Water makes up more than 98% of a black brew, and around 90% of an espresso, so the water chosen makes a huge difference to all aspects of the final character of the brew. Read about different aspects affecting your brewing below:. The balance and le

Water makes up more than 98% of a black brew, and around 90% of an espresso, so the water chosen makes a huge difference to all aspects of the final character of the brew.Read about different aspects affecting your brewing below:<h2 id="isPasted">Mineral content</h2>The balance and level of the water&#x2019;s mineral content makes a huge difference to what we are able to extract from coffee. Dissolved minerals in water exist as charged ions, which help us to bind to the flavour compounds in coffee that lead to the most exciting and involving cups. For coffee brewing, we can think of these minerals existing in two broad categories, General Hardness (GH) and Carbonate Hardness (KH). For natural water hardness, the two most important GH ions are Magnesium and Calcium. Magnesium has a very strong attraction to natural acid molecules, so has a huge effect on perceived acidity in coffee, pulling out flavours we like to describe as fruits in coffee, normally sharper acidities like citrus and forest berries. Calcium has a slightly weaker interaction, so tends to enhance softer acidities like strawberry and cherry, while also directly enhancing body.&#xA0;<a href="https://lacabra.com/collections/zero-water">SHOP WATER FILTRATION</a><h2 id="isPasted">Controlling KH</h2>The final piece in the puzzle is KH, which has a slightly more complicated interaction. Through a phenomenon known as buffering, the carbonate hardness tries to keep the pH (the scientific measurement of acidity) of the water around 7, which is neutral. This means that controlling KH is very important. Too little, and the coffee tastes unbalanced and sharply acidic, no matter what brewing parameters are changed. Too much, and it is impossible to perceive any acidity in the coffee, leaving a flat and dull cup.<a href="https://lacabra.com/products/tds-meter">SHOP TDS METER</a><h2 id="isPasted">Water Temperature</h2>One aspect that can affect the overall expression of the cup is the water temperature that you brew with. The hotter the more you will extract from the coffee, both the good and bad and vice versa. In simple terms we recommend using a hot temperature like 96-98C for our coffees when perfectly rested, but if the coffee is a bit fresher a lower temperature, like 90-92C will result in more balanced cup. furthermore a lower temp will give a bit more sweet and arguably muted cup. We also like to recommend to use lower temperatures for Anaerobic coffees since they can become overpowering and unbalanced in their funky flavour profile.<a href="https://lacabra.com/products/fellow-stagg-ekg">SHOP KETTLES</a><h2 id="isPasted">Brewing materials</h2>One last thing to be aware of is the brewing material you are using, plastic brewers keep the coffee hotter, so a temperature of 98C might be a bit too hot. Glass and ceramic is in the middle, we like to use 98C here. With materials like copper and metal we sometime find the best balance with 100C water since the metal absorbs so much heat from the brew.<a href="https://lacabra.com/collections/coffee-equipment" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">SHOP BREWING EQUIPMENT</a>

The importance of water

We recommend our roasted coffee for all brew methods, regardless of whether it is immersion, percolation or espresso. We believe that there is one correct way to roast a single coffee, roasting lightly, in such a way as to release its innate qualitie

We recommend our roasted coffee for all brew methods, regardless of whether it is immersion, percolation or espresso.We believe that there is one correct way to roast a single coffee, roasting lightly, in such a way as to release its innate qualities and showcase its quality.Roasting coffees darker to aid solubility, especially for espresso, tends to cloud the origin-specific flavour notes which we so value in our approach. This approach means we often have to understand coffee brewing and the effect we can have here, and not necessarily follow brewing guides exactly.We provide an outline for brewing using percolation, immersion, and espresso brewing methods. We also recommend resting your coffee after roasting.When coffee is roasted, chemical changes in the beans take place, and one of the byproducts of these changes is Carbon Dioxide gas. This becomes trapped in the bean cell structure, and slowly seeps out over time. This gas makes it difficult to brew coffee, both by causing fizzing out as you attempt to brew coffee, and by dissolving into carbonic acid during brewing, causing off flavours in the cup. Learn more about brewing <a href="https://lacabra.com/pages/brewing">here</a>

Roasting style at La Cabra

For both espresso and filter brewing the coffee peak after 30 days. In the case of filter we are happy to brew them after 14 days but after a month is ideal. The experience will be far superior; better flavour clarity, more integrated acidity and les

For both espresso and filter brewing the coffee peak after 30 days. In the case of filter we are happy to brew them after 14 days but after a month is ideal. The experience will be far superior; better flavour clarity, more integrated acidity and less bitternessThey simply open up, tasting more transparent and structured. The idea of using freshly roasted coffee is more or less dead to us. In our bars for over a year now our espresso grinders have been filled with coffee that is a minimum of one month old. Plus most feedback we hear from our clients is how they discover better results with well rested versions of a coffee.When roasting we see the formation of gases within porous structure of a coffee bean, with the largest amount being carbon dioxide. Degassing is the term used to describe the release of carbon dioxide and other gases from roasted coffee. It will happen steadily throughout storage and rapidly once the bag is open or upon grinding and brewing. CO2 amongst other things contributes to crema formation, effects the extraction process and can hinder or obscure the flavour and clarity in the final cup. The research article &#x2018;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29091435">Time-Resolved Gravimetric Method To Assess Degassing of Roasted Coffee</a>&#x2019; is a good reference here. It takes an accurate, quantitative, and a time-resolved approach to measure the degassing rate of roasted coffee. This test was achieved by measuring the weight loss of a container filled with coffee. Tests were conducted with nine samples, three of each a light, medium or dark roast degree and with varying roast speeds (roast air temperatures).In conclusion roast degree has a stronger impact than roast speed on the total amount and dynamics of degassing. That light roasted coffee beans are still degassing 1 month after roasting and are slower. Medium and dark roast degrees, the degassing is faster from faster roasts than from the slower roasts, whereas the results from the light roasts show no such increase. The cause of this degassing rate behaviour is generally down to the difference in porosity of the light, medium and dark beans. Basically the darker the roast the more frail and surface holes for carbon dioxide to escape more quickly. Learn more about how we brew <a href="https://lacabra.com/pages/how-we-brew">here</a>

Coffee knowledge

The importance of water

Roasting style at La Cabra

Resting coffee