There's something about a Chemex sitting on a counter that just looks right. Part science experiment, part hourglass shaped piece of art, it excels at making two to four cups at a time. Basically the perfect brewer for sharing with a friend, or for keeping all to yourself. No judgment either way.
Chemex brewing rewards patience. It's not the fastest method on this list, but what you get back is a cup that's clean, bright, and full of flavor you can actually taste layer by layer. Let's get into it.
What you'll need
- A Chemex
- A scale set to grams (eyeballing it is how good coffee goes wrong)
- A Chemex filterWater fresh off the boil
- 43 grams of coffee, ground medium coarse (our Electric Perc blend is a great place to start)
- Let's brew
How to brew it
- Set your Chemex on the scale and pop the filter into the opening. Presoak it with hot water, then dump that water out once it's rinsed through. Quick but important detail here: make sure the three layered side of the filter faces the spout, not the opposite side. Get this backwards and your pour gets weird fast.
- Add your ground coffee into the filter, then zero out your scale so you're starting fresh at zero grams.
- Start your timer. Now comes the bloom. Slowly pour water over the grounds until your scale reads 150 grams. Take your time with this pour and try to saturate all the grounds evenly. This step lets the coffee de-gas, which sounds unglamorous but it's actually the moment your coffee starts releasing its best flavor.
- Let that bloom sit for about 45 seconds. Then pour again, this time from the center of the filter moving outward in a slow spiral, until you hit 450 grams total.
- When your timer reads 1 minute 45 seconds, pour once more up to a total of 700 grams. Give the brew a gentle stir around the edges of the filter with the back of a spoon. This settles any loose grounds sitting on top back into the bed where they belong.
- Let it draw out until your timer hits about 4 minutes. Still dripping? Give it another 30 seconds. No rush.
- Enjoy a damn fine cup of coffee.
Grind size matters more with Chemex than almost any other method on this list, since that thick filter paper is doing a lot of the filtering work. Too fine and you'll get a slow, muddy pour. Too coarse and it'll run through before the coffee has a chance to give up its flavor.
Also, don't panic if your pours aren't perfectly even the first few times. Nobody nails Chemex on attempt one. It's a method you get a feel for, and once you do, it becomes the kind of ritual you actually look forward to.
