Day one of brewing with the Hario for my wife

Day one of brewing with the Hario for my wife.  


I blogged the other day about the gift of a Hario V60 as a gift that I admired and had a good cup of coffee from.  Today it was my turn to try to make a cup of coffee with it.  I used the last few remnants of Velton’s Twilight blend for her brew.  I ground it about the same as I would have for the Clever and followed my friend’s recipe, which is about 22 grams of coffee for 12 ounces of water.  


I used water straight from the hot water tap on the machine, so I did not follow the staling water advice I might have used and I also did not control the temperature precisely.  (I, for my own coffee, decided I really liked Scott Lush’s suggestion of a much lower brew temperature for brewed coffee.  I think it was 170’ish that I had settled on but it could have been a few degrees higher.


I also did not test my friend’s theory that I have not mentioned before that he thinks the key is bringing the water to a boil and then letting the temperature drop from there to the target temperature – in other words the temperature is not enough, it matters how you get there, which I find fascinating and worth testing at a later date.


Anyway, I did follow his advice to separate the grounds a little so there is a small hole in the middle of the coffee.  I also did wet the grounds slightly and then pause and then pour in concentric circles.  (I used a pyrex since I did not have a fancy pouring kettle).  


The end result was great.  I think it was slightly better than what we are getting out of the Timolino (clever like) dripper, and that is saying something because I am a huge fan of those drippers.


Perhaps the most compelling proof was that my wife never added any milk.  She liked it too much to add the milk, which she usually does.  The fruit notes were brought out without adding acidic notes.


Now there is a difference that may be unrelated to the dripper.  We used a paper filter with the Hario and a metal one with the Timolino.  I may have to check and see if it is the filter that makes the difference or the dripper.


In any event this morning’s coffee was a winner and The Hario will be in service again tomorrow.