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A guy at the Portland cafe told me his pour over method was a secret | Coffee Enthusiasts - Vivisector

A guy at the Portland cafe told me his pour over method was a secret

He was grinding beans at the counter and said he never rinses his filter because it steals flavor. I've tried it his way for a month and my coffee tastes totally different. Anyone else skip the rinse step?

4 comments

4 Comments

river_dixon5mo ago

Totally, that temperature shift is the whole game. I was getting such sour, weak cups before and couldn't figure it out. Skipping the rinse made my brews way more balanced, like it just slows everything down at the start so you don't over-extract right away. Had to go a full click finer on my grinder to get it right.

miasanchez5mo ago

Same thing happened with my V60 brews. Not rinsing let me use a coarser grind without losing body, which fixed my clogging issues. It's wild how one small change forces you to relearn your whole routine.

evan5435mo ago

Forget the filter paper taste thing for a second. Think about the water. If you don't rinse, that first bit of water hitting the dry grounds is cooler and gets soaked up by the paper. It changes the whole temperature curve of your brew from the very start. That's the real secret he stumbled onto, not saving flavor but changing how the coffee extracts. My cups got way more consistent when I stopped rinsing, but it took dialing in my grind size all over again.

abby_morgan182mo ago

Respectfully, that whole temperature curve thing sounds like overthinking it lol. Maybe I'm old school but rinsing the filter gets rid of that papery taste that always bugs me, especially with lighter roasts. When I skip it, my first few sips just taste like a Starbucks napkin no matter how fine or coarse I grind. Could be my tap water's extra hard or something, but going back to rinsing fixed all my sourness issues and I don't have to mess with my grind setting every other day.