Brewing with Holly Bastin, Roast Ratings (co- owner & founder) & Coffee is People (owner)
Holly has been in coffee since 1999, starting in her hometown of Kansas City. At this point, she has been in coffee for more years of her life now than not! Holly believes that there is no one way to brew coffee “best,” but rather that we now have a multitude of options to fit anyone's preference. Using as few tools as possible, her favorite approach to brewing is one that is versatile, instinctive, and easy for anyone to do!
Boil your water & quickly rinse filter/heat device with at least 100g water. Dump rinse water from jar and add your ground coffee to the dripper, giving it a gentle "shimmy" to level out the grounds’ be. Water follows the path of least resistance ;)
Begin bloom by adding around 60g of water, intentionally
spiraling from the center outwards to evenly wet the coffee. If you go a
little over, that's ok - from my experience it's better to get a little
too much than not enough - it's important to make sure all the coffee
is saturated to make way for the rest of the brew. Water goes where it's
been before, and the bloom is where we set that up!
Wait until
the coffee stops bubbling/pulsating, which will be around 30-40 seconds
into the brew. Again, starting in the center and spiraling outward, add
the water with more 'vigor' (turbulence for those of us in the biz’)
until the liquid level is about 1cm below the top of the Origami Brewer.
Adding this pulse will last about 10-15 seconds & be another
100-130g of water, depending on the coffee. Allow to drain off to leave
1/3 of the liquid.
For the last pulse, starting around 1:10-1:20
into the brew, there are two main goals:1- to knock the coffee down off
of the walls (so it all gets extracted!)2- to gently add the rest of the
brew water (so we don't over-extract it!)This time, start from the very
edge of the grounds, carefully knocking the clinging grounds down into
the brew bed. Take this outer spiral slowly and ease your water flow-
there is no rush. Once all of the coffee is down in the bed, take your
time with that same gentle flow, spiraling towards and settling into the
center until the liquid is about 1 inch from the top of the device.
Allow to drain until drip (around 2:20 into the brew).This process will
add around 70-90g of water and last about 20 seconds or so. This pulse,
at least for me, is my favorite part for it can be quite meditative!
Remove the Origami Brewer and swirl the liquid brew in the glass,
really taking in its solid dark brown color tones. This will be
important as we dilute!Using a glass tasting vessel, pour off 2-3 oz of
your brew. Rather than using the whole brew, we are going to push this
little sample 'til it breaks' by adding hot water to it little by
little. Taste it, noting the 2 or 3 main things that pop out to you. I
usually notice is popped acidity and intense complexity at this
concentration.
Add 1/2-3/4oz of water and taste - pay attention
to how the flavors you first recognized are changing shape as more space
is added to the brew. From my experience, acidity is getting more
discernable & sweetness is starting to become detectable. The
bitterness is not gone, but diminished.Note the color change of the brew
liquid -though still solid brown, it is now starting to become dark red
at the edges.
Add another 1oz swig of hot water, watching it
gain some clarity, officially go from brown to red at the heart of the
liquid, a little orange around the edges.Take a sip, noting how this has
changed those characters yet again! From my experience, this is where
the acidity becomes recognizable as something in particular - maybe
peach or sweet orange for an example. The sweetness will have enough
room now to bring things into balance and the bitterness/complexity will
be in more of a supportive role.
Keep adding a touch more water,
following these same observations of flavor and color until you know
that you have pushed it just to the other side of the 'sweet spot' for
you. Once you have gone too far, add a teensy bit more concentrate to
your tasting glass and, using water, get it back to the balance you most
enjoyed.
Now, with your tasting glass as a color reference,
begin adding water to the main brew. Hold them up next to each other to
check your progress until they match in reddish tone and clarity. For me
this almost always end up being about 1:1 - one part brew liquid to 1
part water - give or take as the coffee character allows. In the end I
usually get about 400+g of brew from 20g of coffee.
Recipe Note
TIPS AND TRICKS:
While scales and brew tools can be really helpful tools to learn with, paying close attention to your senses - color, tastes, smells - is what will pay off in the long run. Take in some joy in the moments where it is just you and the coffee!
