How to brew coffee with Chemex

Hi, I’m Paolo from Le Piantagioni del Caffè, and in this video I’m going to brew one of our Dirompenti coffees, Buenos Aires, using a Chemex!

I have already preheated my water to 91°C and I use it to wet the paper filter for two reasons: to remove any paper smell, which evaporates with hot water, and to preheat the Chemex, which will then collect the extracted coffee.

I’m going to remove the water: the Chemex and filter are ready!

Now I’m going to grind the coffee: remember to grind just before extraction to ensure a fresh product. Bear in mind that after just 15 minutes, coffee loses between 60 and 70% of its aromatic properties.

Check that the ground coffee corresponds to the amount of beans.

At this point, we calibrate the scale, double-check that the weight is correct, and we are now ready for extraction.

We wait for the water to reach the desired temperature and start the timer.

During the first phase, called “wetting,” we wet the coffee, trying to cover the entire coffee cloth.

(I poured about 90 grams of water but was careful to cover all the coffee).

We wait 30 seconds: this phase is called “blooming” because the carbon dioxide in the coffee is released, forming air bubbles on the surface of the ground coffee.

We resume pouring in a spiral motion from the center outwards and from the outside inwards, trying to find our own rhythm and trying not to raise the water level in the filter too much, as this would risk leaving particles on the walls that are not extracted.

Here too, the recipe was 30 grams of coffee for 500 ml of water.

At this point, we apply further turbulence—you can do this with a spoon or a wooden spoon—but please try to follow the same routine to ensure consistency in all extractions.

Now we wait for the “drop down” phase to end, during which the water passes through the coffee and ends up in the Chemex.

The turbulence applied at the end not only aids extraction but also leaves the extracted coffee grounds very uniform, which is a sign that the extraction has been done correctly.

And now our Chemex is ready to be tasted!