Finally realized I was overheating my cheap coffee grounds for months

I used to just dump Folgers into a regular drip machine and wonder why it always tasted burnt and bitter. Then last week at work, our warehouse coffee maker broke and I had to brew a batch with a thermometer my buddy lent me. He said to keep the water between 195 and 205 degrees for the best extraction. I checked my home setup and my tap water was hitting 210 easy because I never let it cool off after boiling. Now I wait 30 seconds after the kettle clicks off before pouring over my grounds and the difference is night and day. Has anyone else tried adjusting their water temp and noticed a big change?

2 comments

2 Comments

laura_ross26d ago

Oh man, the "wait 30 seconds after the kettle clicks off" thing really hit home. I had a similar wakeup call when I was trying to fix my pour over routine and kept getting this super harsh, ashy taste. My brother, who's a total coffee nerd, told me to just let the kettle sit for a full minute after boiling. I thought he was nuts because I was in a hurry every morning. But I tried it and wow, the difference was huge. Now I feel like a dummy for all those months of drinking burnt folgers because I was too impatient to let the water cool down a bit. It's crazy how such a small change can totally change the whole taste.

wren80626d ago

Four years ago I was using a thermometer for a while and found that around 195 degrees was the sweet spot for my light roast beans. But I got lazy and stopped checking, and my morning coffee just started tasting flat and kind of dull. I finally pulled the thermometer back out and realized my water was way too hot, like right off the boil. Now I just let it sit for a solid 45 seconds to a minute and it's night and day. I also started using a cheap scale to measure my grounds, which honestly helped more than I want to admit. It's embarrassing how long I went just eyeballing everything and wondering why my coffee was inconsistent.