Want to impress a crowd with your coffee skills? Whip out your Chemex. Perfect for larger batches, this method will give you a cup similar to drip but with a little added flair. While it may be more daunting than turning on your coffee maker, you can avoid most errors by insuring a slightly coarser than drip grind and dedicating a little extra attention to your pours.
What you’ll need:
- Chemex
- Chemex Filters
- Kettle
- Freshly ground coffee
- Scale
- Timer
Step One:
You’ll start by grabbing one of your filters and folding it so that there is one layer of filter on one side and three layers on the other. Place it in your Chemex, making sure that the triple-fold is facing the spout.
Step Two:
Grind your coffee on a setting similar to drip, just slightly coarser (think sea salt size). Skip this step if you had your barista grind it for you!
Step Three:
Fully soak your filter with hot water (while in the Chemex or before, either works) to avoid any papery taste and discard any water that runs through.
Step Four:
Place 3 scoops or 36 grams of your ground coffee evenly in the filter.
Step Five:
Bring your water to a temperature just below boiling. We’ll be using 20 ounces or 576 grams of water total, but not all at once.
Start your timer for four minutes. We will be pouring a total of 4 times throughout this process. Pouring about a fourth of the total water each time and give time between each pour for the water from the previous pour to run through.
Your first pour is to “bloom” the coffee and it should look like this:
Your next three pours should be even and steady. You can pour in a spiral motion or side to side, but the key is to saturate the coffee as evenly as possible.
By your fourth pour, you should be out of water and it should have taken about four minutes.
Step Six:
Allow all the water to finish dripping. Serve immediately and enjoy!
Any of these measurements can be changed, but try to stick to a 1:16 ratio. if you notice that your brew time is way too quick or taking too long, try changing your grind.
