How to brew

Variety is the spice of life as they say, and coffee can be so much more than what you get in a cup at your local café. We’re here to help you understand coffee a little better, work out what you like best and how to get it. Here’s 7 of our favourite brew methods and our recommended recipes for them.

 

First, the grinds...

Grinding your own beans is certainly the best way to bring out your brew. Grinding only what you need means they are at their freshest (and bestest).

All our bags are fully recyclable and vented to release those cheeky post roast gasses.

It is a good idea to buy a quality grinder that will give you control and consistency. Otherwise just ask us to grind it for one of our 7 grind types, we’re nice like that.

Our beans are really rather good and they’re available to buy here.

 

Espresso

:

Here’s our favourite way of making an excellent espresso:

  1. Measure out 18g of Perky Blenders (obviously) finely ground coffee into your portafilter, this will make a double shot producing 36 liquid grams.
  2. Tap the portafilter to level out your grinds.
  3. Hold your tamp as if it were a door knob, placing the portafilter on the edge of a stable surface pressing straight down firmly and evenly.
  4. Remove any loose grounds that have remained around the edge to ensure a clean seal when placing it into your machine.
  5. Every machine varies but it usually produces around 9 bars of water pressure with a coffee temperature of 90 degrees.
  6. The time from when you start your extraction and when it ends should be between 27-31 seconds, if it’s longer or shorter, you’ll need to adjust your grind size to allow more or less water through.
  7. Time to taste; if your shot is sour your grind is probably too coarse or if it’s bitter your grind is probably too fine. Play around and see what works best with your machine.
  8. And that’s it, you’re done! Time to sip and bathe in your smug new speciality coffee skills.

Let us know if you have any questions or trouble with your brew and we’ll be straight on hand to offer some friendly advice.

 

Moka pot:

Here’s our favourite way of making an marvellous Moka Pot:

  1. Boil the kettle and let it cool a bit (94 deg if you’re perfectionist like us).
  2. Pour this water just below the valve in your pot. This helps preheat and prevent any metallic tastes from entering your coffee by it getting too hot.
  3. Measure out around 15g of Perky Blenders (obviously) finely ground coffee into the basket (for a 3 cup Moka Pot) or until it is level with the top.
  4. Give it a cheeky tap on a surface to ensure everything is nice and even. Brush any loose grounds from the edge to ensure a nice, tight seal.
  5. Get screwing, best use a towel to hold the bottom half as it’ll be a touch hot, no need to screw too tight mind.
  6. Time to add it onto your stove on a medium heat, make sure that the handle is clear of it, you’ll thank us later. Leave the lid open.
  7. Once you see a rich brown moving smoothly to a honey yellow it’s time to remove I from the heat. Hold he bottom with that faithful towel and run the bottom half under some cold water. This will help stop the extraction and any metallic tastes sneaking in.
  8. You’ll be left with a small, that’s very concentrated, rich and very tasty. You can have this as an espresso or add more water if you’re a fan of a longer beverage.
  9. Pour and enjoy your brilliantly made brew, well done you.

  

Aeropress:

Here’s our favourite way of making a brilliant long black:

  1. Boil the kettle and let it cool a bit (94 deg if you’re perfectionist like us).
  2. Place the filter paper into the cap and wet the paper (careful, not too much), this is called ‘priming’.
  3. Now pop the inverted (that means upside down) AeroPress onto some scales (preferably ones that measure 0.0 of a gram).
  4. Measure out 16g of Perky Blenders (obviously) medium ground coffee using that handy funnel they give you to make sure the coffee falls straight into the chamber, give it a little tap if needed to make sure the grounds are nice and flat.
  5. Carefully pour 128g of your pre-boiled water and wait for 30 precious seconds.
  6. Now pour the remaining 128g of pre-boiled water, then give it a stir with a long spoon 3 times (down to the rubber plunger) to make sure all of your grounds are extracted.
  7. Grab that filter cap you made earlier and screw in on, waiting a minute. Whilst you wait grab your beverage vehicle of choice and...
  8. Flip and place onto said beverage vehicle. Slowly press down, if there’s no resistance look at making your grind a little finer.
  9. By now, the time should be approx 1:30
  10. And that’s it, you’re done! Time to sip and bathe in your smug new speciality coffee skills.

Technical Recipe: 94 degree celsius heated and filtered water / 16g coffee dose / 256 yield / 1:30 time (ratio 1:16

Let us know if you have any questions or trouble with your brew and we’ll be straight on hand to offer some friendly advice.

Our AeroPress Gift Set is available to buy here

 

V60:

Here’s our favourite way of making a very tasty V60:

  1. Boil the kettle and let it cool a bit (96 deg if you’re perfectionist like us).
  2. Pop your V60 filter in the V60 Dripper and trickle some of that hot water in it over a mug enough to wet and ‘prime’ the paper, tipping any excess away. This also neatly heats your mug at the same time, handy huh?
  3. Place the dripper back on your mug or on a stand with jug below onto some scales (preferably ones that measure 0.0 of a gram).
  4. Measure out 17g of Perky Blenders (obviously) medium-course ground coffee can carefully pour into the filter. Tap it on a surface to make sure they’re nice and level.
  5. Gently pour 34g (which is twice your coffee dose) of your just boiled water in a lovely circular motion from out to in.
  6. Sit back relax and contemplate the meaning of life for a whole 30 seconds, this will release the gases and allow the coffee to what we call ‘bloom’.
  7. Continue to pour in a clockwise direction until your reach 110g. Working a circular motion ensuring all grounds are wet and getting wet equally, sit and wait for another minute.
  8. Give it another pour until you reach 200g and wait another 1:30.
  9. Final pour will push you to 282g with a final time falling between 2:30-3:00.
  10. Give your cup a smug swirl to make sure everything’s evenly extracted whilst making you look good.
  11. Pour and enjoy your brilliantly made brew, well done you.

Technical Recipe: 96 degree celsius heated and filtered water / 17g coffee dose / 282 yield / 2:00-3:300 time (ratio 1:16)

Let us know if you have any questions or trouble with your brew and we’ll be straight on hand to offer some friendly advice.

 

Chemex:

Here’s our favourite way of making a classy Chemex:

  1. Boil the kettle and let it cool a bit (96 deg if you’re perfectionist like us).
  2. Measure out 30g of Perky Blenders (obviously) medium-coarsely ground coffee into the press, this will work for a 3 cup Chemex.
  3. Place the filter into the cone and carefully wet it, get rid of that water afterwards though.
  4. Pop in your ground coffee and gently tap the Chemex on the bench to level your grounds.
  5. Pour 100g of your boiled water in a circular motion from the outside-in.
  6. Give it a little stir, making sure all the grounds are wet and mixed evenly.
  7. Sit back relax and contemplate the meaning of life for a whole 30 seconds, this will release the gases and allow the coffee to what we call ‘bloom’.
  8. It’s now ready to slowly pour in 500g, again in a lovely circular motion, until you’ve used up 500g of water in total.
  9. It’s time to contemplate life again until all of the water has filtered through, this should be a few minutes, get thinking. It should take 3:47 but we'd say 3:45-4:00 is acceptable :)
  10. Remove the filter paper and swirl the Chemex to mix your coffee.
  11. And that’s it, you’re done! Time to sip and bathe in your smug new speciality coffee skills.

Technical Recipe: 96 degree celsius heated and filtered water / 30g coffee dose / 500g yield / 3:45-4:00 time (ratio 1:16.67)

Let us know if you have any questions or trouble with your brew and we’ll be straight on hand to offer some friendly advice.

 

French press:

Here’s our favourite way of making a fantastic French Press:

  1. Boil your kettle to around 96 degrees and warm up your French Press by swilling it out with a splash of hot water and pop it on some scales (preferably ones that measure 0.0 of a gram).
  2. Measure out 30g per cup of Perky Blenders (obviously) coarsely ground coffee into the press.
  3. Zero or tare the scale, starting the timer.
  4. Add 500g of your pre-boiled water and give it a little stir to break up and of those cheeky clumps.
  5. Let it brew for 4 mins, 'break the crust' which means, stir the stop layer of settled coffee with the back of a spoon.
  6. If you'd like more clarity with your coffee, at this point you can scoop off the foam from the surface with a large spoon, totally up to you though.
  7. Slowly press down the plunger, this can be strangely satisfying.
  8. Pour carefully so that no coffee grinds escape into your cup and enjoy your brilliantly made brew, well done you.

Technical Recipe: 96 degree celsius heated and filtered water / 30g coffee dose / 500g yield / 4:00 time (ratio 1:16.6)

Let us know if you have any questions or trouble with your brew and we’ll be straight on hand to offer some friendly advice.

 

Cold brew:

Here’s our favourite way of making the coolest Cold Brew:

  1. You’ll need a container that’s a bit bigger than the amount of coffee you want to end up with. In this example, we’ll be using our Mizudashi 1 litre Cold Brewer.
  2. Measure out 80g of Perky Blenders (obviously) coarsely ground coffee into the filter.
  3. Add 1 litre of cold water and give it a good old mix so that all the coffee is nice and wet.
  4. Allow for it to steep/allow for the magic happen for 8-12 hours.
  5. After that anticipatory wait it’s time to remove the filter.
  6. And that’s it, you’re done! Time to sip and bathe in your smug new speciality coffee skills.

Let us know if you have any questions or trouble with your brew and we’ll be straight on hand to offer some friendly advice.