My significant other doesn’t care nearly as much about coffee as I do, so we always have pre-ground supermarket coffee at home. Tastewise, it’s usually rather dull and bitter because apparently, that‘s what people expect coffee to taste like around here.
I wonder if there is a method/recipe that can compensate for those flaws. The Aeropress is pretty versatile, so going for lower temperatures and/or shorter extraction times comes to me as a natural first step in this investigation. Doing a pour over with this stuff feels like I‘m wasting precious V60 filter papers though tbh 😄
Any further suggestions? I own a V60, an Aeropress, a cheap drip coffee machine and the (in-) famous IKEA french press. My kettle only allows for adjustments in 10°C steps, but features a temperature display, so I can go reasonably precise on that end.
Cheers! ✌️
Of the listed options, the french press is the most forgiving imo. I imagine its the total immersion style and very coarse grind.
I went french press because it is so forgiving. Put ground beans in container, pour over water and let it sit. You can of course go fancier, measure things here and there. But you’ll get very far with very simple techniques, or no technique.
Speaking of grind fineness it’s also very forgiving there as well. The finer the grind the shorter steep time is needed. I saw a video some time ago about this (there were a well spoken snob whose name I’ve forgotten, will find later) and the conclusion was that pretty much any grind will make good coffee.
Edit: I use one of these old timey grinders and I love it. Fair bit of grind variance being a perk. https://dygtyjqp7pi0m.cloudfront.net/i/25278/22826331_1.jpg
I don‘t mean to put you off a wonderful vintage grinder, but isn‘t grind variance considered bad? If with that you mean, using the a more technical terminology, heterogeneous particle size distribution. Because that would result in both over- and underextraction happening in your brew at the same time.
Again, if everything works fine for you, don’t let me try fix a problem you don’t have.
You are probably 100% right that a more heterogeneous grind would make a better brew. And tighten steep times. While I try for something around 5-7 minutes it isn’t uncommon for it to be 2-20 minutes. It has still been good coffee, way better than any drip. Frech press is ridiculously robust.
At some point I should borrow a great grinder and test out a bunch of grind/steep time combinations to see what I prefer. And compare it to my normal brew. Perhaps there is a light for me to see.
I believe we misunderstood each other here. I was under the impression that a homogeneous particle size distribution was desirable, as this allows for the most even extraction, where a heterogeneous distribution would mean that the finer particles are extracted too much (hence make for unwanted bitterness), while the bigger pieces are extracted too little (so that sour notes creep into the coffee). Am I getting this wrong?
Sorry for derailing btw 😄
In my scenario, I don‘t have control over the grind size as I’m trying to work with pre-ground beans. But even though I might give that a try.
Check my other comment. I grind using an old timey grinder. Not sure what condition the grinding parts are in as I don’t know how they should look new. So your pre-ground should be fine. Probably with a but shorter steep (2-4 minutes?). You biggest issue may be oxidation of your coffee.
You do know you can fake a french press by just putting water and beans in a container, let it steep and once done pour through a fine sieve.
I read your other comment and even replied to it IIRC, thanks for tuning in on the other discussion as well!
Doing some sort of immersion sounds reasonable when I can’t do cold brew. I also like the idea of implementing some advanced self filtering with a kitchen sieve, where I could easily just sieve the coffee again through the same grounds and probably catch most of the sediment that way.