Hacker News Reader

Comment by cmiller1 | Hacker News Reader

I'm curious about how to add this to my coffee brewing process. Is there an optimal amount of water for a given weight of beans? Does it need to be a "spritz" rather than a "drop"? As in should I ideally find a spray bottle that nicely atomizes the water to apply it? Or would it be better to add the water to the beans, stir, then add them to my grinder?

View on HN

The main known benefit is the reduced static electricity which reduced the amount of coffee sticking in and onto the grinder.

The paper observes some difference in espresso brewing time in some grinder/brewer combinations, but this does not replicate well and wasn't investigated in regards to taste.

In my experience only dark roasts have the static electricity problem, and since I prefer very lightly roasted beans this doesn't usually come up. But it is truly very annoying.

It depends a lot on the grinder. On some of my grinders this is true, on others its "bad to awful" from the light to dark roast categories.

Also remember, one man's "light roast" is another's dark roast. I consider light something like nordic (and lighter) - what others consider light I would put well past "medium" but before "oily" - I consider "dark" right before beans start to get oily.

Alleged "medium roast" can have this problem as well though. A few drops of water into 16 grams of beans kills the static and very little sticks to the grinder.

I don't think there is one right answer - for a normal morning brew (15-20g of beans) 2 spritz out of one of those small spray bottles should be in range. Two spritz, then shake the beans up (like in a cup), and grind as normal. You may notice some changes in your brewing method: faster or slower brews. Adjust to taste.

You can use a wet spoon handle

I use a chopstick dipped in water.

If you watch espresso enthusiasts on YouTube or whatever, they’ll have a little spray bottle that they spray the beans with before grinding. The spray nozzle has a short travel. It looks like a sample size or something, very small bottle.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com