Hi, welcome to my first blog post. I have come to realize that as a photographer sometimes it’s more common for you to be connected to my work than to me as the artist. I’m starting a blog series to share bits about my life and things that I’m passionate about, the first being my obsession with coffee.
I’m not what you would call a coffee snob, however, I’ve had lots of different coffee over the past couple years and have developed an appreciation for a cup that is made with love and intention. I enjoy sharing coffee with people, strangers, roommates, Haley, and my family. I think the best cup of coffee you can have is the cup with the people that you will remember the most. Watch a beautiful sunrise while sipping some coffee and tell me that you are not drinking the best cup you’ve ever had.
I have coffee most days. Sometimes I go to a local coffee shop for my daily fix but I also love making pour overs, so I’ll leave a list of what you will need and how to make a basic pour over.
Here is what you will need:
1.Good fresh beans:I prefer whole beans that I can grind up at home (I’ll leave some roaster recommendations at the bottom)
2. Coffee grinder:Burr grinders are the best, but a normal coffee grinder can work well too.
3. Kitchen scale:This will be used to make sure you have a good ratio of beans to water. I use a 16:1 Ratio which I will explain more later.
4. Kettle:The best kettle to use is a gooseneck kettle as it helps direct the water in a way that makes for an even pour.
5. Method:I prefer using a V60 or a Chemex, both of which are used to make pour overs.
6. Fav mug:Honestly, I prefer handmade mugs. I recommend looking around at a local Goodwill to find a mug with some character.
7. Notebook:Something I started as of late is keeping a journal of the “noteworthy” cups of coffee that I drink. I take note of what beans I had along with what brewing method I used. This has helped me remember what beans I really enjoyed so I can always make sure to have them in stock at my house.
The Steps:
1. Weigh your beans. I use a 16:1 ratio, which means that for every 1 gram of coffee, you use 16 grams of water. If I’m making a cup for myself, I use 20 grams of coffee and if I’m making a cup for myself and a bud I use 40 grams of coffee. Obviously you can play around with how much coffee to make based on the amount of people you are making it for and how big of a mug you are wanting to use. To calculate the total amount of grams of water needed, multiply the amount of coffee by 16. So for 20 grams of coffee, you will use 320 grams of water (20g of coffee x 16 = 320g of water).
2.Grind them up: You'll want a medium to fine grind depending on the method you are trying to use. You can look up different recommendations of grind sizes per method but for most pour over methods you are going to want to do medium/fine coffee grounds.
3.Heat up the water: you are going to want to bring the water to a boil and then let it cool off before pouring the water over the grounds. PRO TIP: When the water has boiled, go ahead and pour that really hot water through the empty paper filter lining the vessel you are using to make the coffee. This will allow the vessel to get hot and for the paper taste to get extracted out of the filter. When you are done with that, dump the water out into the sink and pour the ground coffee into that pre-wet filter.
4.Bloom: This is my favorite part about making coffee. A bloom is the first pour of your coffee and will always be twice the amount of coffee grams. In other words, if you used 20 grams of coffee, your first pour (the bloom) will be to 40 grams. Be sure to zero out the scale after putting the grounds in the filter and before beginning your pour so that you are pouring from 0 grams until the scale reads 40 grams. After you finish the bloom let it rest for 30 seconds or so.
5.Pouring: The rest of the pours are pretty straight forward. I always pour in 200 gram increments with 30 seconds in-between pours. You will continue this process until you have reached the desired total number of grams that you calculated with the 16:1 ratio.
6.Another pro tip: While you are waiting for your last pour to finish draining, pour your remaining hot water from the kettle into the coffee mug you are going to use. Let it sit for a couple seconds and then drain it out before pouring your hot coffee into that favorite mug of yours. This is to help keep your coffee extra hot, so that the mug does not “steal the heat” from your coffee.
7.Lastly, pour that coffee into a mug, let it cool to a comfortable temperature and enjoy. I encourage you to mess with different combinations of coffee beans, ground size, method of making coffee and the people you drink it with.
Here is a short list of roasters that I normally buy coffee from:-Pinewood Roasters
-Bird Rock Roasters
-Verve Coffee Roasters
-Native Sons Coffee Roasters
-Steady State Coffee Roasters
If you have questions about my coffee process please feel free to send me an email or leave a comment below.
