How to Make the Perfect Chemex Coffee

Not all coffee is create equal.

Chemex coffee is perfect if you don’t own a coffee making or don’t want to own a coffee maker, it makes you seem hip and it tastes amazing. You also only need a few tools for the process.

What you need:
Chemex
Coffee Grinder (Burr preferred, will give you a more even grind)
Kitchen Scale
Electric Kettle
Filters
Coffee beans

Start by choosing your coffee beans. Get some good beans as this is the single most important part of making coffee. Bad beans = bad coffee. My current favorite coffee is Tartine Manufactory, which they sell at Tartine Manufactory, Whole Foods (in SF), Bi-Rite and Rainbow Grocery. You can also buy it here: https://www.coffeemanufactory.com/products

The Filter and Africa are my favorite coffees and they have beautiful packaging. What more could you ask for?

Manufactory Filter 02 // Africa 03

Coffee for 2

• Set your kettle to 206°F. The ideal temp for coffee is 200°F to 205°F and the water will cool down a little once it’s been taking off the heat
• Start with 35g of coffee beans and grind them. You will want a fine grind, but not too fine. Depending on what grinder you have the setting will be different, but on a Baratza Encore Burr grinder it will be around a 9
• Put the filter in the top of the Chemex and dampen it. Pour a small amount of water through and then drain it out. Do not put the filter seam on the Chemex spout or you might get coffee spraying at you later
• Pour the ground coffee beans into the top of the Chemex filter
• Once the water is heated to 206°F pour 40g into the Chemex and wait 30 seconds
• Now you can pour the rest of the water through the filter. It will be 700g in total including the 40g that have already been poured through. The standard water:coffee ratio is 15:1, but you can change this depending on what kind of beans you have. I like to use 20:1 or 700g:35g. Test out what you prefer based on the coffee you are using and how fine your coffee is ground. As you are pouring the water from the kettle pour in the center of the Chemex in small circles and do not pour too quickly
• Once all of the water has gone through the filter you are done!

Getting the water down to the gram is hard, get as close as you can

Pro Tip: Always zero out your scale after each step so you can easily keep track of each step

Pro Tip #2: Save the coffee ground for plants, trees or compost