How to brew Colombian coffee: pour-over, French press and drip

A washed Colombian coffee is the easiest single origin to get right in a pour-over. Use 22 grams of coffee to 350 grams of water (a 1:16 ratio), water at 200 F (93 C), a medium-fine grind, and aim for a total brew time of about 3 minutes. That recipe makes one 12 oz mug and it works on a Hario V60, a Kalita Wave or any cone brewer with paper filters. Everything below explains why, and what to change when it does not taste the way you expected.

Why Colombian coffee suits a pour-over

Most Colombian coffee on the US market is fully washed, which means the fruit is removed before drying. Washed coffees tend to be clean and balanced, with sweetness that sits in the middle of the cup rather than at the edges. A pour-over rewards exactly that: paper filters strip out oils and fine sediment, so what you taste is the sugar and the acidity of the bean itself. With a Colombian you get cocoa and brown sugar up front and a mild red-fruit brightness behind it, without the sharp acidity that makes some East African coffees tricky for beginners.

The medium roast common to Colombian coffee also helps. It has enough development to extract easily, so you do not need very hot water or an extra-fine grind to pull sweetness out of it. If a pour-over has ever tasted thin or sour to you, a washed Colombian is the coffee to try before you blame your technique.

The recipe

1. Rinse the paper filter with hot water and pour that water out. It removes paper taste and warms the brewer and the mug.
2. Add 22 g of ground coffee and shake gently to level the bed.
3. Start a timer and pour 50 g of water in a slow spiral, wetting all the grounds. Wait 40 seconds. This is the bloom: fresh coffee releases carbon dioxide and you want that out of the way before the real pour.
4. At 0:40, pour in slow circles until the scale reads 200 g. Pause when the water level gets close to the top.
5. At about 1:30, pour again to 350 g. Keep the stream steady and stay away from the paper edge.
6. Let it drain. The bed should be flat, with no deep crater in the middle and no thick ring of grounds high on the filter.

Drink it after two minutes. A pour-over changes as it cools, and a washed Colombian gets sweeter and shows more apple as it drops from scalding to warm.

Which grinder setting

If you use a Baratza Encore, start around 15. On a Hario Slim or a similar hand grinder, about 8 to 9 clicks from closed. On a blade grinder, pulse for 10 to 12 seconds and shake between pulses; it will never be even, so use a slightly longer bloom. The only number that matters is the brew time: if the water drains well under 2 minutes 30, grind finer; if it drags past 3 minutes 30, grind coarser.

What goes wrong, and the fix

It tastes sour or thin

Under-extraction. Grind one step finer or raise the water temperature to just off the boil. Also check the bloom: if you skipped it, the water channels around gas pockets and never touches part of the bed.

It tastes bitter or dry on the tongue

Over-extraction, usually from a grind that is too fine, or from pouring hard against the filter wall. Grind coarser and pour lower, closer to the bed.

It tastes flat

Two usual causes. The coffee is stale: whole beans that sat open for a month lose most of what makes a pour-over interesting. Or the water is very soft or distilled, which cannot extract properly. Filtered tap water is the safe middle for most US cities.

French press

1. Warm the press with hot water, then pour it out. A cold glass carafe pulls heat out of the brew fast.
2. Add the ground coffee, then start a timer and pour all the water in at once, saturating the grounds evenly.
3. Stir once with a spoon or chopstick to break up any dry clumps on top, then set the lid on with the plunger pulled all the way up.
4. At 4 minutes, skim the crust of grounds off the top with a spoon if there is one. This step is optional but it cuts down on bitterness.
5. Press the plunger down slowly and evenly. If it is hard to push, the grind is too fine.
6. Pour it all out right away. Coffee left sitting on the grounds, even with the plunger down, keeps extracting and turns bitter within a few minutes.

Drip machine

1. Measure water and coffee to the ratio above.
2. Grind fresh, medium, right before brewing.
3. Load the filter and grounds, fill the reservoir.
4. Run the full cycle without pausing it.
5. Serve right away. Coffee sitting on a hot plate for more than 20 minutes starts to taste flat and bitter.

Whole bean or ground?

Whole bean if you own any grinder at all; the difference in a pour-over is bigger than in a drip machine. If you do not, the ground version is a drip grind that works in a cone brewer with the recipe above, just use 24 g instead of 22 g and expect a slightly faster drain. Both come from the same roast and the same label, and the label lists region, altitude, varietal, process and ingredients, so you know what you are pouring. If you want to see how the other nine compare, all ten coffees are on one page, and the subscription takes 11 percent off every bag with skip or cancel in one click.

Start with the recipe as written, change one thing at a time, and write down what you changed. That is the whole method.