Chasing Sourness

25th Oct, 2025

It's Saturday, a holiday. And that means more coffeeeee!

I brewed two cups today, and both turned out to be... not so great. But that's fine—I had fun brewing, and that's all that matters for now. I'll improve gradually.

Here's the cup #4 recipe:

• Coffee : water - 8.6 g : 139 ml
• Grind size - 3
• Water temp - 77 °C
• Agitation - 10 sec
• Brew time - 30 sec

Taste: Not sour, not bitter. Very light. (I didn't like it)

I deliberately ground the coffee coarser, heated the water below the ideal range (80-96 °C), and kept the brew time and agitation to a minimum.

I did this to get a sour-flavored coffee. Instead, it just turned out to be light coffee with no flavor whatsoever.

To give another shot, I brewed cup #5 with a tweaked recipe:

• Coffee : water - 10 g : 160 ml
• Grind size: 3
• Water temp - 70 °C
• Agitation - 10 sec
• Brew time - 30 sec

For some reason, it was better than cup #4. And I don't know why.

However, I still couldn't get that sour-flavored coffee I was chasing.

After two failed attempts and a quick chat with Aravind, I finally understood the problem: It wasn't the recipe; it was the coffee beans themselves.

I'd ordered dark roast beans, and it's hard to get a sour-flavored coffee with them.

Dark roasts have simpler, bolder flavor profiles with less acidity. Light roast beans, on the other hand, have a much larger spectrum of flavors—bright, crisp, and acidic.

So, next time, my money goes into light roast beans!