The problem of coffee bought at a store not tasting as good when brewed at home

Have you ever had the shocking experience of visiting a cafe while traveling and finding the coffee so delicious that you wanted to drink it at home, so you bought some beans and tried to make it, only to find that it tasted completely different or wasn't very tasty?

This is not limited to our shop; an acquaintance of mine lamented that when he brewed some coffee using the beans that a certain shop took pride in, the coffee turned out so bad he wondered if it was even worth selling, so this may be a relatively common phenomenon.

Basically, the reason coffee tastes different is because the extraction conditions are different. Shops have accumulated know-how to keep these conditions as consistent as possible and extract coffee of consistent quality.

As a store, you want your customers to enjoy your coffee, so most coffee shops that sell beans have a brewing guide.

1. The amount of water should be 12 times the amount of beans.
2. Steam for 30 seconds with 30cc
3. Water temperature: 95℃
4. Add 1/3 of the coffee every 60 seconds and remove the dripper before it runs out.

Depending on the store, there may be slight adjustments for each bean. Also, there may be different guides for each brewing method, such as drippers.

If you want to match the conditions even more, it is a good idea to match the brewing equipment used by the store. In some cases, the equipment used may be extremely expensive, so in that case it may be a good idea to use a method similar to that used by the store. The most commonly mentioned types are the type that allows the coffee to penetrate easily, such as the HARIO V60, and the immersion type, which allows the coffee to come into contact with the hot water for a long time, such as the Kalita Wave.

By moving the brewing guide and the equipment closer together, you can get a pretty similar coffee, right? Still not good?

One pattern that is extremely difficult to reproduce is beans made on plateaus and in resorts. This is still just a hypothesis, but we believe that the water is too different. This is what is called hard water or soft water, but most tap water in Japan is soft water, except in Okinawa. However, many resorts and plateaus use groundwater or well water instead of purified water.

Calcium and iron ions in water affect the taste of coffee. They often have a particular effect on bitterness, and if lightly roasted coffee is brewed with hard water, it becomes too sour and astringent, making it unappetizing. The roaster near our shop is very fond of dark roasts, and this may be due to the quality of the water.

When you are looking for beans at a resort or on the plateau, it is a good idea to ask about the water.

Our shop is located at an altitude of 1000m, and the tap water we use is somewhat hard, so we ask members working remotely in Tokyo to do the cupping to match the water to your environment. In addition, we use commercially available mineral water to check the taste of espresso.
In addition, we provide as many opportunities for monitoring and tasting as possible, and incorporate your feedback into our beans so that we can continue to produce beans that you will find delicious.

We are unable to provide any information on monitors as they are by invitation only, but we believe that those who purchase beans from our store will have the opportunity to sample the beans, so we would appreciate your cooperation when that happens.