Hot take: that dude at the cafe said my pour over technique was wrong

I was grabbing a cup at this spot in Denver last Tuesday and this guy watches me do a pour over, then pipes up that I'm doing it all wrong because I'm not blooming long enough. He said 45 seconds or bust and my 30 second bloom was basically ruining the beans. I just nodded but on my route later I kept thinking about it, like is there really a hard rule for that? I tried his 45 second thing this morning with the same beans and honestly my cup tasted a bit more bitter. Anyone else get unsolicited advice from strangers at coffee shops and actually test it out?

3 comments

3 Comments

amy_craig281mo ago

Wait, 45 seconds? That's absolutely wild to me. Most third wave shops I've been to say 30-40 seconds is the sweet spot for lighter roasts. The fact that your cup came out more bitter tells me he was probably over-extracting with all that extra time. Different beans, different grinds, different brewers all change the bloom time. It's not some universal law. That guy sounds like he learned one method from a YouTube video and never experimented past it. Did you happen to catch what beans you were using when you tested his way?

taraross1mo ago

Hold up, has anyone checked the water temp? I noticed that guy in the original post was using a gooseneck kettle with no thermometer. If his water was way off boiling or even a few degrees too cool, extending the bloom to 45 seconds might have actually helped compensate for the temp being low. That's why his method worked for him but not for you with different gear. Most people overlook how much the kettle itself skews the whole process. I've seen temp swings of 10 degrees between kettles just because of how they're calibrated.

the_jamie1mo ago

That guy sounds like a total gatekeeper honestly. 45 seconds is a long bloom and it makes sense your coffee came out bitter. Different beans need different things, that's just how it works. Some light roasts bloom fast and some dense African beans need more time to open up. Water temp matters A LOT too, like the other person said. I'd trust your own taste buds over some random cafe dude who probably watches too many brew guides on his phone.