Now for the fun part...
Let's brew.
You can achieve stellar cups by bringing together the right coffee, water, brew technique and equipment. Our basic recommendations for enjoying Five Petal Coffee are outlined below. We are brewing and equipment enthusiasts and are happy to get deeper into the weeds if you want. Please feel free to reach out to us with questions or to share your brewing success stories!
Email info@fivepetalcoffee.com
Water
Five Petal uses a basic recipe with deionized water and Lotus Drops internal coffee evaluation. Lotus Drops allow you to precisely manipulate water with individual calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium bottles. We like 10 drops (round dropper) of each of these mixed into 1 gallon of deionized water. This recipe creates a water close to 40 ppm of hardness and 20ppm of alkalinity. If you are brewing our Gastronomy coffees more often we suggest increasing this alkalinity to 40 ppm for extra balance and sweetness.
Alternatively, we recommend Third Wave Water Medium or Espresso profiles. However, use the 2L packets dissolved into 1 gallon of deionized water. We find the Third Wave Light Roast profile to taste somewhat unbalanced with our coffees even though it seems like the logical fit. These packets are super convenient and also very consistent. You do lose a little bit of the top end florals and delicate nuances that you can get with the Lotus Drop recipe mentioned above but, overall, this is still a great solution all considered.
Gear and Equipment
Grinders
We highly recommend investing in a great grinder. There are so many great options out there these days but at Five Petal we almost exclusively work with KafaTek. KafaTek is always pushing the boundaries of burr and grinder design and we align with their approach towards continuous innovation. Their grinders are expensive but worth it! Some of you will be interested to know that we use the KafaTek M98V with CRv3 burrs as our primary cupping and evaluation grinder.
Filters
Cafec Abaca filters are what we recommend for brewing. These filters yield a pleasant texture across a variety of coffees, have a good flow rate and are very consistent. The filters you choose to brew with can have a huge impact on flavor and we don’t believe faster drawdowns are always the goal. Two different filters that have the same brew time can still produce cups with differing character.
Pour Over Brewers
Cafec Tritan Flower Drippers are what we recommend. It’s not just to stick with the floral theme either! These are durable, consistent and high-performing brewers that obviously pair well with Cafec filters. The smaller size 1 is really fantastic for the 12.5-15g doses we suggest. However, we also sell their larger size drippers if you prefer working with 18-30g doses.
Feel free to reach out to us for more specific equipment guidance and questions. Email info@fivepetalcoffee.com.
Pour Over Brewing
Standard 15g Brew
- 15 grams of Five Petal Coffee (not Gastronomy) ground fairly coarse
- Use 85-88 °C water—yes, you read that right!
- 1 cup or 2-4 cup Cafec Tritan Flower Dripper
- Cafec Abaca filters
- Add 50-70g of water as a bloom. Use moderate flow rate to ensure proper agitation and even mixing. Wait 40 seconds if coffee is more than 3 weeks past roast date. If coffee is fresher than 2 weeks let it bloom for 1-2 minutes. Precise timing is not critical here. Relax.
- Pour up to 240-250g (depending on preference). Use a moderate to aggressive flow rate that allows you to add this single pour after the bloom within 25 to 30 seconds. Focus the stream towards the central portion of the brew slurry as you pour in about 1 inch circles.
- Your brew should be finished within 2 to 3 minutes depending on bloom time and the amount of fines your grinder creates.
Standard 12.5g Brew
- 12.5 grams of Five Petal Coffee (not Gastronomy) ground fairly coarse
- Use 85-88 °C water—yes, you read that right!
- 1 cup Cafec Tritan Flower Dripper
- 1 cup Cafec Abaca filter
- Pour 50g of water to bloom the coffee. Use moderate flow rate to ensure proper agitation and even mixing. Wait 40 seconds if coffee is more than 3 weeks past roast date. If coffee is fresher than 2 weeks let it bloom for 1 minute or more. Precise timing is not critical here. Relax.
- Pour 50g of water in with fairly aggressive flow rate into central area of brew slurry. Focus the stream towards the central portion of the brew slurry as you pour in about 1 inch circles. (Pouring up to 100g)
- Wait until the slurry has drained by about half and repeat step 2 (Pouring up to 150g)
- Wait until the slurry has drained by about half and pour the final 50g (Pouring up to 200g)
- Your brew should be finished within 2 to 3 minutes depending on bloom time and the amount of fines your grinder creates.
- This is a simple recipe of four 50g pours and it’s very consistent. We often use this technique to evaluate coffees internally since it’s easy to brew two different coffees simultaneously.
Espresso
Espresso is undergoing a period of tremendous change as we in the specialty coffee community try to explore the boundaries of this iconic coffee beverage. We do tend to agree with the recent prevailing thoughts in the specialty coffee community around faster flow rates, less pressure, deeper baskets and coarser grinding. There are many ways to achieve a delicious espresso with Five Petal Coffee and we encourage you to experiment. Please reach out to us with specific questions regarding espresso extraction.