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From the perspective of coffee flavor, pre-grinding coffee beans into grounds will accelerate the loss of coffee flavor. This is also why most coffee shops, including Front Street, recommend freshly ground coffee.

For the domestic consumer group that mainly drinks hand-brewed single-origin coffee, their requirements for flavor are stricter, and their coffee consumption is relatively small, making it very easy for the flavor of the coffee grounds to dissipate completely before they finish drinking it. Therefore, although most coffee shops offer a grinding service, they still suggest customers grind fresh at home.

It seems that pre-ground coffee grounds have a completely negative impact on flavor! There is also a situation where having it ground for you is better than grinding fresh at home, and that is when your own grinder does not perform very well. Everyone knows how important grinding is for flavor. Mastering a suitable grind size is important, and grind uniformity is even more crucial. The vast majority of cases where bitterness and astringency appear are caused by too many fines.

A coffee shop grinding for you has two advantages: first, the grind size can be controlled more precisely; second, the grinder performs better (this depends on the specific grinder), and the ground coffee is more uniform. When faced with freshness and grind size, Front Street believes grind size should be chosen first. After all, no matter how fresh the beans are, if the grind size is wrong, the brewed coffee will be hard to drink; it would be better to just drink it more frequently. But if you truly pursue coffee flavor, it is best to equip yourself with a high-performance grinder and grind fresh right before brewing.

If you hand-brew pre-ground coffee grounds and the coffee does not expand, this is also a normal phenomenon. Because when coffee is ground into grounds, the other [gases] inside the coffee can lose up to 70%. The remaining gas will also dissipate faster than from coffee beans. Therefore, when pouring water, there is not much gas left in the coffee grounds, so they cannot expand.

So how should ground coffee be stored? Best Coffee here offers some reference options.

Keep it in a cool, ventilated and dry place: Whether it is coffee beans or ground coffee, it needs to be kept out of direct sunlight, because high temperatures speed up the release of coffee flavor, and as a result the coffee's shelf life will also be greatly reduced. At the same time, we need to pay attention to whether the storage location is damp; a damp environment easily breeds bacteria, and this not only gives the coffee a moldy taste but also affects human health.

Store it completely sealed: Coffee beans can be kept sealed in their original packaging (if there is a one-way exhaust valve, it needs to be blocked), but ground coffee should be stored in a fully sealed container as much as possible. Also, minimize the number of times you open it, because every time you open it, the outside air will "invade" the ground coffee once.

How do you brew coffee with ground coffee?

After we buy ground coffee, it is best to drink it as soon as possible before the aroma fades. Below we use Best Coffee Blue Mountain No. 1 ground coffee as a demonstration:

Best Coffee's brewing parameters: Best Coffee Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans, KONO dripper, 88°C water temperature, paired with Best Coffee's usual three-stage pouring. Coffee grounds: 15 g  Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15.

Three-stage pouring: use 30g of water to evenly moisten the coffee bed and let it bloom for 30 seconds; for the second stage, pour 95g of water at a steady rate in circles from the inside out, and once the water level drops to the 2/3 mark of the coffee bed in the dripper, you can begin the third stage with 100g of water; keep a low flow rate throughout, and after about 2 minutes the brew has dripped through, so remove the dripper. Finally, gently swirl the coffee to even it out and start tasting.

The steps for brewing coffee with the Clever Cup are as follows: fold the filter paper and place it in the Clever Cup, set the Clever Cup on a container, and rinse the filter paper with hot water, which also preheats the equipment. Then move the Clever Cup to the digital scale (at this point the valve closes automatically) and pour the ground coffee into the center of the dripper.

For the first pour, add 30g of hot water, start the timer, and let it bloom for 30 seconds; after blooming, pour hot water until it reaches 225g, then steep for 1'50". Once steeping is complete, move the Clever Cup onto a container and open the valve to filter the coffee liquid out of the dripper. The whole process takes about 15 seconds, and the total extraction time of the coffee is 2'05".

Brewing Qianjie Strawberry Candy coffee in a Clever Cup brings out a full-bodied sweetness of dried grapes, a rich berry-like sweet acidity, and a pineapple-like finish.

Recommended value everyday pour-over coffee beans: Qianjie Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Gutingding, Qianjie Panama Hacienda La Esmeralda Green Label Geisha coffee beans

Recommended espresso coffee beans: Qianjie Classic Blend, Strawberry Candy Espresso Blend

You can now buy the above coffee beans at the Tmall "Qianjie Flagship Store", where you can also find 60 single-origin pour-over coffee beans and espresso coffee beans from around the world. Qianjie coffee beans are freshly roasted and shipped within 24 hours.

Tmall Qianjie Flagship Store link: https://qianjieshipin.tmall.com

Or you can search "Qianjie Flagship Store" directly on Taobao

Qianjie Coffee store address: No. 315 Donghua East Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou