That 'bloom' step is not optional even with dark roasts

I've seen three people at my local shop in Austin skip the bloom on their pour-overs claiming dark roasts don't need it, but the result is always a sour, under-extracted cup. After 12 years of home brewing, I can tell you that 30 seconds of waiting makes a massive difference in flavor clarity. Has anyone else noticed people skipping this?

2 comments

2 Comments

richard_west522d ago

Is a bad pour over really that deep though lol. Most people can't even taste the difference between a bloom and no bloom in a blind test, especially with dark roasts where bitterness covers everything up. You're talking about flavor clarity like we're all professional tasters or something. Half the time people just repeat stuff they heard on a YouTube video and act like it's gospel. At the end of the day it's just coffee beans and hot water, not rocket science.

beth_green22d ago

Wait are we gatekeeping coffee snobbery now or gatekeeping not caring about coffee snobbery? I feel like I need a flowchart to know whose side I'm on. I mean yeah half the time people are just repeating James Hoffmann videos like they're sacred texts, but also dark roasts do kinda taste like someone burned toast and called it a hobby. Maybe the real pour over controversy is that we're all just pretending to have opinions while drinking whatever wakes us up fastest.