0.
330
gm/l
If sour
Extract moreThere’s less than a 10% chance this recipe will be ideal for your roast level. However, if you’ve measured the density, your chances of success soar to 68%. The filter coffee recipe series is designed for this: taste your cup, then move up the series for more extraction or down for less. It works the same whether you brew with a V60, a Switch, a Kalita, an Origami or a cloth drip pot. Don’t hesitate to experiment with another recipe based on your taste test results—finding what tastes best for you is worth it!
Yield
190
ml
12.0
DF54
65
Option-O P64
4.9
T-83
Dark/Italian Roast
Don’t get hung up on the details. A Switch, a V60, a Kalita, an Origami, a Deep 27 or a cloth drip pot: the settings are the same. If you don’t have the right grinder, or you don’t know what that grind size even means, it doesn’t matter.
Providing you are changing the dose, the ratio, the bits you can, you will be changing the TASTE, and that is what matters. YOU are finding a RECIPE that tastes better than the last recipe you tried.
Pre-heat. Rinse the paper filter with hot water to wash out the paper taste and heat the brewer, then tip the rinse water out of your cup or carafe. Using cloth? Rinse it, wring it out, and never let it dry out between brews; keep it in water in the fridge.
Get your single dose out of the freezer. If you are not single-dosing and freezing your coffee, read How to Store Coffee Beans – 9 tips. While at it, read Best Coffee Beans – Six Purchasing Tips.
Grind your frozen coffee; do not defrost it.
Put a drip stand over your cup or carafe, put the cup on the scales, sit the brewer on the stand, and tare. You are weighing the coffee you actually get, not the water you pour. On a Switch or a Clever, close the valve first. If you use Cafec papers, the settings above show which one suits this roast.
Bloom. Pour straight from the kettle, without the Melodrip, about three times the dose of water. Stir with a wet WDT stick so every ground is wet and no dry clumps are left, then wait for the bloom time shown above. Just like pre-infusion in espresso, this is where most of the extraction happens, and fresh coffee needs time to degas. You are NOT in a hurry.
I recommend using a Melodrip, pouring in multiple small batches, and keeping the water level just above the coffee bed. Swap out the cup when it reaches the yield you chose. The last of the drawdown is the most bitter part, so you lose nothing.
Switch or Clever: pour through the Melodrip with the valve closed, then open it and aim to reach the yield around the brew time. V60, Kalita, Origami, Deep 27 or cloth: aim to reach the yield around the brew time. Don’t chase it to the second.
Now, the most crucial step. Swirl the coffee, dip a teaspoon in and taste. Is the coffee sour? If so, next time you make this coffee, extract more using the recipe indicated by the button above.
If the coffee isn’t sour, ask yourself whether it is very bitter. Bitterness is harder to judge because all coffee is bitter to some extent. However, you can reduce bitterness by extracting less. Go too far, and it will turn sour. You are looking for the calm spot in between. If you need to reduce bitterness next time you make this coffee, extract less by using the recipe indicated by the button above.
Making a big brew? Past about 500 ml the bed gets deeper, drains slower and extracts more, so expect to step towards Extract less, or grind a little coarser.
I only endorse equipment I have purchased myself, and I do not earn a commission or have any links to the companies I recommend.
This is a textbook Kenyan: a washed AA lot from a long-established factory, full of stone fruit and citrus with the bright, juicy acidity Kenya is famous for. Prodigal has re-released it from its freezer stores as a limited run.
Karinga Coffee Factory was established in 1983 and is run by the Gitwe Farmers Co-operative Society. Around 500 smallholder farmers deliver cherry to the factory, which is managed by Samwel Muteti.
Kiambu County sits just north of Nairobi in Kenya’s Central Highlands. Karinga is at 1,840 metres above sea level, on the red volcanic soils that make central Kenya one of the world’s great coffee regions.
ORIGIN: KIAMBU, KENYA
FACTORY: KARINGA
PRODUCERS: GITWE FARMERS CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY
ALTITUDE: 1,840 MASL
VARIETIES: SL28, SL34
PROCESS: WASHED
SL28 and SL34 were selected by Scott Agricultural Laboratories in Kenya in the 1930s. They are prized for intense, complex acidity and the blackcurrant and citrus notes that define great Kenyan coffee.
Kenyan factories use a traditional washed process: cherries are pulped, fermented, washed and soaked, then dried slowly on raised beds. It gives the clean, vivid cups the country is known for.
Prodigal is a US specialty roaster with a strong focus on filter brewing. This lot is a limited “Freezer Reserve” release, sold in 250 g bags.
Model Version:
20261009.06
I have a dream: that this might raise the standard of coffee-making globally, reduce dialling in waste, time, and frustration, and encourage people to explore more varieties and pay more attention to the producers. You might even be prepared to pay more for better coffee if it pleases you, returning more money to growers.
You can help. The best thing you can do is spread the word on other platforms, such as Reddit or Facebook coffee forums, and share with others how this method can solve everyday problems.
Using 0.1g accurate scales and the recommended 100ml measuring cylinder, and entering quality data into the form, helps improve the model. So does evidence-based feedback for parameter range adjustments.
You can also support the site financially via Buy me a coffee to help with ongoing running costs, site hosting fees, and plug-in subscriptions.
