Recently I started to dig into the world of pour-over coffee, which is a classic technique of coffee brewing. Its process seems quite simple, well, just pour hot water onto the coffee powder, how would it be complicated? The classic way of making pour-over coffee is to grind the roasted coffee beans first, then use hot water to pour onto the powder to extract the flavorsome aroma of coffee. It sounds easy, but there are many factors that affect the whole quality and flavor of coffee.

    When it comes to roasted coffee beans, there are basically three types of roast levels: light roasts, medium roasts, and dark roasts. There are medium-light and medium -dark roasts, but I will only be going to talk about the most common ones. Light roasts retain more origin flavor of coffee beans, which taste much sourer than others. Medium roasts have relatively balanced flavors, which contains acidity and aroma. Since medium roasts would not show exceeding flavor, they are widely accepted by the publics. As for the dark roasts, I personally do not like them that much to be honest. When talking about coffee, most people would immediately expect the bitterness of coffee, that is because dark roasts coffee is the most common commercial coffee product of all time. The americano and latte from convenient stores are usually made of dark roasts.     

    Another indispensable factor that affects the flavors of coffee is the coffee processing. Before raw coffee beans get roasted, they must be processed by different techniques, there are four basic techniques, which are natural, washed, semi-washed, and honey. The first two techniques are the most common methods. Natural coffee processing mainly use sunlight to dry the beans, which is typically in dry and sunny areas like Africa countries; washed coffee processing will remove the pulp in the water. Since the uncertainness and uncontrollable factors of sunlight, the flavors of natural coffee processing are various and remarkable while washed beans present a standardized flavor.

    I do personally enjoy the uncertain aromas of natural processed and the strong features of light roasts. Alright, I guess I just stop here, I might be sharing other factors and my thoughts of making pour-over coffee.