Who thought that you would ever have to think about doing math when making your coffee? Certainly not me. I'm the newbie here at Madrone, so I had no idea what a pour over coffee was! I got brought onto the team with a warm welcome, where I admitted that I drank Nescafe instant coffee...thankfully my team has carefully lead me into what makes a good cup of coffee. 

My first project was to tackle the pour over coffee method. After watching Jake show me step by step how to do it I then took all the gadgets and gizmos home with me and attempted it by myself.

Here is what I learned - it's all about ratios here. The coffee to water ratio is extremely important. Too much coffee and you will have a very strong and bitter cup, but too little it will taste like a watery mess. The ratio is dependent on you though, if you are in dire need of caffeine then add a few more grams than what you would normally do. In my case I did a 28 grams of our Ethiopian Natural and ended with 420 grams of liquid. This equaled to a 1:15 ratio pour over (28 grams X 15 = 420 grams). 

The step-by-step breakdown using a scale: 

You first weigh out your coffee grounds to 28 grams and heat up your water to about 205 degrees fahrenheit. Try not to go too much above or below this temperature because your coffee will either taste burnt or lukewarm. Then, soak your filter so that your coffee doesn't taste like paper or get stuck to it. Put your canter on the scale and zero it out by pressing the tare button. You then pack in the coffee so that it resembles a flat bed. Press the timer and begin the first of three pours, the balloon! This is when you pour water onto the packed coffee until your scale hits about 100 grams. You will see some gas bubbles pop - this is a good sign. The second pour is called the emergent, you pour the water in little circles around the coffee until your scale hits about 300 grams. The last and final pour is called the emergent, you cover all the grounds in water until you reach 420 grams. Now...you're done!

The whole process from first pour to last should only be about 3-4 minutes in total. Try not to go over this time limit since the coffee to water contact affects how "cooked" your cup will be. I like my coffee to be a little creamy, so I add a dash of oat milk. 

Comment or tag us on your pour over attempts! It sounds daunting at first, but trust me... this changed my coffee experience.