety: Caturra, Catuai, Pacas

Processing method: Fine washing + whisky sherry barrel fermentation

Flavor: Vanilla cream, fermented wine aroma, nutty dark chocolate, maple sweetness

This Front Street Honduras Sherry coffee bean is very popular among coffee fans because its flavor carries the aroma of whisky, but when tasted it also has the scent of vanilla cream, very charming. Therefore, coffee fan friends strongly hoped that Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) would launch a drip bag coffee made from this Sherry coffee bean. This Front Street Honduras Sherry coffee bean is also one of the blend beans used in Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s shop for making espresso. All of this is enough to prove its popularity.

4. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Indonesia Golden Mandheling Drip Bag Coffee

Region: North Sumatra, Mount Gayo in Aceh

Company: PWN

Altitude: 1100-1600 meters

Variety: Ateng

Processing method: Wet-hulled method

Flavor: Herbal, caramel, dark chocolate, mellow and clean, high balance, long finish

The specifications of this Front Street Indonesia Golden Mandheling coffee bean obtained by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) are 18 mesh and above, with fewer than 3 defective beans (300g green bean sample). It belongs to the highest grade G1, is darker green in color, and has a neat flat bean shape.

In addition, qualified Front Street Golden Mandheling coffee beans must also undergo three manual selections and one machine selection. Front Street found that Mandheling coffee treated this way not only no longer has the earthy miscellaneous taste unique to ordinary Mandheling, but also tastes cleaner and brighter.

The above are the relatively popular drip bag coffee brands in Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s shop. I hope it can help coffee enthusiasts choose drip bag coffee that suits their taste. Secondly, in fact, when choosing drip bag coffee, coffee enthusiasts can completely choose according to their usual preferences for drinking single-origin coffee. For example, Front Street Guatemala Flower of God coffee beans, Front Street Blue Mountain coffee beans, and so on can all be made into drip bag coffee bags with Front Street's help.

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