Recently, a friend asked, how should drip bag coffee be brewed, and are there any particular tips? You've come to the right person with this question. As someone who once brewed drip bag coffee like instant coffee, I'm here to teach you the ultimate secret of brewing drip bag coffee!
Let's first talk about drip bag coffee!
Drip bag coffeeis a filter bag with hanging ear paper cards, containing ground coffee inside. The coffee powder here is ground from coffee beans, not instant coffee, and it has grounds that don't fully dissolve in water. So opening the drip bag and dumping it into hot water to soak is unwise, because you'd lose the function of the drip bag and end up with a mouthful of coffee grounds.
So the correct method is to tear open the top along the Open line, then unfold the small hanging ear cards and hook them onto the rim of the cup.
The secret of brewing drip bag coffee—keep everything simple
First, those who choose to drink drip bag coffee aren't too keen on the taste of instant coffee. Both types of coffee have the attribute of convenience, but the coffee flavors are distinctly different. Drip bag coffee is more like a simplified pour-over coffee; their brewing methods are basically the same, and the flavor extracted from the same coffee beans is also basically similar.
So when brewing drip bag coffee, you can certainly copy the full ritual of pour-over coffee: a slender gooseneck kettle, an electronic scale accurate to 0.01g, a beautiful glass carafe, tear open the drip bag, elegantly hang it over the glass carafe, and then use your skilled circular pouring technique to bloom and pour.
But if you just want to simply enjoy a good cup of drip coffee, the drip bag coffee packet can easily do that for you, especially for friends who are traveling or prefer minimalism.
Drip bag coffeefocuses most on convenience. The coffee filter bag with "ears" replaces the dripper and filter paper, and the pre-ground coffee powder saves you the trouble of a grinder. All you need to do is pour water into the filter bag and wait for clean, clear black coffee to filter through.
Some friends might ask, should I pour in a circular motion, should I pause, should I bloom? The requirements for pouring water aren't as strict as with pour-over. There are mainly two points: first, the pour-over dripper is conical, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, and circular pouring is for even extraction, while the drip bag coffee packet is basically the same width top and bottom, and the opening is relatively small, so circular pouring doesn't make much sense.
Moreover, the pouring equipment for drip bag coffee isn't limited to a slender gooseneck kettle. To put it another way, any container that can pour water will do, like a regular hot water kettle or a regular thermos.
Why is it said that techniques and skills don't matter much for drip bag coffee? Because the drip bag packet prioritizes convenience, sacrificing coffee freshness and the operability of brewing techniques. So with the same beans, the flavor of drip bag coffee won't be higher than pour-over. Therefore, all we can do is brew the coffee flavor using the simplest method possible, without needing to compare it to pour-over.
The only things to pay attention to when brewing drip bag coffee are water temperature and water volume. Water temperature is a factor that must be noted when brewing any coffee. Many office workers habitually use hot water from a water dispenser to brew drip bag coffee, but most water dispensers don't heat water above 75°C, so directly using hot water from the dispenser to brew drip bag coffee will result in a weak, tasteless flavor. Front Street recommends brewing drip bag coffee at a temperature within 88-91°C.
How much water should be poured? A standard drip bag coffee packet is 10g, and we only need to pour 120ml-150ml of water. Of course, if you advocate the simple method, you can free yourself from the electronic scale too. Drip bag coffee, as a personal drink, is usually brewed directly hanging on your own mug, so you can remember the 150ml water line on your mug and remove the drip bag when the coffee drips to around 150ml.
There's another method, and here's a demonstration for your reference:
The equipment used is also very simple: just a packet of drip bag coffee, a tall cup, and a thermos filled with hot water boiled in the morning. Using a tall cup is also to prevent the coffee grounds from being continuously soaked in water, which can cause a bitter taste.
① First, tear open the drip bag coffee packet and hang it over the cup.
② Open the thermos and pour the first round of hot water into the center of the drip bag filter, filling it to 1/2 of the filter bag, and wait 15 seconds.
③ For the second round, continue pouring hot water until the filter bag is 9/10 full, stopping when the water reaches roughly the top small card strip attached to the filter bag.
④ After all the coffee liquid has flowed into the cup, for the third round, continue pouring hot water until the filter bag is 9/10 full, then stop pouring.
⑤ After all the coffee liquid has flowed into the cup, for the fourth round, continue pouring hot water until the filter bag is 9/10 full. Once the coffee liquid has flowed into the cup, you can remove the drip bag filter.
⑥ A total of 4 pours: the first pour to 1/2 full, and the remaining three pours each after all the coffee liquid has flowed out, pouring to 9/10 full. After several tests by Front Street, pouring this way results in a total water volume of about 150ml.
Actually, brewing a cup of drip bag coffee really doesn't require complex operations or equipment. Just like this, simply and ordinarily, you can get a delicious cup of drip bag coffee.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
