There are - what feels like - 1,284 ways to brew coffee. The wonderful thing about that, besides experimenting in your own kitchen and pretending to do science, is that you can find your own preferences. We try out different roasts to see what our favorites are, but what about brewing methods? Do you prefer French press? An immersion technique? Or maybe just a simple pour over.
The combinations are endless (or at least enough to keep us preoccupied). But once you land on that perfect cup of coffee and learn to replicate it every morning, you're pretty much golden.
Our recent favorite cup is via Chemex. My husband and I have been doing French press for a while, just for ease and convenience. He runs quickly off to work every morning and I run quickly off to wherever our 10-month-old is quickly running off to hurt himself.
But a couple of weekends ago, we pulled out the old Chemex. It came out like a shining beacon of hope to perfectly complete our waffley (yes, I just made it a word) breakfast. I have to admit, I've seen Chemexes all over, but I always thought they were just fancy coffee or juice pitchers. Haha. Live and learn. I actually got that idea from Friends. You often see one in Monica's kitchen.
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| friends.wikia.com |
Can you spot it?
It was indeed an experiment, but we followed this post (from one of my favorite blogs) and it turned out great! (ps, how awesomely barista do these dudes look? I feel like you need a rocking beard and/or wear a denim shirt to qualify as a worthy barista. I guess I'll go for the denim.) We tried the same bag of coffee that we'd been using in our French press, but from the Chemex it was so smooth. It made us both sigh all heavy. The coffee wasn't crisp. It didn't hit a certain part of our palates, but distributed itself all over. It was so warm. And full. And crazy delicious. I think it will be our method of choice when we're drinking coffee together on the weekends. Did we just become an old couple??
First, we placed the filter in folded side near the spout (i.e., multiple layers towards the spout). Then, we gave the filter a quick rinse (though it's best to be more thorough than we were this first time and get more of the filter saturated) by pouring hot water through it. Of course, dump out the water from the Chemex before actually brewing. In went the freshly ground coffee (we went with a medium grind in our Hario mill). We made the bloom by pouring in just enough water to cover the grounds and waiting until a little coffee seeped through. That told us the Chemex was ready for the pull pour.
And then we just let it drip. Simple as that! And it makes for such a great cup of coffee. In a pretty pitcher. But that's secondary. Don't worry. I know that now. ;)
