An overview of Coffee Brewing Methods

Where do we start with the different Coffee brewing methods that are available today and what is the best way to make Coffee? There are many opinions on the best way to brew Coffee with tips, tricks and Coffee gadgets, it’s difficult to sort through all the information available, so we’ll try and break it down somewhat. Many people have different opinions, so we’ll post each Coffee brewing method to our blog page and start some discussions on best or preferred practise. As far as we can find on the interweb of things, there aren’t many forums where the best way to brew Coffee is discussed at length - plenty of ideas, no real discussions.

The trends on the way we drink our Coffee and their methods available has changed many times over the years, especially in the last 20 due to the major rise in popularity of both the Coffee Shop and Home brewing. The innovation and introduction of many new gadgets/methods available has also added to the confusion!!

Please click here for a really good brewing compendium!

Let’s try and make sense of it all. In my opinion (and happy to be corrected) there are four fundamental ways of brewing coffee:

Steeping: Definition - To allow dry ingredients, such as coffee, tea, or spices, to soak in a liquid until the liquid takes on the flavour of the dry ingredient.

Types of products: Turkish Sezve, French Press, Toddy Cold Brew

Pour Over/Drip: Definition – Placing the dry ingredients into a filter and filter holder then pouring liquid over and through the filter/ingredients to allow the liquid to extract the flavours of the dry ingredient.

Types of products: Chemex, Percolator, Drip Pot

Pressure/Vacuum: Definition – The dry ingredients are placed into a basket or filter and have the liquid forced through it, extracting the flavour of the dry ingredients as the liquid does so.

Types of products: Espresso, Aeropress, Siphon, Moka Pot

Steeper/Vacuum (much less well known): We’ll try and explain a little on how this works as its like a cross breed of the French Press and a Siphon machine. There are two liquid containers where the lower holds the liquid and the upper holds the dry ingredients. The liquid is then steamed and passed from lower to higher container infusing the dry ingredients with the liquid/steam. Once this is completed and ready to pour, the liquid is passed through a very fine filter and poured into the cup.

This has been spouted as one of the better ways to bring out the flavours of the dry ingredients, some say that its does come out a little thin, but packed full of the flavour of the dry ingredients. Some have said that this is one of the best ways to “cup” a coffee!

Types of products: Clover and Steampunk (not to be confused with Steampunk clothing!)

Alpha Dominche Steampunk Coffee Machine

Well, it looks very sexy!!