A barista told me to stop swirling my pour over and I actually listened

So I've been making pour over coffee at home for a few years now, but it always came out kinda bitter. Last week I went to a shop in Portland and the barista watched me do my thing. She said I was swirling the slurry too much during the bloom, which was over-extracting. I switched to just a gentle stir for like 5 seconds and let it sit. My last three cups have been way smoother - no bitter finish at all. Has anyone else gotten a simple tip that totally flipped their brew game?

3 comments

3 Comments

reese_nelson1mo ago

Learned the hard way that you can't rush a good bloom. My buddy swears by tapping the filter cone instead of stirring at all.

abbyg601mo ago

I mean I used to think stirring was the only way to go, but hearing about the tapping thing makes me want to try it. That "can't rush a good bloom" line really hit home after I messed up a few pours being impatient.

hugomurray1mo ago

Three years of stirring here, and I still can't see how tapping does anything but risk shifting the grounds around unevenly. I tried it once on a batch of Ethiopian beans and ended up with a sour cup that told me everything I needed to know. When you stir, you can actually feel the resistance change as the CO2 releases and that's your real cue for the bloom being done. Sure you can rush it, but tapping seems like you're just guessing compared to actually working the grounds.