There are significant differences between light, medium or dark roast coffee. For sure, everyone has a preference when it comes to roast level.

This post we break down the three roast level and top tips for each roast level. Let's get started!

Light Roast 

Light roast coffees are delicate, nuance and have brighter acidity as compared to darker roast coffees.

Why light roast? This is to best preserve the delicious flavours and aromatics of coffee that originate from it's origin. The darker the roast, all the delicate fruity floral notes will slowly disappear and acids in coffee evaporate.

It's pretty common to see light roasts with high quality coffees. Like Wagyu beef, you want to sear the steak and cook it rare to taste the delicious flavours.

Medium Roast

Medium roast covers quite a wide range, from medium light to medium dark. To make it simple, as long as it looks brown (like photo above), just call it medium roast.

Medium roast coffee makes a well balanced cup, with mild acidity, good sweetness and mouthfeel, sometimes can taste like fruit juice!

Dark Roast

Welcome to the dark side of coffee.

Bold and pungent with no acidity and lingering bittersweetness are the key characteristic of dark roast coffee. You'll also find traces of oil on coffee surface, which commonly seen when coffee are roast to second crack. 

The darker the roast, the lower the acidity, the thicker the body of coffee. Like we Malaysians call it, Kaw Coffee! 

Espresso brewing can be challenging and frustrating. But when got it right, it's the happiest and rewarding moment ever!

This post is about how to dial in your espresso and get the best shot in every brew.

To start off, we are breaking this topic into two sections 

• Brew Ratio 
• Grind Size

Brew Ratio

If your espresso taste kinda watery, probably the brew ratio isn’t right (tho could be other reasons, but will get to that later) 

Brew ratio is the multiple of dosage. If your dose is 20g coffee and output espresso is 40g, that’s a multiple of 2 and brew ratio is 1:2. 

To start, we strongly recommend to brew with only ONE fixed dosage at all time! The easy way is to follow the espresso basket size! If it’s an 18g basket, just stick to 18g for all your espresso brew. 

The espresso basket is designed to have a good amount of space between shower screen and puck of ground coffee. If you follow the amount of coffee for espresso basket, this gives enough space for water to fill up and extract coffee more evenly (yes, you have to level & tamp evenly as well!)

By fixing one variable (dosage), you can focus on adjusting brew ratio and grind size easily. Also, you may get a extra 1-2 cups of espresso for that =)

What’s the perfect brew ratio?

It depends on the roast level of coffee! The general rule, the darker the roast, the shorter the espresso. 

For Dark Roast coffee, go for 1 : 1.5
For most Espresso Blend (to pair with milk), go for 1 : 1.8 
For Medium Light Espresso Roast (mostly single origins), go for 1 : 2 or more. 

Darker roast coffees are easily burnt and super bitter with a longer pull espresso. Whereas lighter roast coffees have lots of delicate flavours, a longer pull will result to a much sweeter and balanced cup.

Yes, for espresso brewing, every gram counts! That's why you definitely need a weighing scale for that. 

A top tip! Check with roaster for the ideal brew ratio! Roasters usually calibrate and roast coffee to suit a specific ratio. Also, you can keep the guessing work to absolutely minimal and just focus on grind size!

Grind Size

After fixing your dosage and decided on brew ratio, the next thing to consider is the grind size!

Different coffee requires different grind size. It’s impossible to have 1 grind setting for all coffee, unless you are in luck! Here are few indicators to know whether you are on the right grind size

First is flow rate. The starting flow should be two thin strip on double spout and slowly gets faster. If the espresso is flowing like waterfall at beginning, you’ll need to grind finer and slow down the flow. Imagine water pass through a glass of rocks is faster than a glass of sand. 

Second is time. Your espresso should start flowing about 5-10 seconds you start the shot and hit the target brew ratio anywhere between 20-40 seconds, depending on coffee. Brew time outside the range is very likely under or over extract. 

Lastly of course, taste it! A good espresso is well balanced, start with delicate acidity and slowly turn into long lasting sweet aftertaste. 

If espresso taste sour all the way (under-extract), grind finer. Bitter and dry long aftertaste (over-extract), grind coarser. The bottom line, if the aftertaste is unpleasant, pretty sure the grind size is at the wrong one. 

Don't forget to taste your espresso with a non heated cup! There you'll get a more accurate tasting as our palate tastes the best at body temperature. Your espresso definitely taste better as espresso cools down!

A top tip! Sometimes you’ll notice that the grind size is the pretty much right there, ie nice flow rate plus time is within the range, but somehow it’s just a little sour or bitter.

This is common if your grinder can't make micro adjustments on grind size, but no big deal!

A quick fix is to pull 1-3g longer (if sour) or shorter (if bitter). Pretty sure you’ll get a good one on the next shot! 

Also, don’t get too OCD with brew time. You may notice that everything remain the same but brew time somehow differ a couple secs. There are other reasons like ground coffee distribution, humidity, tamping etc will affect the time.

Time is a good indicator to ensure consistency in every cup, especially for cafes. But for us home brewers, as long as the taste is good, you are on the right track! 

Finally, always distribute your ground coffee and tamp as even as possible. An even distribution and tamping will improve extraction with result to a sweeter cup! Check out how to distribute by tapping here.

Consistency is key for ground coffee distribution and tamping. Practice makes perfect!

Last but not least, always brew with freshly roasted Espresso Roast coffee! 

Filter light roast coffee are not as soluble as medium roast coffee, hence it result to a faster flow rate and very easily under-extracted. You may get a good espresso with 1 : 2.5 or more ratio, but very often a watery and diluted espresso. 

Have fun brewing your god shot at home!

JWC Roastery is the brainchild of Nelson, an absolutely passionate coffee man. He has been roasting coffee in Johor Bahru since 2009, one of the earliest specialty coffee roaster in Malaysia.

Nelson and his team had been active in participating numerous coffee competitions in the past years. This includes winning the 2016 Champion of Malaysia Brewers Cup and Latte Art Championship. They also represented Malaysia in the World Championship in both year 2016 and 2017. 

Here's a short interview with Nelson, happy reading!

1. What is your earliest coffee memory?

Morning coffee sessions at traditional kopitiams with my parents and grandparents when I was a kid. 

2. How did you get into the coffee industry?

I studied and worked in Taiwan as a software engineer for 10 years. It was during that time when I started to learn to appreciate specialty coffee. However I realised there was no good coffee after I came back to Malaysia in 2009. Hence I started my first cafe named Ink Brew by JWC. The intention was purely to share good coffee with more people.

3. What is the future of specialty coffee in Malaysia?

We are seeing the growth of specialty coffee as we see more and more people learning to appreciate good coffee. Not forgetting the marvellous achievements of Malaysians in world coffee competitions, which brings us to a whole new level. 

4. What separates JWC from its peers?

We understand the importance of educating our customers on the appreciation of coffee. We can’t change the traditional kopitiam culture, but we can introduce a new culture by showing them how to appreciate the characters and uniqueness of each coffee origin. This starts from training more baristas to make good coffee, which is also the rationale behind the inception of JWC Coffee Academy and JWC Roastery. 

5. What is your favourite coffee?

 A black coffee which has been happily brewed. 

6. Any tips for the novice coffee lover?

There are no rules in coffee-making. As long as you enjoy the coffee, it’s good coffee.

More information about JWC Roastery here.

French Press is definitely the easiest way to brew coffee. Just add hot water with ground coffee and press, pretty straight forward brewing method.

We break down some of the frequently asked questions and brewing top tips about French Press in this post. You'll master this simple brewing tool in no time. Let's get started!

What's good about French Press

1. Metal filter.

You’ll get a good rounded and velvety bodied coffee with all the delicious coffee oil in the cup.

2. It's super easy. 

Just add water and ground coffee in the brewer and press at 4 minutes. Definitely a great tool for starters.

3 Tools Your Need To Brew Perfectly with French Press 

1. French Press - if you are brewing for more than 2 cups, get a bigger one! 

2. Grinder - freshly ground coffee taste absolutely amazing.

3. Scale - for maximum consistency in every brew.

Lastly, freshly roasted coffee beans is a MUST! 

How to brew with French Press

Here’s our favourite brewing recipe, 21g coffee to 300ml water, with 95ºc water temperature.

Step 1 : Pour hot water and ground coffee into French Press, start the timer and let it steep for 4 minutes. 

Step 2 : At 4 minutes, use a spoon to gentle break the coffee (crust). This will make all the ground coffee on surface to sink bottom.

Step 3 : Scoop out any remaining grounds and bubbles on surface. 

Step 4 : Press the plunger and wait for another minute or two.

Step 5 : Pour and enjoy!

French Press Brewing Top Tips

1. The use of spoon to gently break the crust at 4 minutes and scoop out all bubbles and grounds. This simple step makes your cup of coffee super clean!

2. After pressing the plunger, give a minute or 2 to let all fines set to bottom. This will drastically reduce the sediments pour into your cup. All hail gravity! 🙌🏻

3. Try a slightly finer grind than your usual grind size. You'll be surprise how the coffee turns out!

FAQ on French Press

1. Any coffee recommendations? 

We recommend to brew medium or darker roast coffee on French Press. French Press is an infusion brewer, the extraction is much gentle as compared to drip. Espresso Roast coffees works really well too!

2. What's the perfect brew ratio?

We recommend a higher ratio with 7g of coffee to every 100ml of water. This give a good rounded body with medium roast coffees.

3. Do I need to pour all the coffee into another server to prevent over-extraction?

Nope, if you follow our recipe above the coffee will not continue to brew of continue to extract. Just pour straight into your cup and enjoy!

Finally, you got check out the best French Press, Espro. With double micro filter, it makes a super clean coffee real easy. Check it out here.

Have fun brewing!

Cloud Catcher Roastery is our long time roaster partner. We met founder Elvin and Tristan when we first started Blaq Coffee in 2014 (Elvin was one of our early subscribers). Since then, they started Cafe Crema in Mont Kiara and Cloud Catcher Roastery, building sustainable relationship with coffee farmers and bringing lots of delicious coffees from all around the world.

Here's a short interview with Elvin, check it out!

1. What is specialty coffee and why does it matter?

Specialty coffee is defined by its quality, from the seed to the cup. It is important so the whole journey of coffee is being told and appreciated. It is one of the biggest traded commodities in the world and its consumption has increased tremendously over time. Yet, many people do not know much about coffee except of its bitterness and that it fixes one’s caffeine needs. 

Specialty coffee comes into the picture; it brings quality and the story of the coffee so that every cup and every effort is appreciated, from producers to importers, roasters, baristas and consumers.

2. What separates Cloud Catcher from its peers?

At Cloud Catcher, we take pride in learning everything about the journey of our coffee. We seldom send samples of our coffee; instead, we invite our customers to experience Cloud, and to learn how we source, make, store, and roast our coffee. We take you on a journey of coffee.

The roasting process often appears mythical to many people because, most of the time, it is done behind closed doors. On the contrary, we are an open book, a showroom where you can immerse yourself in the journey. A Disneyland of Coffee, if you will.

We listen, we taste, we adjust, we improve and we grow together with our clients.

3. Can you tell us about the Chapola Project?

Chapola (which means sprouted coffee seedling) was created during an origin trip to Honduras. It's a project founded by four roasters, namely The Maling Room, Cloud Catcher, Tim Adams and Dramanti Artisan Roaster. Chapola works with coffee producers to improve the quality of their lives, as well as to refine and to build their production infrastructure. By dealing directly with farmers, our premium prices benefit the people who deserve it the most. 

Here is the Cloud Catcher Commitment: for every one kilograms of green beans or roasted coffee beans sold, MYR1.00 is donated to the Chapola Project and other international charitable organisations. For every purchase, you are indirectly helping someone in the chain. When you are drinking every cup of coffee, you know that it has benefited someone in need.

We have helped build school in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Water Well in Ethiopia, Rohingya Refugees School in Malaysia and many more.

4. What do you look for when creating a coffee blend?

The coffee taste is very subjective. There is no perfect cup, there is no perfect blend. It is important to understand your clients’ needs based on the demographics. We have customised blends for our clients with minimum commitment of course.

We seek to find a good balance between acidity, body and sweetness.

Certain demographics might have a slight preference for body over acidity, thus we will adjust our formula, coffee origin and roast profile to suit them.

5. What is Cloud Catcher’s role in promoting specialty coffee in Malaysia?

We believe we have set a competitive benchmark in the industry by having an open concept roastery. We are constantly doing research and development from ways of processing coffee, making coffee to roasting coffee. 

6. Any tips for the novice coffee lovers? 

Never say you don't like something unless you have tried it all. Be adventurous and you might find yourself a new favourite every-time.

For more information about Cloud Catcher, check it out here.

The Hario V60 is our most favourite coffee dripper. It's the only brewing equipment that we brew with every single day, literally!

This post is about everything you want to know about Hario V60, and some brewing pro tips for your perfect cup of V60 coffee. Let's dig in!

What's good about V60

1. Paper Filter 

With use of paper filter, it absorbs all the coffee oils and filters all sediments. As a result, you’ll get a real clean and transparent cup.

Yes, it's so clean that you can see through the coffee!

2. Ultimate Control 

By pouring hot water with gooseneck kettle, it gives you full control in coffee brewing! There you'll get to control the brewing time by adjusting water pouring flow rate and aim for the areas precisely.

3. Cleaning is such a breeze

This is the main reason why we like V60... it’s extremely easy to clean up! Just throw away the paper filter (with ground), rinse and voila! 

5 Tools You Need To Brew Perfectly With V60 

1. V60 & Paper Filter - For 1-2 cups, go for size 01. For 3-4 cups, 02 works the best. 

2. V60 Server - For single cup, it’s optional (just stir the coffee with a spoon after brewing). For 2 or more cups, best brew with a server to mix up the whole brew.

3. Drip scale - A MUST!! There you can measure the brew ratio and time for best consistency! 

4. Gooseneck kettle - the use of gooseneck kettle give you ultimate full control on the pouring flow rate. 

5. Coffee Grinder - nothing beats freshly ground coffee!

How To Brew With V60

Here’s our favourite brewing recipe, 16g coffee to 250ml water, with 95ºc water temperature.

0.00 : Add 30ml of water
0.30 : Add to 100ml 
1.15 : Add to 180ml
2.00 : Add to 250ml 
2.30 : Finish brew

BEAM is our pioneer roaster partner in Bean Shipper. We started our collaboration since day one in 2014 until now (we started pretty much the same time!). No doubt, one of our most favourite coffee roaster in Malaysia.

Lead by Skye and Jim, the team of three baristas Jack, Kelly and KC recently got into top 16 of Malaysia Latte Art Championship 2018, and KC won the 1st Runner Up in the competition. Kudos to the team!

Here's a short interview from Skye, the head roaster of Beam.

1. What makes a good cup of coffee?

We realise that besides having good quality beans and passion, there's a lot of hard work and self-rectifications, and a "dare to try attitude" that help us consistently dial in great espresso shots for a good cup of coffee. The balance of flavours and tastes are the keys that we always look for. 

Besides that, what really matter to us when judging a good cup of coffee are perception, a person’s individual preference, and whether or not he/she likes the cup of coffee and considers it good.

We gain continuous feedback from the community and we believe that "rectify-improvise" is a necessary process to creating a good cup of coffee.

2. How did Beam come to fruition? 

Beam has been running for four years now since 2014. Keeping it alive has never been an easy task.

To be able to become something as fruitful as it is today, business objectives are set clearly. The team has never been left out and has always been kept motivated through technique improvement trainings and personal development programmes.

The team members share the same drive: we're not only passionate about serving good coffee but also about delivering the right customer experience to our customers. 

Last but not least, customers' feedback has helped us improve and build ourselves to become who we are today.

3. Is specialty coffee a trend or is it here to stay? 

It’s going to stay. We believe the Malaysian market is awakening to all forms of coffee and specialty coffee will eventually get more attention from the locals.

Over the past four years, we have noticed that the sensory perception of the local coffee crowd has been improving, and specialty coffees have been gaining more interest due to their distinctive flavours and the exciting tasting experience they deliver.

4. What do you look for when creating a blend?

Having a good coffee blend definitely helps ease our daily operation in terms of calibration and keeping every cup's quality consistent. Understanding the market preference while creating uniqueness in taste are crucial factors when building new blends for our customers.

From our observation over the past decades, blends that deliver boldness and long, decent aftertaste generally gain more positive feedback from local coffee drinkers.

5. What is your favourite way of enjoying coffee?  

Sipping a glass of black coffee on the rocks with some soothing music playing in a comfortable dining ambiance is our favourite way of enjoying coffee.

6. Any tips for novice coffee lovers?

Try various coffee beans with different brewing methods. When brewing, dare to experiment with different parameters to uncover the best way of extracting the sweetness and flavours of the coffee and at the same time getting rid of its astringency and bitterness.

We suggest training the nose and the palate; this will be the beginning of a far more exciting coffee journey. One can practise by drinking more coffee, and be more aware of and analytical when consuming any food, fruits or drinks. Try to build a memory database of these different tastes. It helps substantially in coffee-tasting.

Always feel free to ask roasters and baristas how to brew coffee and the characteristics of coffee. That's the best and fastest way to brew yourself a good cup!

For more information of their coffees, check it out here. 

The perfect home brewing kit.

Coffee brewing is real easy and truly rewarding. All you need is a couple of tools and you'll get to enjoy home brewed coffee everyday.

This post, we break into the 5 most important things you need to have at home for a consistent and delicious coffee in every single cup.

1. Freshly Roasted Coffee Beans

Like most products of living organisms, coffee beans are highly susceptible to aging. 

Once the coffee beans is roasted, time starts ticking and the beautiful aromatics will slowly disappear, starting on 5-6 weeks past roasting. By then, the coffee will taste blunt and lifeless, just like normal coffee. 

However, super fresh roasted coffee (1-3 days after roasting) don't taste as good too. It usually takes a week or two for the coffee beans to degas and taste at it's best. 

Here in Bean Shipper, you'll find all the roast date stated in all coffee description. Just to make it easy for you to find your perfect coffee beans.

Not to mention, you can find your favourite types of coffee by using the sidebar (or topbar on mobile) to narrow down coffee beans selection. You'll definitely find the ones that you love!

 2. Clean Filtered Water

Good food starts with good ingredients, same goes to coffee!

The water with which we brew our coffee is fundamentally not just water. Chemically, our brewing water is not pure - it contains dissolved minerals, chemicals, and gases, many of which have a noticeable role to play when brewing coffee.

After lots of testings with all kinds of water available in the market (eg. mineral, RO, distilled, spring, tap, alkaline, filtered water.. you name it), we concluded that the filtered water makes the coffee taste the best! 

The good news is, you don't have to use expensive water filter system. A decent water filter works just fine!

If you wanna DIY the best water for coffee, try this one here.

Also, try brewing with 95-98ºc (somewhere off boil) high water temperature for lighter roast coffee. For dark roast, 85ºc is just nice. 

3. Coffee Grinder

A rule of thumb, grind your coffee beans right before brewing!

Like cut apple, ground coffee goes stale within minutes. In our testings, depending on the freshness of coffee, you can taste the woody like staleness as soon as 15-20 minutes after grinding.

If you brew with any filter brewing equipments, hand grinder works perfectly. For espresso, we strongly recommend you invest in an electric grinder. Your hands will thank you for that =)

Also, you'll need to take note of the grind size for different brewing methods.

Lastly, stay away from blade grinder. The inconsistent grind makes your coffee really awful. 

4. Weighing Scale 

'Do you really need a weighing scale for coffee?' Not really. 

'Do you really need a weighing scale for good coffee consistently?' YES absolutely!

No more hit or miss. Get your brew ratio right in no time and enjoy the same delicious coffee in every cup!

For filter brew, the Hario Drip Scale is perfect for home use. Or you can get any baking scale that measures to 1g difference. And Acaia coffee scale is no doubt the best coffee scale in the world.

5. Coffee Brewing Equipments

If you have all 4 things above in place, any brewing equipments will get you a delicious cup!

Our personal favourite, V60 makes a clean cup yet super easy to clean. We also like the Cores Gold Dripper that makes a silky and velvety cup.

If you are looking for something fuss free and easy to brew, French Press is your choice. You can also check out this top tip for French Press brewing. 

Lastly, make sure you clean up all your brewing equipments right after brewing! You don't want to taste any of the residual from previous brew.

That said, cloth filter is not a good option for light roast coffee. Unless you wanna taste the additional flavour from the filter, or else just keep it for dark roast coffee. 

There you go! Gear up your coffee beans and tools for your next delicious cup of coffee! Happy brewing =)

Freshly roasted coffee tastes absolutely amazing, or is it?

In fact, when coffee is super freshly roasted (on first week after roasting), it doesn't really taste that great. We have never had any fresh coffee beans that taste good. 

The reason: carbon dioxide!

When coffee is roasted, gases form inside the bean. After roasting, gases (mostly carbon dioxide) start seeping out.

When coffee is a few days old and very fresh, a bulk of the carbon dioxide formed leaves your beans. During this time, CO2 escapes so quickly it negatively affects the flavor of your coffee, imagine tasting carbon dioxide.

This degassing process is the reason roasters start selling their coffee a few days to a week after the roast date. That’s why fresh coffee bean bags are always look puff like a balloon weeks after roasting!

How long does it takes for coffee beans to degas?

It varies depending on coffee and roasting profile. Every coffee from different roasters has different degassing time, range from 5-14 days.

We all in Bean Shipper have been trying sooooo many different coffees from all roasters. The conclusion, the safest time to start a bag of coffee is 2 weeks past roast date! 

Save the headache to memories the different resting period for each roaster =)

Generally, a darker roast coffee will usually degas faster than lighter roast coffee. If you are getting Espresso Roast coffees, 9-12 days is good to go.

Whereas for Filter Roast coffees, 2 weeks minimum. Sometimes it takes even longer to reach its peak flavour!

So many coffee roasters, how to remember?

How fast should I finish a bag of coffee?

A rule of thumb, always finish a bag of coffee within 4-5 weeks past roast date!

Again, it varies as well. Especially on high quality Gesha coffee, we have tasted 2 months old Panama Gesha that still tastes absolutely delicious!

I don't usually finish coffee that fast, can I keep it unopened for later consumption?

The good news is, coffee will also stay good up to 4-5 weeks if remain unopened!

However, you might want to finish the bag fast! We do notice that once open (on 4-5 weeks), the flavours degrade quicker than fresher beans. Yes, it follows the Rule of Thumb.

What happens once beans have degassed?

Pretty much like a fine wine, freshly roasted coffee gets better over time. Once you open a bag of coffee beans, oxygen starts to make its way into your beans.

This is called oxidation, and is the main cause of staleness of coffee and makes your coffee lifeless and dull. Thankfully, we have solution to make prolong the deliciousness!

Coffee storage top tips

Immediately separate pack all the coffee beans into small jars every time you open a new pack.

This way, we keep minimal contact between coffee beans and oxygen. While trying to squeeze out all air in coffee bag before sealing is a good practice, but separate packing in individual serving is even better!

It's kinda tedious, but definitely worth the effort for delicious coffee at all time!

How to buy coffee beans (in Bean Shipper)?

We highly recommend a purchase of 2-3 bags at a time, depending on how many coffee drinkers you are with.

Another top tip! Always get a 1-2 weeks old coffee for immediate consumption, ie your cup of coffee in next few days. There you get to enjoy the coffee at it's optimum!

For second (or third) bag, get the ones that are super fresh less than 1 week old bag!

By the time you finish your first bag of coffee, it just hits the perfect timing for second bag to start!

Also, you'll most likely get FREE SHIPPING with 2 bags of coffee! If you can't hit the RM80 mark, get a Taster Pack to try out!

Sum Up

“Fresh” isn’t best if you’re dealing with freshly roasted coffee (mind you, if we’re talking fresh as in roasted recently and degassed, versus months old grocery store coffee – that type of fresh is always best!)

Always consult your roaster on how many days you should wait until brewing. You definitely want to find that sweet spot for your cup of coffee!

PS: Please don’t take a deep sniff the moment you open a new bag of coffee, the carbon dioxide will knock you out instantly.

Happy Brewing!

What are Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, Castillo, Pacamara or Gesha?

They are names of coffee varieties!

Like wine (Shiraz, Merlot etc) and apple (Jazz, Granny Smith etc), different varieties have different flavours and characteristics, it's the same for coffee too!

The story of coffee started from Ethiopia, the birthplace of thousands of wild coffee varieties across the country. As time passes, coffee spread around world and today, we are able to get different varietals of coffees from all around the world!

Counter Culture Coffee has a very informative short video about all commonly seen coffee varietals in the world of specialty coffee. Do check out our Past Boxes, you'll get to see what our favourite coffee varieties are! 

If you have been enjoying lots of coffee, you'll notice the trend of coffee varieties that you like! For us, Bourbon is our favourite =)

However, if you still need proof, here's an infographic on Coffee Addiction by Freshpresso that shows what makes for a true coffee addiction. Find out how many of these signs do you share!

For us, yes we are, that's why we are Coffee Bean Shipper =)

 Grind size matters!

We talked about how much of coffee beans for a cup of coffee in previous post. Now let's get to next most important aspect about coffee brewing - the extraction!

Like the previous one, this post is dedicated to filter coffee brewing rather than to espresso. For espresso, click here.

Coffee brewing is no rocket science. 

Matt Perger has written many eye-opening topics for coffee professionals in Barista Hustle, one of our favourite coffee blogs!

He wrote about the basic of extraction theory, including the very detail of how time and grind size (surface area) will affect extraction, and also how over- and under-extraction taste like.

If you are really into coffee, we highly recommend you to read it up, start brewing and taste lots of coffee. The objective is to get yourself familiarise with each characteristic of under- and over- extraction. 

But for an average tongue of a home brewer, we really think it's a little too deep to understand, especially on the extraction tasting part!

Extract all the goodness in coffee.

What is Extraction?

To understand “extraction”, we take an example of a sugar cube.

Put a sugar cube into water, it will fully dissolve with water in the end.

However, to fully dissolve a sugar cube, it depends on how long the cube is in contact with water, how much the surface area (crushed or whole cube), high or low of water temperature and amount of agitation (stirring) until it's fully dissolve.

Same to coffee, about 30% of coffee bean is soluble with water. The tricky part is that, not all of 30% solubles taste good.

Imagine if you boil finely ground coffee over stove for 10 minutes, you might probably extract all solubles, but result in an awfully bitter, woody and lifeless cup of black liquid.

This then lead to the infamous mythical question, how much to extract from the coffee beans?

 Drip by drip, for better coffee extraction!

How to taste extraction?

There are a whole bunch of articles and information about this topic, try google 'coffee extraction', Wikipedia will give you a formula of coffee extraction, VST gives you a refractometer, and Barista Hustle stays on top of the page.

For a home brewer, the number doesn't matter to you. All you need is to know how to taste your coffee with your tongue!

To taste extraction, one of the easiest way is to concentrate on the taste (sour/sweet/bitter) of aftertaste! 

When you sip your coffee, an under-extracted coffee tastes sour, while over-extracted coffee has a bitter lingering aftertaste.

A super over-extracted coffee will give you the worst day of your life, the bitterness will stick on your tongue, dry your throat and you'll be drinking water for the next one hour. 

 

The ultimate goal, a sweet cup of coffee!

The aim is to brew a sweeeeet cup of coffee, delightful mouthfeel, pleasant and ever lasting aftertaste. To get there we need to get the right grind size and brew time, with your perfect brew ratio!

As mentioned earlier, how much to extract depends very much on these few variables,

Grind size, brew time, water temperature and agitation 

We suggest to fix the water temperature (roughly 93˚C) and brewing style (agitation) to avoid any brewing inconsistency. You want to know exactly what went right or wrong in each brew.

To make it simple, just leave the variables to grind size and brew time only!

To reach our aim (sweet coffee!), very often that we need to trial and error first!

Let's say we have a new bag of Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Kongo, let's try and start with a default recipe first! I personally like the ratio of 7g of coffee to every 100g of water, my favourite morning coffee brew ratio!

First try

21g of coffee : 300g of water
Brew time 2.30 minutes
Medium fine grind size (setting on 4)
Taste - Hmm.. not very acidic and has a decent level of sweetness, but aftertaste is quite bitter.

*It's a little over extracted on the first try. To adjust, start with changing the grind size first!

Second try (fixed all variables other than grind size!)

21g of coffee : 300g of water
Brew time 2.30 minutes
Medium grind size (slightly coarser than first try - setting on 4.5)
Taste - Not bitter this time, it's a sweeeeeet cup of coffee and long finish.

The reason to adjust on grind size first is because a click on grinder setting gives much significant changes to extraction as compared to brew time.

Sometimes the best extraction falls annoyingly in between of grinder settings (4.25???) where it's impossible to tune in, hence we shall either prolong (extract more) or shorten (extract less) brew time, best with difference of 20 seconds or more!

COFFEE IS GOD!

Different roast level of coffee

Simple theory, darker roast coffee is easier to extract than lighter roast coffee.

Take an example of Malaysia Liberica Dark Roast. Dark roast coffee is much soluble and easy to extract. Hence a coarse grind size, short brew time (1.30 mins) and lower water temperature (85ºC) will be sufficient to extract the goodness of coffee.

However for light roast coffee, the beans itself is not as soluble and much difficult to extract it's flavours. To encourage extraction, a finer grind size, longer brew time (2-2.30 mins) and higher water temperature (95ºC) is preferred. 

Especially for high altitude coffee (2000m above sea level) like Panama Gesha, which usually lightly roasted. The coffee bean is so dense that it required boiling water to extract. And most of the time, its pretty difficult to over extract too!

Find the Perfect Coffee that you'll love

Most importantly, you'll have to select the right coffee that suits to your preference.

Every coffee is different and has their very own unique characteristics. Coffees like Brazilian or Indonesian coffee are usually bold and pungent, whereas most African coffees are lighter in body but extremely flavourful with bursting fruity floral notes!

To make it easy to select your very own coffee, we have a series of questions that makes selecting your very own Perfect Coffee easier than ever. We break down all the coffees into brew methods and your preferred strength of coffee. 

If you have specific preference like you prefer fruity coffee, click on Sidebar Tags and look 'Fruity'. You'll find all fruity coffees that we have in store!

Coffee brewing is indeed very interesting yet challenging. Different coffees extracts differently, and very often we screw up our first cup of coffee too.

Always try with new coffees, understand the simply theory of extraction, after which you will get to enjoy a very rewarding sweet and delicious cup of coffee everyday. Coffee brewing is not rocket science after all!

While writing this, Matt Perger came out with an amazing Coffee Compass for filter coffee brewing too. Why have we never thought of making diagrams for coffee recipe?

Happy brewing!

Brewing with coffee syphon.

Coffee brewing is indeed no rocket science. But for sure, there are certain elements of science throughout the entire brewing process.

Thankfully it's way easier than high school's chemistry subject, especially for us who want nothing but a cup of good coffee to be enjoyed at home.

Knowing basics will do the magic and tremendously improve your everyday cup of coffee! 

It's going to be a long write up in order to complete the entire topic of coffee recipe. We want to keep it brief yet very easy to understand, let's break this topic into a few posts. 

Before that, this topic is written only for filter coffee brewing, not espresso.

For more details on espresso, Matt Perger's Barista Hustle has seriously gone really deep into espresso.

This post is about Brew Ratio. But to measure brew ratio, we need a weighing scale! 

Acaia?

A weighing scale for coffee?

I still remember those days when we were manning our pop up store in Publika when our customers would always be amazed by the fact that we use a scale to weigh everything.

Obviously, the most frequently asked question was, “Do you really need a scale to make coffee?'.

Our answer was, “No, you don't really need a scale to make coffee. But to make delicious good coffee consistently, YES!”

For consistently delicious coffee

We started home brewing with an AeroPress, it's the brewing equipment designed to brew coffee without using a scale! It comes with an 18g scoop and numbers on the AeroPress itself.

We could still make coffee without a scale. But there were no such thing as consistency - an awful game of hit and miss.

A scoop of coffee beans?

In the absence of a scale, each coffee we brewed were so different that we had no idea what went wrong. 

If you want to enjoy the same and consistent delicious cup of coffee every day, get yourself a good kitchen or baking scale that measures to a 1g difference.

Don't worry about the 0.6g of coffee, you can't taste the difference anyways.

No doubt, Acaia is definitely the best coffee scale ever invented. Hario has good decent coffee scale and comes together with a timer. We got ours for less than RM50 through an online store, works like magic.

The V60 dripper to brew up to 4 cups.

Make your own coffee recipe

First, how much of coffee? 

To start, ask yourself the very first question. How much coffee do you want to drink? 

In most cafes, a serving of filter coffee is somewhere between 200ml to 250ml, generous ones will go up to 300ml to 350ml. We used to serve a cup of 250ml (8 ounces) at our pop up store.

At home, we love a mug of 350ml cup of coffee and slowly enjoy the whole cup while doing something else.

If we have guests over, we will use a V60 dripper to brew a 500g or 700g of coffee in a big server. Absolutely great for sharing! 

Once you have decided how much coffee you need (let's say 300g!), you’re in for some simple maths! 

Prefer KAO coffee?

Secondly, Coffee strength - strong coffee vs light delicate coffee

Everyone enjoys his cup of coffee in his own way. For us Malaysians, we all grew up with lots of delicious food, thanks to our diverse culture.

Our palate is accustomed to foods and drinks with strong flavours. Remember the last nasi lemak and kopi “kao” you had? 

Before we get into some details about brew ratio, we want to mention a little about “strength”. We are often confused: we think strong coffee means bitter coffee.

But no. For coffee, it's the BODY (or texture or tactile or mouthfeel or kick) of the coffee! Therefore, bitter coffee ≠ strong coffee.

There is an easy theory for coffee strength. It’s like making Milo: more coffee, more KAO. Easy! 

Get your brew ratio right.

Time for some math, Brew Ratio

To be honest, we’ve never liked using the ratio for calculation. It's just too difficult to calculate the ratio without using a calculator (18g x 17 = ???). To make it easier, simply calculate the other way round!

For every 100g of coffee you want to make, you multiply with desired dosage (6g - 9g) to every 100g of water, and you will get the weight of coffee beans needed.

At least, it's way easier to multiply 6g x 3 than the one above. The following are brew ratio adjusted according to your desired coffee strength:

Let's say we want to drink a 300g cup of coffee. We prefer to have some kick in our first morning coffee, so the ratio to go for is 7g of coffee to 100ml water ratio, the total beans needed is  7g x 3 = 21g! No calculator needed.

Lastly, Different ratio for different beans

Different coffee beans, single origin or blends, at different roast levels, will taste good with different brew ratios.

Most single origins (especially the World's Best Coffee!) are lightly roasted in a way to bring out its delicate, nuance flavour. Hence, a smaller ratio (6g ground coffee to 100ml of water) for a lighter cup of coffee will make it easier to perceive its flavour.

Darker roast coffees do taste better with stronger ratio rather than a lighter cup. Our favourite ratio for Liberica Dark Roast is 18g coffee to 200ml of water, every sip is a real punch, the perfect morning cup! 

By default, we use the ratio 7g of coffee beans to every 100ml of water ratio as a starting point. 

Then we will taste to check whether we prefer a stronger or lighter cup for the next one, once we found the coffee strength that we wanted, we'll stick to the same brew ratio for every other brews.

That's all about brew ratio! We will come back to the next important aspect of brewing recipe on the next post. It's about Coffee Brewing and Extraction!

As for now, get yourself a weighing scale, find your own brew ratio for your desired coffee strength, and start brewing your consistently delicious cup of coffee every day!

Our guide to best preserve the wonderful aroma and flavour of coffee beans at home

The aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans is simply the most pleasant aroma in the planet. The first whiff of beautiful aroma when opening a new bag of coffee is just amazing!

However, improper coffee bean storage will cause its delicious aroma to disappear and in the end your coffee turns flat, boring and lifeless.

The beautiful aroma is very volatile. Many coffee roasters invest significantly just for coffee beans storage to best preserve the wonderful flavours and aromatics from its origin. 

The Coffee Bean Killer!

Air movement and temperature fluctuation. Leaving coffee beans open and exposed to direct sunlight destroy your coffee beans.

Please don't do that to your coffee beans. They will fade away. It's just too sad to see that.

For roasted coffee beans, oxygen is the real killer!

Every coffee roaster takes coffee beans storage very very very seriously. Our hot and humid climate in Malaysia makes green beans storage very challenging and requires significant investment to preserve all the amazing flavours. 

Some roasters use vacuum packers, some with nitrogen flush, 24/7 air conditioned room, dehumidifier, and even classical music for the coffee beans, all day long.

However for us home brewers, we don't want to spend money on any of those. Here are a few ways to keep your coffee beans healthy and delicious! 

The colourful coffee bags.

The Good and Easiest method : Store together with coffee bag

The easiest way is to keep your coffee beans in their original coffee bag, put it in a container or into a Tupperware, and store it in your kitchen cabinet! Just that simple!

This way it eliminates air movement and blocks direct sunlight. We store our coffees this way and some coffees still taste as good after more than a month past their roast date!

Btw, it's also a plus point to squeeze out as much air as possible before sealing the bag, just to ensure there are minimal air/oxygen left in the bag. 

Looks good?

Jars

Keeping coffee beans in a jar with a lid seems like a good idea. Sadly, it does not work here in Malaysia.

Based on our experiments, it seems that here in Malaysia, where the climate is hot and humid, the speed of deterioration of coffee beans is much faster when they are kept in a jar than in a coffee bag.

The thing about jars is that there are some air movements every time you open and close the lid, and there is no way for you to squeeze out the air. The more frequently you drink your coffee, the more fresh (and humid) air goes into the jar. 

Unless you drink your coffee very quickly (1-2 days) or your home brew bar is air conditioned at all times, we think that it’s best to just keep your beans in the coffee bag – at least you don't have to wash your coffee jar!

Fridge and freezer?

Same thing goes to keeping coffee beans in the fridge or in the freezer. Temperature fluctuation is bad for coffee beans.

Especially in Malaysia, when hot, humid air meets ice-cold coffee beans. It is no good. The coffee beans “sweat” real quick. Store your coffee in cool dry place will work just fine! 

Unless, you are planning to store really expensive coffees (like Gesha or some extremely rare coffees) for a much later consumption, say months later. Yes! Freezing the coffee beans is definitely a good idea!

Top tip for freezing coffee! Pre weight all the coffees into separate packs or jars and freeze them. There you only take the exact amount that you need in every brew, without exposing all the coffees to warm air.

About one way valve

Most of our coffee roasters use one way valve bags for their coffee beans packaging to let excess CO2 escape from the bag so that it does not explode!

However coffee beans will only release most of the CO2 on the first few days after roasting and the gas emission will gradually slow down.

A top tip would be to tape the holes of the valve once you first open the coffee bag in order to limit air movements through the tiny holes!

Best method of all - Pre-weight coffee beans in separate containers

While you are enjoying a bag of coffee beans over a period of time, new air and oxygen continuously in contact with coffee bean every time you open the bag. 

As a result, you'll notice coffee don't really taste as great as the first few cups in the beginning when you start the bag of coffee. 

The BEST way is that the moment you open a bag of coffee, immediately pre-weight all coffee beans and separate into individual small airtight containers. *See first photo.

This way, it completely limits oxygen contact to minimal (only when you open the bag until you brew it). This method also prolong the deliciousness for much longer period, even up to 5-6 week! 

The best part is, every single cup of coffee tastes exactly the same from the first to last!

It takes a little bit of work to pre weight all the coffees, but it's worth the effort! 

Lastly, if you have 2 or more packs of coffee beans, we strongly recommend to start one pack at a time. An unopened pack of coffee beans can last up to 4-5 weeks! It's best to finish one pack and start with another the next. There you get to enjoy real delicious coffee at all time!

How about a vacuum container? They are great, but they are quite expensive too. Why not save the money for more delicious coffees?

Always keep your beans airtight, in a cool dry place, and out of direct sunlight. Also, grind your coffee bean right before brewing, and you’ll get a cup of coffee that’s fresh and delicious! 

Things you need to know about coffee roasting.

There are countless schools of thought in coffee roasting. A search about coffee roasting will get you a mind-boggling amount of information, and everyone tells a different story.

After working with more than 30 coffee roasters in Malaysia and meeting many from overseas, we got an understanding about the vision and philosophy of each roaster, and the message it wants to deliver through its roasted coffees.

This post is not about how coffee beans are roasted. But rather, an insight of roasters' point of view and a guide for home brewers when buying coffee beans from roasters. 

Unleash the freshly roasted coffee beans!

Traditional coffee roasting 

Real easy. Source any coffee (Arabica and/or Robusta) from anywhere, blend them together and chuck them into a roasting machine, typically with a capacity of 50kg or more, and roast them dark for easy management. Nothing about green beans quality or taste. Coffee was sold merely as a product that contains caffeine.

However, this was mainly because coffee was a commodity and the majority of coffee farmers and producers back then focused only on yield (quantity) over quality produces. Roasting the coffee dark was the best and easiest way to mask defects, in the name of “consistency”.

As a result, it's the black liquid that we all are familiar with. Bitter, charcoal, woody, and unpalatable without milk and sugar, the so called “coffee taste” that we grew up with, and will never forget.

This is still a common practice until today. But thankfully, there are a growing number of coffee people, from farmers, roasters, baristas and coffee drinkers that are passionate, enthusiastic, and care very much about coffee in their pursuit of a delicious cup!

The work behind a good cup of coffee.

A good cup of coffee

 It's been said that, to produce a good cup of coffee:

60% from quality of green beans

30% from roasting

10% from brewing

That said, a coffee roaster is controlling 90% of coffee quality! From green beans purchasing, lots of trial and error in roasting, final sorting and etc. Leaving the remaining 10% to whoever is brewing it.

Now you know the importance of getting coffee beans from passionate small batch coffee roasters. They source only the best possible quality specialty grade coffees, with minimal to zero defects, and roast them to perfection!

Thousands of single origins around the world, how to choose them?

About Green Beans 

Thanks to a growing global demand for quality coffees, many coffee farmers have diverted their focus to produce high quality green beans instead of just on yield or quantity.

Like many Indonesian coffee farmers, they have been working on cultivating better varietals like Bourbon and even Gesha, with improved facilities and technology of coffee processing, in order to trade at a higher price. Coffee roasters would pay a premium for such quality produces, and this practice have changed many lives of farmers all around the world. Also, it's good news for us too!

Coffee beans sorting facility in Indonesia, taken by Sprezzatura Team.

Buying green beans is the most important task as a coffee roaster (the 60%). Buying green beans can be as easy as online purchase, or a life-threatening journey.

There are 2 main ways of buying green beans.

1. Via coffee traders or merchants who act as middle men between farmers and roasters. Like Mercanta, Cafe Imports, Sweet Maria's, Project Origin etc. They collect and trade only the best quality specialty coffees, from the best farmers in the world.
2. A direct trade with coffee farmers, building sustainable relationship for quality improvement.

The first option is the safest and quality guaranteed option. It is as simple as enquire online, getting samples, place order and ship them over.

The second, however, is challenging and adventurous, often dangerous in certain countries. It's always enlightening to hear interesting stories of farm trips. And to many coffee roasters, these trips are an eye-opening experience and exposure to the world of coffee.

In the end, the decision is down to the 'Price vs Quality' question. No absolute answer. It is wholly dependent on individual coffee roasters. Fortunately, we have many coffee roasters here who are willing to source exceptional coffees, considering some are spending a fortune on green beans (see The World's Best Coffee).

The Espresso Shot!

Espresso or Filter coffee

I'm sure you have heard of Espresso Roast and Filter Roast. A coffee fact: not all coffees are the same, and not all coffees pair well with milk.

For Espresso Roast, the aim is to pair well and punch through milk.

Almost every cafe around the world owns an espresso machine. It is used to produce a beverage that's generally acceptable to public, such as latte and cappuccino. It is a product that ensures the sustainability of cafe business in many countries. In Malaysia, 80% of people go for milk coffee.

Hence, there is higher demand for and consumption of Espresso Roast coffees. Many coffee roasters would source coffees that have medium to bold body that are able to punch through milk, rather than sourcing for flavourful ones. These coffees are typically from South America and Asia (Brazil, Colombia and Indonesia single origins etc).

Price point of these coffees are usually slightly lower. The roast level of these coffees have to be well-developed (medium to darker roast), typically to the colour that we recognised as roasted coffee beans.

Yummy Filter Coffee.

As for Filter Roast, it's suitable for any brewing methods other than espresso. French Press, AeroPress, V60, Chemex, you name it. The aim, it's all about flavours!

These coffees (mainly single origins) are catered entirely for BLACK COFFEE!

If you take notice, you’ll realise that some cafes have 2 coffee grinders, one for milk coffee and the other for black coffee.

Coffee roasters look for coffees with interesting flavours and unique characteristics for this category, like many African and Central American single origins. Remember the Ethiopian coffee that completely blew your mind (blueberry, strawberry, raspberry!)?

The objective of roasting is to best preserve the flavours originated from its origin, to enhance or amplify its potential and beautiful flavours. Generally, coffee will be roasted on lighter side, to avoid any additional flavours caused by roasting.

These coffees are generally of the highest quality (zero defect), premium priced and give a 'Wow' factor to many coffee drinkers. It's the inspiration of us founding Blaq Coffee, and we also encourage you to drink filter coffee. It tastes amazing!

Tristan, the rock star behind Cloud Catcher.

Roasting Style & Philosophy

Another coffee fact: every coffee roaster has its very own roasting style, and no two roasters can produce the same roasted coffee beans.

If I were to distribute one single origin to 5 coffee roasters, I will get 5 different roasted coffees, possibly a very diverse range of character. Some roasters prefer developed roasts, some focus on aromatics, some pursue well-balanced flavours and so on. 

We want to preserve the originality and the character of every coffee roaster. Hence, we never request a roast level or profile for all single origin coffees. Each coffee has a story behind it, from farm to roastery, and a message from its roaster – its philosophy and vision.

This gives us an absolutely inspiring and enjoyable job ever! In my opinion, the standard of Malaysian coffee roasters are on par with many globally renowned coffee roasters in the world. Trust me on this, I drink coffee for a living!

How to buy roasted coffee beans?

Everyone has his preference when it comes to his cup of coffee. Therefore, the communication between roasters and home brewers is essential to both parties. I'm certain that you do not want to drink a milk coffee that taste like milk, or worse, sour milk.

First, tell them your brewing method. Espresso or Filter?

Second, with milk or black.

Third, about preference. Do you want it punchy or bright coffee (Strong bodied or flavourful coffee)? Or go into your favourite flavours (fruity, floral, chocolaty, nutty etc)

With these three information, you will get the coffee that you'll enjoy the most.

Espresso roast coffees for filter brewing? 

Yes why not! It is perfect for a punchy coffee, even great for cold brews! 

Filter roast for Espresso? 

Well, we are not a fan of lighter roast coffees on espresso, especially when pairing with milk. A cup of sour milk? I'll skip on that. 

If you have a really good (expensive) coffee, I strongly recommend you to brew the filter way, slowly savour it, take your time and enjoy flavour changes as the coffee cools down. 

Omni roast? Sounds like Espresso Roast coffee for long black?

Drip drip drip, for the perfect brew!

It's safe to say, terms like full city, French roast etc, are totally irrelevant to your decision when it comes to buying coffee. In fact, those terms are justified by the outer colour of the coffee beans, which can somehow be misleading as the inner and outer part of coffee may 'cook' differently.

In a chef’s term, under or over cooked. Agtron, is the ultimate numbers to roast level.

About single origin or blend, it goes back to the same questions above. We love single origin coffees and we have also tasted amazing coffee blends from our coffee roasters. Click here to see all the blends.

If you want know more about coffee roasting, here are the posts from James Hoffman and Matt Perger, the two coffee champions who goes deep into coffee roasting. If you are a scientist, go for this.

We hope everyone gets to enjoy a good cup of coffee, and the challenge is to cater to individual's preference. Through communication, we believe this is the single most important aspect to enjoy your very own cup of coffee. 

And of course, we encourage you to try and taste as many coffees as possible! There are way toooooooo many delicious coffees produced by passionate coffee people, we would love to support our local coffee roasters!

From now onwards, via communication, get the coffees you'll love. Tan will be glad to help you find the right coffee, just drop him a line at bottom right ChatBox. He'll definitely get back to you in a flash!

Enjoy your coffee!