Table of Contents

I’ll order the drinks in coarsest grind to finest - which happens to roughly correspond with how often I drink that style of coffee.

Cold Brew

1:8 Ratio - 100g Coffee 800g Water for about 24 hours.

I know I said the order roughly corresponds with how frequent I drink the coffee, well this is why it’s rough. I don’t usually make cold brew this way, I usually do the ice pour over method below.

That being said, the method is as follows:

  • Use a 1:8 ratio - 100g coffee 800g water and leave in a large container: a large french press works perfectly because it has a filter.
  • Leave it in the fridge for 24 hours.

As for coarseness you can use a french press grind, or something a little bit coarser. I would say if you can pick up an individual ground it’s too coarse, but something under that is good.

Either drink it as is or with a dash of milk.

French Press

1:14 Ratio - 15g Coffee 210g Water for about 10 minutes.

French press is near and dear to my heart, it’s the style my parents would have for breakfast every Saturday. When I moved out they gave me one of their french presses, which I used every day for 2 years until I left the window open and a gust of wind knocked it over - shattering it.

Making it:

  • Using a 1:14 ratio add 210g water to 15g ground coffee in a french press for about 10 minutes.
  • Halfway through give it a gentle mix. The beans should be somewhat coarse but not too much. Think a little bit coarser than sand.

Usually you drink french press coffee on its own, however growing up we added a splash of milk.

Syphon

1:15 Ratio - 16g Coffee 240g Water for 2 minutes.

Syphon coffee is wonderful, such a fun spectacle. Of the filter coffees it’s my favourite, but it can be a hassle to set up.

Instructions:

  • In a kettle boil some water.
  • While boiling assemble the syphon.
  • Pour the water into the bottom chamber, add the top chamber on top (ensuring the filter has been securely fastened).
  • Light your bunsen burner.
  • When the water has boiled to the top add your coffee to the top chamber, give it a mix, and then wait two minutes.
  • Kill the heat, the coffee should be sucked down. Enjoy.

Pour Over (V60)

1:15 Ratio - 16g Coffee 240g Water.

There are plenty of pour over brewers, V60 is the one I happen to have. One of the unique things about it is it has a relatively large opening at the bottom; this means liquid passes through quickly, so I tend to grind finer to compensate.

Instructions:

  • Assemble filter, V60 and cup.
  • Give the filter paper a rinse with hot water.
  • Discard the water which has gone through the filter.
  • Place V60/cup on a scale.
  • Add coffee to the centre of the V60.
  • Create a little well in the centre. You want roughly even distance between coffee and filter paper throughout the V60.
  • Boil water.
  • Add water at a 1:2 ratio - or 2 grams of water per 1 gram of bean. While pouring try to saturate as much of the grounds as possible.
  • Quickly give it a swirl. Let rest for about 30 seconds.
  • Over the next 1 and a half minutes pour in hot water in a circular motion, you want to pour at a rate which disturbs the grounds slightly. By now you should have used around 70% of your water, and have more less filled the V60.
  • Continue pouring the rest of the water over 30 seconds, be gentle this time.
  • Let coffee drip, giving it a slight swirl to get things going.

Ice Pour Over

1:10:5 Ratio - 16g Coffee 160g Water 80g Ice.

This is how I usually make my ice coffee, the method is the same as a regular pour over, except you replace some of the water with ice. I’m pretty rough with the ratio, I usually weigh out my ice then subtract that from my usual amount of water used for a pour over.

The instructions are pretty much the same as the pour over, except you put the ice cubes in the cup below the V60.

Moka

If you can a 1:10 ratio but don’t worry too much.

I’m not sure how I feel about moka pots, for one they are capable of producing a really tasty cup of coffee, and they look cool as the coffee is being extracted. On the other they’re a bit finicky, in general you want to fill both the chamber and the basket. Your only real room for variance is grind size.

Instructions:

  • Put boiling water in the base chamber to just under the valve.
  • Fill filter basket with ground coffee, don’t tamp - but if you have a WDT tool or a tooth pick mix it around to break up clumps.
  • Assemble moka pot.
  • Heat moka pot on a stove, just as it begins to sputter kill the heat and run the bottom chamber under cold water.

Turkish

1:8 Ratio - 8g Coffee 64g Water

This is another coffee I don’t often make, but that’s just me being scared of damaging my grinder. It’s easy and tastes quite nice.

  • Heat up water in a cezve.
  • Just as bubbles are about to form add coffee.
  • Mix well!
  • Huge bubbles will form, it’ll look like it’s boiling over. Kill the heat.