Our six cup Chemex finally came in the mail, packaged in a beautiful cardboard box displaying an image of the elegant device. Since starting project vvlgar Cicero and I have gotten in the habit of keeping all of the boxes to our growing collection of coffee gadgets. The Chemex’s box will be a welcome addition.
We’ve opened the box; it’s here, it looks awesome, so what do we do?
We make coffee with it, of course. And we will show you how in our Chemex Tutorial. Here’s our run through:
First Observations
These Chemex filters are crazy. I feel like I should have studied origami (chemistry) in college just to use it, but luckily the fine, fancy illustrations on the ‘Chemex Bonded Coffee Filters’ that we bought do just fine. Say, bonded? I hope these filters aren’t accountants…
On a (slightly) more serious note, the filters fold out like a piece of paper. You fold it up (it’s pr-folded, don’t worry), and hold three pieces with one hand while separating the fourth piece with your other hand.
This produces a cone – pour water into the cone so that it is soaked through, then place the cone into the Chemex. The Chemist (she’s actually a biologist) calls this capillary action.
I call it awesome.
Batch One
The first pot I made was complete junk. I didn’t even try it, because drinking it would have just made me sad. But after removing the filter and looking down into the cavernous Chemex itself I could actually see to the bottom. It was like a weak pot of tea at best. So we poured it down the drain.
Somewhere, a giant caffeinated sewer rat is cursing my name for brewing him some very weak java.
So we put on our critical drinking hats, why was the coffee weak?
There are two possible reasons:
There were not enough grounds to the water
The grind setting was too course
So, we adjust the grind setting finer without changing the amount of coffee. Remember: never change more than one variable at a time.
Batch Two
So I brewed a second batch, with the grind setting on my Hario Skerton much more fine. The resulting grounds were much less course, verging towards almost espresso – but not that fine. I poured the initial two ounces to create the bloom – but the two ounces wasn’t enough water to wet all the grounds, so the goop looked very odd as some grounds were wet and blooming while others remained dry.
After the initial bloom I poured more water, being sure not to fill the filter up too high. I had already rinsed the filter prior to brewing (to maximize extraction – something I cover in The Chemex Instructions).
I may have used too much water – because the final result was still weak in my opinion, but others who partook in the tasting thought it was excellent.
A win for the Chemex, but I am hardly finished.
Third Batch – For the Win!
Finally. I set my grind setting on the Skerton to approximately two full rotations away from closed – note that this is one half of a rotation further away than we use for the Hario v60. This afternoon I made a cup of ‘v60 black diesel’ and overflowed again because the grind setting was set for the Chemex and not the Hario (I was too lazy to check and assumed it was set for Hario – you know what assuming does, makes an ass out of ‘U’ and Ming [whoever he is]). Sad day – but I’m drinking yet another cup and this time it’s delectable.
What Did We Learn?
Set the grind on your Hario Skerton – or whatever grinder you happen to be using, a little more course than you would for ‘v60 black diesel’. I mean, forgive me, we’re stepping into very subjective territory here, so your thoughts on grind adjustments for BOTH the Chemex and the Hario v60 are welcome in the comments.
If they’re mean though, I will make you feel small, don’t doubt me.
