No. 4 Conjuncture brewing guide: three ways we make it

No. 4 Conjuncture, our fully washed Kenyan from Othaya in Nyeri County, brews best as a pour-over, a touch coarser than usual, with water at 94 C (about 201 F), which is the roaster's own starting point for this coffee. A Chemex and an AeroPress both work too, and each pulls the orange, lemon and floral notes on the label in a slightly different direction. All three recipes below start from the same 60 grams per liter ratio.

Where it comes from

Othaya sits in Nyeri County, Kenya, and this lot grows between 1,700 and 1,890 meters from a mix of SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11 and Batian plants, varietals bred and selected in Kenya specifically for cup quality. It is fully washed, meaning the fruit is removed from the bean before drying rather than left on, and dried on raised beds, which lets air move around the parchment as it dries. That combination of high altitude and washed processing is a large part of why Kenyan coffee reads as bright and citrus-forward rather than heavy or chocolatey.

Pour-over

Bloom with about double the coffee's weight in water, wait 30 seconds, then pour the rest in slow circles. Kenyan coffee is acidic on purpose, and a slightly coarser grind than you would use for a milder origin keeps that acidity reading as bright rather than sour.

Chemex

The Chemex's thicker paper filter pulls out more oils than a standard cone filter, which softens the acidity slightly and gives the orange and floral notes a rounder edge. It is the better choice for brewing a larger batch at once without losing much of what makes this coffee distinct.

AeroPress

The AeroPress is the fastest of the three and the most forgiving of an inconsistent pour, since the seal controls contact time on its own. Lemon leans more forward in this version, with the floral note sitting a little further back than in a manual pour-over.

If the cup tastes sour instead of bright

Sour and bright get confused often with this kind of coffee. Sour usually means the grind was too coarse or the water moved through too fast, so the coffee did not extract enough. Grind a step finer, or slow the pour slightly, and taste again before changing anything else. If it instead tastes flat or muted, the grind may be too fine, pulling out bitterness that buries the citrus.

Storing it between brews

Keep the bag sealed at room temperature, away from sunlight and heat. Since our roaster does not publish a roast level for this one, we cannot say how it compares to a specific dark or light roast in terms of how fast it fades, but like any coffee it holds its brightest notes best in the first few weeks after the bag is opened.

Whole bean or ground

Whole bean and grinding right before brewing keeps more of the orange and lemon notes than pre-ground coffee does, since ground coffee starts losing aroma within a day or two. Every coffee we sell also comes pre-ground at the same price, so it is a fine option if you do not own a grinder, just buy only as much as you expect to use within a couple of weeks.

Water temperature matters more than usual here

A washed, high-altitude coffee like this one is more sensitive to water temperature than a heavier, lower-grown coffee tends to be. Water that runs too hot, closer to a full boil than to 94 C (201 F), tends to pull out bitterness that competes with the citrus rather than supporting it, while water that runs too cool leaves the brew tasting thin and underdeveloped. If your kettle does not have a temperature setting, let it sit off the boil for about 30 seconds before pouring, which usually lands close enough to the target range for any of the three methods above.

For the same three methods applied to a different coffee, see our guide to brewing No. 8 Consent, or read what No. 4 Conjuncture tastes like cup by cup on its tasting notes page. Browse the full lineup of all ten coffees, or see how the subscription works if you end up wanting this one on repeat.

Start with pour-over, that is where the brightness shows up most clearly.