Chemex coffee single cup

Chemex coffee for one

Posted September 23, 2017 at 6:16 pm in , by

In this post, I’ll go over how I made a Chemex coffee for a single person! Chemex for one, please!

The Chemex coffee maker is a beautiful vessel. The 6-cup vessel is great to have because, in my opinion, it’s the most attractive, and it can hold enough coffee for when you actually have a person visit you and aren’t drinking coffee on your own! ☕️

Chemex coffee single serving preparation requires a Chemex, gooseneck kettle, burr coffee grinder, kitchen scale, and freshly roasted coffee

Requirements

You will need the following items:

Chemex

I find that the 6-cup Chemex is the most attractive, and can still be used to make a single serving of coffee. There is also a 3-cup Chemex coffee maker available but the cost is comparable to the 6-cup. I also prefer the shape of the 6-cup but that might just be me.

Burr coffee grinder

The right coffee grinder is important. Inexpensive coffee grinders that turn the coffee in a dome can be too harsh on the coffee. If you’re trying to get good beans, run them through a good coffee grinder. A burr grinder will only pass the beans through once as opposed to continuously grind them. This is more gentle, and allows for the flavour to be more prominent. Coffee is always best ground right before making it as opposed to getting it pre-ground.

Food scale

This is all very scientific stuff—having a scale to weigh your coffee can be helpful if just starting out. You can also just go by sight if you don’t have a scale.

Pour-over gooseneck-style kettle

This type of kettle will allow you to drip the water onto the coffee slowly without drowning it.

Whole, fresh-roasted coffee beans

Freshly-roasted coffee from your favourite local coffee roastery would be an excellent choice for this.

Directions

  1. Bring approximately one litre of filtered water to a boil.
  2. Weigh out approximately 20-25 grams of whole coffee beans, depending on how strong you like your coffee.
  3. Once the water has boiled, transfer the water to your gooseneck kettle (if it wasn’t made in it), and pour it over the filter. This will get it wet and wash out any paper dust from manufacturing.
  4. Grind the coffee in the burr coffee grinder.
  5. Place the Chemex with the wet filter on the scale and tare the weight so it reaches 0 g.
  6. Dump the freshly-ground coffee onto the coffee grinder. You should see it reach close to the weight of the beans you weighed out initially.
  7. Pour some of the water onto the coffee. Be careful not to pour onto the filter and only onto the grounds. Pour enough to saturate the coffee. Let this sit until the water has drained. This initial drenching is called blooming.
  8. After it’s bloomed, slowly pour over the water in a zig-zag pattern over the grounds. Again, do not pour onto the bare filter and only onto the grounds.
  9. Keep doing this until the weight reaches approximately 400-430 grams. 1 g is roughly 1 ml. Keep in mind that there will be water retained in the grounds, so add a bit extra if you want to get a specific amount of coffee.