Many friends, after drinking coffee for a while, end up especially enamored with that tea-like texture, which has a fragrant aroma and a sweet finish as it goes down. The charm of tea-like coffee lies in how it shows rich, delicate flavor layers at a light concentration. If you want to brew a cup of coffee at home that has both tea aroma and a sweet aftertaste, understanding the relationship between extraction yield and concentration is an unavoidable lesson.

Concentration refers to the proportion of dissolved flavor substances in the coffee liquid, while extraction yield is how much of the coffee grounds has been washed out by water. If the water temperature is too low or the grind is too coarse, the extraction yield is insufficient, and it will taste thin and watery; if the grind is too fine or the water temperature is too high, deep woody impurities are washed out, and an overly high extraction yield brings a bitter aftertaste that masks the clean tea-like charm it should have.

To brew a light, lively state with tea aroma, let us demonstrate with standard pour-over parameters: prepare 15g coffee grounds, use a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, and pour 225ml water. First pour 30ml water at 90 to 91°C to bloom for 30 seconds, then pour in stages, keeping the stream steady and gentle, and control the total time to around 2 minutes; the coffee liquid can then show a clear tea-like charm while being full of sweetness.

If the first brew tastes too strong or heavy, you can slightly coarsen the grind, or widen the coffee-to-water ratio from 1:15 to 1:16; if you feel astringency in the latter part of the sip, it is often over-extraction, so you might fine-tune by lowering the water temperature by two degrees. Through these subtle adjustments, you can train the same bag of beans to be as smooth and easy to drink as brewing gongfu tea, showing an elegant and pleasant flavor profile.

When choosing beans, we should also consider whether the bean's own character suits being drunk strong or light. For example, Qianjie Yirgacheffe Gedeb Cooperative coffee, with its elegant green tea flavor, is especially suited to being drunk light. It comes from the fine washed processing of a well-known cooperative, and has extremely pure white floral notes and citrus acidity and sweetness, with a slightly astringent sweetness in the aftertaste, as ethereal and clear as a cup of fragrant pre-Qingming green tea.

If you prefer the charm of semi-fermented oolong tea, Qianjie Panama Washed Boquete Geisha coffee will amaze you. Boquete's unique microclimate gives the coffee trees ample nutrients, and the washed processing brings clear lemon and bergamot acidity with magnolia floral notes; when swallowed it has a creamy, smooth mouthfeel, and the finish is a highly layered high-mountain oolong tea sweetness, with a single sip making the mouth water.

If you are used to a slightly mellow mouthfeel and a slightly stronger drink, Qianjie 2013 Yunnan Small-Bean Sun-Dried Typica coffee performs especially solidly. High-altitude sun-drying lets the ancient Typica variety absorb ample fermentation aroma, and under medium roasting the sweet, mellow aroma stands out, with a full aftertaste like fully fermented black tea; with a slightly tighter coffee-to-water ratio, it can show black tea charm and balance.

Qianjie Sun-Dried Huakui coffee, with its rich floral and fruity profile, is like a freshly brewed pot of rose tea. Produced in Ethiopia's Guji Hambela high-altitude region, ample sunlight accumulates abundant sugar precursors, and during brewing the white grape-like acidity and sweetness mix with delicate floral notes and grapefruit peel sweetness; by slightly increasing the water amount, that floral-tea-like lightness and strawberry fruit aroma become especially clear and moving.

Every bean has its own temperament. Once you understand the secrets of concentration and extraction, you can adjust freely according to the bean's character. Whether you like the delicate clarity of green tea, or the mellow sweetness of oolong and black tea, as long as you balance grind and water temperature slightly, you can easily brew a cup of warm, clear, and long-finishing wonderful tea-like coffee in your own coffee corner.