A barista told me my pour-over water was way too hot and it changed everything

Ive been doing pour-over coffee for about 2 years now and thought I had it down pretty good. I was using water right off the boil like most people say to do. Then last month I stopped by a local shop in Portland called Heart and the barista asked if I wanted tips on my method. She watched me and said 'your water is probably around 212 degrees right now and thats burning the grounds before extraction even starts'. She told me to let it sit for 30 to 45 seconds after boiling to get down to 200. I tried it that same morning at home and the difference was huge. My coffee went from bitter to actually sweet and smooth with way more flavor notes coming through. I bought a cheap thermometer to double check and now I wait for 205 exactly. Has anyone else had a big change from just tweaking water temp? Im curious what other small adjustments made a difference for you.

2 comments

2 Comments

charlie371mo ago

Have you tried adjusting your grind size along with the temp? I had a similar thing happen when I started paying attention to water temp, but for me the real game changer was actually grinding a little coarser too. I was using a setting that was way too fine and it was making this muddy, over extracted mess no matter what temp I used. Once I dialed back both the temp and the grind, my morning coffee went from something I choked down to something I actually looked forward to. It's wild how tiny changes can flip the whole flavor profile like that.

val_wilson1mo ago

Hold up a sec - you said "dialed back both the temp and the grind" but that's not quite right. Lowering temp and going coarser are two different directions for fixing over extraction. Usually you'd either lower the temp OR go coarser, not both at the same time. If you went coarser and lowered temp together you might swing too far the other way and end up with weak, sour coffee. Try just changing one at a time next time so you can actually tell which one did the trick. Small tweaks really do change everything but you gotta isolate em to know what's working.