Stop rinsing your coffee grounds before brewing

I keep seeing people on social media spraying their coffee grounds with water before brewing, saying it 'blooms' the coffee. That's not how blooming works at all. Blooming is about releasing CO2 with a small amount of hot water, not rinsing the grounds with cold water from a spray bottle. I tested it side by side last week with my Chemex at home, and the rinsed batch came out weak and flat tasting, while the normal bloom gave me bright, clean flavor. If you're using a spray bottle on dry grounds, you're just washing away the soluble oils that make coffee taste good. Has anyone else noticed cafés doing this trend wrong or was it just the one shop in Austin I walked into?

2 comments

2 Comments

logan6321mo ago

That Austin shop sounds like they're following some viral hack from TikTok that misses the point completely. Washing away those soluble oils with cold water is basically stripping the flavor before you even start brewing. I did the same test with a V60 and it was night and day - the rinsed batch had zero body and tasted like dirty water. Coffee grinders literally produce static that attracts fines, and you're just helping those fines wash through the filter faster with a spray bottle.

blair_green1mo ago

...yeah I've seen this exact thing happen in my own setup and it drove me nuts for a week. I switched to a small misting spray bottle, just one quick spritz across the beans, then let them sit for 15 seconds before grinding. That tiny bit of moisture cuts the static without washing anything off. You're totally right about the fines too, I watched them pile up on the side of my grinder cup before I started doing this.

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