A Simple Water Mistake Can Seriously Ruin Your Pour Over Coffee

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The price of a cup of joe at coffee shops keeps rising, and many cheaper, fast food coffees have a ridiculous amount of sugar. As a response, more and more people are looking for ways to make great quality coffee at home. The problem is that even if you buy all the gadgets and invest in good brands of beans, you might still be taking small missteps that keep your home-brewed coffee at an amateur level. There are several pour over coffee mistakes that enthusiasts make, and one of the most common ones has to do with water temperature.

Many people boil water in a kettle and then pour it over their ground coffee. However, experts agree that water shouldn't be boiling, as this temperature is too high and can cause the grounds to be slightly burned. Using boiling water can result in an overly bitter taste that'll tempt you to spend your money at a coffee shop instead.

So, what can you do? The best strategy is to use a temperature-controlled device, like this electric kettle from Hiyakoi. A product like this will easily let you set the exact temperature that you want, which for pour over coffee should be between 195 and 205 degrees Fahrenheit. Alternatively, you can turn off the water as soon as it boils and then let it cool for about 30 seconds. You can also transfer the hot water into a cup and use a kitchen thermometer to see if the temperature is right.

Being strict about water temperature will immediately improve your coffee. Sure, this takes money and time, but the effort is worth it since it will better extract flavor from the ground beans. If you want to take your skills even further, there are other small actions that will have a big payout. One of the most important ones is to brew ground coffee beans soon after you grind them, preferably within 30 minutes. Don't make the mistake of paying more for whole beans, only to have them lose flavor by leaving them out for too long.

You should also consider timing your brew. Improvising how much time the grounds are left brewing is an easy way to ruin your cup of coffee. The brewing process takes between 3 and 4 minutes. Sometimes that wait can seem like an hour, especially if you're rushing to get ready, but it will make a big difference in the quality of your coffee. Bloom the coffee, slowly pour in the water in a few stages, and let it drip for about a minute. You can take this wait time as a challenge to practice mindfulness. Once you've gotten used to these small steps, you'll find it hard to go back to the days of less methodical coffee making that yields inferior results.