Will It Be Sous Vide? Unusual, Delicious Coffee
Hello sous vide family and welcome to the Especially Caffeinated Will It Sous Vide ? , a weekly column where I do whatever you want with my immersion circulator.
We really had to tackle this topic last week, but Portland is struggling with the snow, and – not only could I get to the store to buy coffee – my coffee expert was unable to get to my kitchen to help me. … This was not the end of the world, however, as I took the opportunity to clean my sous video freezer .
But now the sun is out, the snow has almost melted, and my coffee expert has been able to consult. In short, given the fact that my taste for coffee is “basic”, this consultation was very necessary. While I enjoy upsetting him for using terms like “third wave coffee” and attending a latte art distribution, there is no denying that this man (aka Chris of the Seven Virtues ) knows his beans.
Not only was Chris kind enough to bring me some really good coffee (Ethiopian beans with nice notes of “peach, mixed berries and juniper”), he even ground it using a fancy grinder. (For you nerds: he used Mahlkonig Kenia .) He ground the beans using two different modes : the one used for automatic dripping (this is the # 10 Kenia setting) and the one used for the French press (# 18).
Since the ideal temperature range for coffee extraction is 195 ℉ -205 ℉, we decided to brew four different samples:
- 18.5 grams of ground coffee for automatic dripping, extracted at 205 ℉ in ten ounces of water for four minutes.
- 18.5 grams of ground coffee for automatic dripping, extracted at 195 ℉ in ten ounces of water for four minutes.
- 18.5 grams of ground French press coffee, extracted at 205 ℉ in ten ounces of water for four minutes.
- 18.5 grams of ground French press coffee, extracted at 195 ℉ in ten ounces of water for four minutes.
However, before adding the grounds to the water, we needed to heat it up to temperature. The easiest way to do this is to measure the water into freezer bags and place them in the tub the first time you turn on the circulation pump, so that the brewing water reaches the set temperature at the same time as the water bath.
It is very important to use real freezer bags and not sandwich bags like in the photo above. (I didn’t think and grabbed the wrong bag at first, and this stuff leaked out and I felt sad). Once the water is ready, add the grounds, put the bag back in the tub, and set the timer to four hours. minutes. Why four minutes? When preparing coffee using a French press, four minutes is recommended, and since this method is very similar to sous vide, we chose it.
Then it’s tasting time. We cut a tiny hole in the corner of the bags and, using oven mitts because it was hot, poured the coffee through a fine mesh strainer into the cups.
I may not have messed up one of the samples.
We both tried coffee, Chris used a spoon and I sipped like a normal person.
These were our thoughts (you will notice that one set of thoughts is slightly more useful than the other):
Auto-drip grinding, spinning at 205 ℉ for four minutes:
Claire: “I don’t like this. It tastes like coffee coming out of a saucepan that has been on the heater for too long. “
Chris: “This taste has over-extraction. It’s bitter and you won’t get those pleasant berry notes as you should. “
Grinding in a French press, holding at 205 ℉ for four minutes:
Claire: “I love it!”
Chris: “This one is much more balanced and you get a lot of clarity on the palate. You can really smell the fruity notes. This is beyond what I expected from the French press. I would drink it. ” [ Claire’s note: “I’d drink this” is a much higher praise than one would think. Chris doesn’t drink many things that I would.]
Grinding in a French press, holding at 195 ℉ for four minutes:
Claire: “I love that too!”
Chris: “It’s okay, but a little softer than the 205-degree specimen.” It lacks some berry notes and some sweetness. “
Auto-drip grinding, spinning at 195 ℉ for four minutes:
Claire: “Still disgusting.”
Chris: “Yes, it’s the same [as the 205 sample], but cooler.”
Now it’s time to ask our favorite question: Will there be a Coffee Sous Vide?
Answer: Yes, and it makes a nice cup of tea. More interesting (for me at least), however, was how the experiment demonstrated the importance of grind size, which I previously thought was too valuable. A four-minute extraction of a sample of ground French press at 205 ℉ yielded a lovely, complex tasting cup of coffee with all those promised aromas. However, the auto-drip pattern was so bad that even I dismissed it as “just bad coffee.”
That being said, of course, this is not the most practical way to brew coffee; it is a little awkward and requires about half an hour to wait for the bath and the steeping water to heat up. However – unlike a certain coffee brewing system that rhymes with the word “Pharaoh’s chess” – it would be fairly easy to expand it. You can brew a large bag of coffee at the ideal temperature, strain it all into a large jug, and serve. While Chris has no intention of swapping out his pouring cups for sous vide coffee, he couldn’t deny that it makes a good cup (better than the French press, in his less humble opinion). Given his high standards, I consider this to be a sous vide victory.