The coffee festival and competition season is in full swing and over the past few weeks, we saw a great many new champions being crowned across the world.

I happened to walk into Amsterdam Coffee Festival a few weeks ago just as Lex Wenneker took to the stage for his final Brewers Cup run and as regular as clockwork, Lex walked home with the trophy. For this month’s brew guide, I took some inspiration from his performance and applied it to my own recipe.

Although, admittedly, I didn’t pay as close attention to my water composition and days from roasting, I still managed to get a really delicious cup of coffee out of it and who says you can’t play around a bit, right?

I hope you’ll enjoy the outstanding coffees that make up the recently shipped April 2022 Coffeevine box and that you’ll find lots of joy in brewing them.

P.S. This brew guide also contains the recipe for the 5th edition of our Coffeevine Gems series.

Basic setup:

As in any good kitchen or bar, you want to be sure to have a few key items at your disposal that will aid you in preparing a delicious cup of coffee.

These include:

• • Scales (with or without a timer – you can use your phone or your watch)
  • A good quality burr grinder such as the Comandante Grinder
  • Your favourite brew method (Origami, Kalita Wave, V60, AeroPress etc)
  • A clean vessel for brewing and decanting
  • A ladle or stirrer for agitating the grounds (I was kindly gifted a beautiful handmade stirrer from my ambassadors @bloom.that.coffee
  • Water for brewing
  • A pouring kettle but a regular kettle will also do, however, it requires more precision

It’s very important to always freshly grind your coffee just before preparation because coffee is very volatile and quickly loses its full aroma in a matter of minutes.

You can also vacuum pack your coffee in portions, name and number each batch and then keep it in a dry cool place. More information about freshness and how to rest your coffees can be found in this article.

For espresso, I use my home espresso machine, a Profitec Pro600 espresso machine and a Profitec ProT64 grinder.

My recipe for Ethiopia, Bombe from 19 Grams:

Origami Dripper: Lex also used this same dripper in his Brewer’s Cup competition and I love this dripper. I usually brew with the CAFEC Abaca papers, which I think result in the best flow rate and taste.

14g of coffee, ground medium. Following Lex’s example, I split my water between two kettles. One at 60°C and one at 90ºC.

Start with a 45 second bloom using 30g of water at 60ºC and then use your other kettle for brewing. First pour, up to 100g, at 1:30 go up to 160g and at 2:00 up to 220g. I didn’t stir or move the Origami in this recipe. Once drained, wait for another 10 seconds before removing the dripper. Wait for around 8 minutes before drinking. Enjoy!

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Kalve’s recipe for filter:

We use Kalita Wave in our coffee shop, with a water of approximately 80-100 TDS (rather soft, thus high solubility), at about 96ºC.

To sustain the water temperature, we pre-heat the pouring kettle. Ground on an EK43 (with 0-11 dial) on 6.9, but these are SSP burrs so that may not be a good estimate. But note that the coffee is very low density, so it will extract rather easy, so a courser grind is welcome.

22g in, 360ml total water volume, 3:40 minutes brew time. Start the timer, pour 66g of water for blooming, swirl or use a spoon to saturate all the grounds. At 0:50 sec, start the pour in a slow and steady motion, making sure all the coffee is always covered to aim for a flat bed. Pour until 2:10 minutes, low and slow, and aim for a total drip time of 3:40 – 4:00 minutes. Adjust grind if total time too long or short.

We use Kalita Wave in our coffee shop, with a water of approximately 80-100 TDS (rather soft, thus high solubility), at about 96c, To sustain the water temperature, we pre-heat the pouring kettle. Ground on an EK43 (with 0-11 dial) on 6.9, but these are SSP burrs so that may not be a good estimate. But note that the coffee is very low density, so it will extract rather easy, so a courser grind is welcome. 22 grams in, 360 total water volume, total 3:40 minutes brew time. Start the timer, pour 66 grams of water for blooming, swirl or use a spoon to saturate all the grounds. At 0:50 sec, start the pour in a slow and steady motion, making sure all the coffee is always covered to aim for a flat bed. Pour until 2:10 minutes, low and slow, and aim for a total drip time of 3:40 – 4:00 minutes. Adjust grind if total time too long or short.

Kalve’s recipe for espresso:

20g in, 46g out. Approximately 27 – 29 seconds.

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Hidden Coffee Roasters’ recipe for filter:

V60: 17g with 280g total water. Water temperature 92ºC. Total brew time 3:00. Bloom with 40g. 1st pour 150gr and 2nd pour 280gr.

Hidden Coffee Roasters’ recipe for espresso:

19g in and 40g out. Extraction time around: 30 seconds.  Temperature: 93Cº

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19 Grams’ recipe for filter:

As natural Ethiopians tend to produce more fines when ground, you should adjust your normal brewing method to reduce clogging and slow draw down times. We love to use an origami dripper to brew this coffee with 185 kalita papers.

Brew Ratio: Lower the dose to 15g coffee : 250g water. Grind size: medium – coarse (slightly coarser than you would grind for a pour-over).

Temperature: Lower brewing temperature to 93ºC. Bloom: 60g. Pour rate: 5g/second to avoid fines migration and clogging. After bloom, at 45 seconds pour 160g of water. Just before the bed runds dry make your final pour to 240g. Brew time should be 2.45 – 3.15 minutes. Enjoy!!

19 Grams’ recipe for espresso:

Dose: + or – 0.5g of basket size. Brew ratio: 1:2.5 – 1:2.8. Brew time: 27-32 sec (depending on dose and character of bean) -Temperature: 93 – 94ºC

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Fuglen’s recipe for our GEMS #5 edition:

Kalita or Origami: 30g of coffee ground to 500ml of water. Medium grind size. Start with a 30 second bloom with 40g of water. Make sure all of the coffee is properly covered. First pour -> 200g, pouring speed about 8g per second. At 1:10 minutes going up to 300g, then at 2:00 to 400g and at 2:55 up to 500.

What did you think of these recipes and the coffees from the April 2022 Coffeevine box? Let me know in the comments down below and make sure you subscribe in time for the upcoming May 2022 coffee subscription box.