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Lots of people come through our doors wanting to know how to brew their coffee so that it tastes just as good as what we brew at the café. Well, we’ve got some good news and some great news about that!
The good news is that we at Impact Roasters love partnering with offices and workplaces around Copenhagen to fill your coffee machines with the best tasting, highest quality, and most sustainable coffee that won’t break the bank. We’ll talk you through all the details and give you an introduction to our process during a free tasting event which we’d love to bring to you.
The even better news is that we love to help you learn how to brew better coffee, and troubleshoot some of the problems you might be having when you are brewing coffee at home. You can always feel free to stop in at the café and we will walk you through any questions you might be having, and share as many insights as we can with you.
To give you a head start in figuring out why your coffee might taste bitter, there are three elements which play major contributing factors. The first is the grind size, the second is the roast level, and the third is the brewing method.
Not only can one of these elements be at odds with delicious tasting coffee, but they can all work against each other to create a cup of coffee you do not want to drink.
GRIND SIZE
A bag of coffee from us here at Impact Roasters is filled with whole beans, not ground coffee. The reason for this is twofold. First, the shelf life of ground coffee is significantly shorter than that of whole bean coffee. The aromatics and carbon dioxide trapped within the roasted coffee is released at a much faster rate, and thus making it much less appealing. For this reason, we, like most other specialty coffee shops, will always recommend you grind your coffee as close to the time you brew it as possible.
If you don’t have a grinder at home, you are always welcome to ask us to grind it for you! When you do, the barista will probably ask you: “How do you brew your coffee?” This questions allows us to appropriately grind the coffee beans so the final product of your coffee brewing tastes wonderful. Coffee ground too finely for a brewing method that requires a coarser grind, like the Stempel or French Press, makes coffee that has a “sludgy” texture when you drink it and a bitter taste as a result of over extraction of the coffee during brewing. Coffee ground too coarsely for a brewing method that requires a finer grind, like filter coffee or with a Chemex, will produce a coffee that is bitter, under extracted, and might even taste “weak” as a result of not having enough surface area on the grounds to extract delicious coffee flavor from.
ROAST LEVEL
Here at Impact Roasters we offer you three different easy to understand roast levels: light roast, medium roast, and dark roast. Using the wrong roast level to brew your coffee is the most common reason for a weak brew, or producing bitter and poor tasting coffee. Light roasts are most commonly used for specialty coffee brewing, methods like the V60, Chemex, and Aeropress. Medium roast coffee is what we use behind the bar to produce delicious filter coffee. Finally, dark roast coffee is what we always recommend for espresso beans. Using a dark roast coffee for a brew method consistent with what you would use a light roast has the potential to produce a very strong, bitter, and over extracted cup of coffee. On the other hand, using a light roast coffee for what you should use a medium or dark roast coffee can produce a very weak tasting, under extracted coffee.
We’ve tried using light roasted coffee in our filter coffee and many of you, our loyal customers, noticed the difference, and thought it was too weak a cup. We listened! That is why we serve you with medium roast in our filter pot!
We have standard recommendations, like “always use dark roast for espresso” or “medium roast for French press”, but if you like a light roast French Press, tell us, we would love to help you find the perfect coffee to go with that!
BREWING METHOD
Finally, the brewing method should be in line with both how coarsely or finely your coffee is ground and how dark or how light the roast of your coffee is.
Often times we see the machines in large corporate offices failing on all three of these levels. The roast level is too high for the brew method, and it is unlikely the grind size has been dialed in to serve you the best coffee possible. We welcome you into our café with open arms so you can be fueled for your busy work day, but we also want to work with you and your company to fix your coffee problems and provide your office with some of the best quality coffee in Copenhagen.
Impact Roasters is refining its organic practices by no longer pursuing official organic certification for its Ethiopian coffee. The decision stems from the increasing bureaucracy around certification, which detracted from focusing on sustainability and responsible sourcing. Despite the lack of formal certification, their coffee remains organic in practice, as farmers still use traditional methods without harmful chemicals. Impact Roasters continues to work directly with Ethiopian farmers, ensuring high quality, ethical coffee without compromise.
For more details, visit Impact Roasters’ blog.