Watch the Japanese coffee brewing champion make coffee to inspire your hand brewed coffee

At the 2019 World Coffee Brewing Championship, the Japanese brewing champion Chikako Nakai, who always had a sweet smile on her face, won fourth place.

Someone interviewed her after the game and she said that this was just the beginning and she would come to this world-class competition again to showcase her understanding of coffee.

The first sip of coffee Nakai drank was the canned coffee drink from Ueshima that her mother gave her.

For the young girl Nakai, coffee is a privilege of adults, and the first sip of coffee is not only delicious, but also seems to be an entry into the adult world that makes her curious and yearning.

Who knows, life is so wonderful. Nakai, who originally studied music in college, eventually couldn't resist the temptation of coffee and entered the coffee industry. The place where she worked was U.S. Coffee.

Some highlights of Nakai at the 2019 World Brewing Championship may enrich your imagination of hand-brewed coffee.

First, hand brewing techniques vs coffee beans characteristics

Nakajing's hand-brewed coffee takes a very short time, from the first drop of water into the coffee to the removal of the filter cup, it only takes 70 seconds.

Why so short?

She brought Panama 90+ Gesha, which has a very complex flavor. In addition, it has rich and multi-layered acidity and pleasant sweetness.

In order to highlight the sweet and sour characteristics of the coffee, she did not want to extract the bitterness and sourness of the coffee. Therefore, after extracting the fruity tone and sweet and sour taste of the coffee, she decisively removed the filter cup - this was the basis for the 70-second extraction time.

In order to better present the flavor of coffee, she changed the water temperature. The water temperature of the first two injections was 95℃, and the water temperature of the last injection was only 60℃, to avoid over-extraction and to avoid highlighting the bitterness of the coffee.

Don't imitate blindly, your coffee beans may not be the same.

What you need to imitate is her underlying logic: respect the characteristics of coffee beans and adjust your brewing technique.

Second, flat bottom filter cup vs water flow

When people make hand-brewed coffee at home, they mostly use conical filter cups, like the American Chemax or Japanese V60.

This filter cup from Zhongjing is a flat-bottomed ceramic filter cup with 8 small holes at the bottom.

Her reason is: the flat bottom makes the coffee layer thin and even, and also makes the water flow even and increases the water speed.

This filter is an improvement on the Melitta filter invented in 1935.

The Melitta filter cup prototype has 48 ribs (forming guide grooves) and an 8-hole design, which guides the water flow to extract coffee very finely and accurately.

The 8 main ribs of the Grain Filter Cup are slightly raised at the bottom, forming deep guide grooves and ordinary guide grooves at the bottom of the cup, which is conducive to the uniform and rapid flow of water; at the same time, it also reduces the contact area between the wet filter paper and the bottom of the filter cup, which is more conducive to the exhaust of coffee.

Third, intelligence vs extraction accuracy

Zhongjing put a small thermometer in the filter cup, like a thick needle, to control the water temperature during extraction (not the injection temperature);

In addition, she uses an APP that can display data such as the amount of water injected, the amount of water output, and the water-to-powder ratio during the entire process of hand-brewing coffee in real time, helping her to extract coffee more accurately.

Although we don’t need to go to this level when doing hand brewing at home, it’s still interesting to know the possibilities provided by technology.