What's up with Chemex Brewing?

Brewing the best cup of coffee is very subjective. Some people like it strong, some like it with cream, some like it with sugar and bourbon. It’s simply the way you like it. There is however, an ideal way of brewing coffee.

Your experience at Fig Leaf Coffee will provide you details about each coffee along with our honest opinions and recommendations based on how you enjoy your coffee each day. We will tell you to begin by trying it black. This is hard for some people to do this but our coffee is roasted differently. Doing this gives you a base line so you know how much cream, sugar, or bourbon to add. 😊

Coffee education is like discovering a new world. To brew one of the best tasting cups of coffee, you may need a few pointers. While we brew a number of ways to sample our coffee, I brew my coffee every morning in a Chemex (keh-meks) Brewer. You need the following items to do this right. Chemex brewer & filters, gooseneck kettle, spring water, kitchen scale and thermometer. You can purchase all these items at our store as a kit.

The Process

The Chemex brewer produces the most flavorful coffee out of any brewing process.  I know that other processes come close to offering such amazing cups but I know our coffee tastes the best in this process. I am not going to give you a step-by-step but I will give you the essentials and why they are important.  

• Water to a temperature between 195F - 205F: Too hot and the water will strip the oils from the coffee too fast producing a bitter cup. Too cool and it doesn’t allow enough flavor and coffee oils to be released resulting in a sour cup.
• Grind should be medium-coarse size, like sea salt: Too fine and the water sits too long on the coffee producing bitter notes. Too coarse and the water goes too fast producing sour notes.
• Weigh your coffee and water: Use 1 rounded tablespoon (7 grams) of coffee for every 5 oz. cup of coffee. My normal ratio is 22 grams of coffee to 450 grams of water. This produces a semi-strong, full flavor cup. These measurements help you reproduce the brew each time. Using a gooseneck kettle will help make sure you’re accurate in getting the water onto the coffee.

Now that you have some essentials come pick up the hardware at our shop. Ask us any questions you have because this is a journey and we’re your map!