Coffee brewing is the process of mixing coffee grounds and water. Water pulls out flavors, acids, oils from the grounds. It transforms the water into liquid coffee.
Identifying Extraction Issues
Over extracted coffee will taste bitter. If you fall short of the ideal point, coffee will taste incomplete, like a lack of flavour – sour. As coffee extraction occurs, you want to extract enough from the grinds without extracting too much from some or all grinds. Underextracted coffee tastes acidic and thin, overly sour with little character. Overextracted coffee tastes overly bitter and astringent. It might hang on the back of your tongue after the sip.
A well extracted coffee is sweet and ripe with clarity of flavour. The acidity is balanced and positive. And the finish goes on for a long time. This is the Holy Grail.
To avoid over extracted coffee, change your method until you find the sweet spot. Don’t worry about messing up. Make progress. Soon you’ll find perfect conditions for brewing coffee. This dialing in process is very important. Imagine baristas sipping espresso shots for an hour before opening shop – that’s dialing it in.
Fixing Overextraction
Over extracted coffee tastes bitter from too much extraction time or too fine a grind. If too much water, coffee becomes over extracted. If too little, coffee becomes under extracted. To make ideal coffee, experiment with different water temperature, grinder size, and bean quality. To avoid over extracted coffee, change your method until the sweet spot. Don’t worry about messing up, make progress. Soon you’ll brew perfect coffee. Dialing in is very important, like baristas sipping espresso shots before opening shop.
Is Overextracted Coffee Bitter or Sour?
Over extracted coffee tastes bitter from too much time or too fine a grind. Under extracted coffee lacks flavor, tasting sour, incomplete.
Well extracted coffee is sweet, ripe, balanced acidity. To avoid over extracted coffee, change your method until the sweet spot.