In yesterday's article sharing flavor descriptions with everyone, the section on "body" sparked quite a response from coffee lovers, and a friend asked in the backend about how to improve the body of their pour-over deep-roasted coffee, which tastes relatively thin.

Let's revisit the basics: body refers to whether the coffee liquid feels light or rich and substantial in the mouth. This has some relation to the concentration of the coffee liquid—the lower the concentration, the thinner it is, and the higher, the richer and more substantial. Deep-roasted coffee beans, due to their looser texture, are more likely to produce a rich body.

So, if your deep-roasted coffee usually turns out on the thin side, you can observe your brewing parameters to find where the problem lies and make adjustments.

Traditionally, to highlight a rich and full-bodied coffee taste, roasters generally use deep roasting, which also makes it less likely to taste any defective flavors in the coffee. With the introduction of the specialty coffee concept, people began to emphasize unique regional flavors and advocate for coffees with a clean taste and prominent sweet-and-sour notes, which is why light-roasted coffee gradually became popular. Deeper roasting promotes more caramelization of substances, so to preserve more fruit acidity and floral aromas, a lighter roast level is used.

The coffee bean roast levels we commonly see on the market can be roughly divided into three categories: light roast, medium roast, and deep roast.

Light roast: Rich in fruity notes, with sweet-and-sour floral and fruity aromas, and a relatively strong acidity. For example, Front Street Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe Gedeb Cooperative coffee beans.

Medium roast: Nutty notes, mainly caramel, cocoa, and malt aromas. For example, Front Street Coffee's Brazil Queen's Estate coffee beans.

Deep roast: With a slight chocolaty bitterness, lower acidity, rich caramel sweetness, and notes of spices, wood, and charcoal. For example, Front Street Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans.

I. Coffee-to-water ratio

When brewing deep-roasted coffee, Front Street adjusts the ratio to the range of 1:14–1:15. Once the water amount exceeds a 1:15 ratio, it will dilute the concentration, and the resulting taste will easily be thin. Therefore, controlling the final ratio at 1:15 is the most suitable.

Because everyone's perception of body, taste, and concentration is different, if you still find this ratio too weak or the body too thin, you can reduce the water ratio to 1:13–1:14 as well. Alternatively, it's possible that the timing control is the issue.

II. Brewing time

Even if you've changed the ratio several times and the deep-roasted coffee still comes out thin, it's most likely under-extracted. At this point, you can check the brewing time. If you've used more than 15g of beans and the brewing time is around 1 minute 30 seconds, it's very likely that the grind is too coarse, causing the water to flow through too quickly.

In that case! We can adjust to a finer grind and control the brewing time to the range of 2:00–2:30, allowing the coffee to be more fully extracted, and the body will naturally become fuller~

III. Dripper choice

When brewing deep-roasted beans, Front Street uses not the common V60 dripper but the Kono dripper. This is because the V60 dripper's spiral rib design makes the water flow through relatively quickly, making it more suitable for medium-light roasted coffee. These coffees require a finer grind to bring out more layers of flavor during extraction; if the dripper extracts too slowly, over-extraction can easily occur. That's why the fast-flowing V60 dripper is said to be more suitable for brewing medium-light roasted coffee beans.

Deep-roasted coffee beans have a looser texture and higher extraction efficiency (aromatic substances are easily extracted), so a coarser grind than for medium-light roasts is needed to reduce extraction efficiency (to prevent over-extraction). At this point, if you use a fast-flowing V60 dripper, under-extraction can easily occur.

The Kono dripper's ribs are distributed only in the lower half. This design is intended to slow the water flow and effectively extend the steeping and extraction time of the coffee grounds. That's why Front Street uses the Kono dripper as the extraction tool for brewing deep-roasted coffee beans, so that the extraction is more complete and the body can be richer.

IV. Pouring technique

The pouring technique here doesn't refer to whether you use a three-pour or single-pour method, but rather to paying attention to avoiding rinsing water against the wall of the dripper when pouring. What problems arise if the water stream hits the dripper wall during brewing?

Exactly! The water will flow straight down along the wall, and what lands in the server is not extracted coffee liquid but plain hot water. This reduces extraction while diluting the rest of the coffee liquid in the server, making the body thin. So when pouring in circles, try to avoid rinsing the wall multiple times, to ensure you end up with a satisfying body~

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