Professional Brewing Techniques with French Brewers Cup Champion Charity
Achieving clarity and elegance in a cup of specialty coffee requires more than simply following a fixed recipe. It often comes down to how precisely a brewer controls the variables during extraction. French Brewers Cup Champion Charity demonstrates this level of precision in her brewing approach.
In her workflow, grind consistency and brewing structure work together. Using the Femobook A5 and A68 grinders, she adapts the brewing method to match each coffee’s processing method and roast profile. Rather than applying one universal recipe, she adjusts the grind size, pouring structure, and water temperature to highlight the character of the bean.
During her demonstration, Charity showed how she approaches high-elevation Geisha coffees. By carefully controlling pouring patterns and water temperature, she is able to emphasize sweetness and vibrant acidity while avoiding the bitterness that can sometimes appear when extraction becomes too aggressive.
Bean Preparation and Grinding
Before brewing begins, Charity starts with a simple but important step: sorting the beans.
Even high-quality competition coffees can contain small inconsistencies in roast color. Beans that are noticeably darker or lighter can slightly alter the flavor balance in the final cup. Removing these outliers helps ensure a more consistent grind and a cleaner extraction.
For the first brew, Charity uses the Femobook A5 grinder set to 5.1 (151) with a 14 g dose of Costa Rica Hacienda Copey Geisha, Lot 131. The coffee is ground directly into the brewer. The A5’s automatic shut-off function helps streamline the workflow, allowing the brewer to focus on preparing the next step.
“I always like to sort my beans just to make sure there are no defects… because this can impact the cup flavor in the end. It looks very even, everything looks good.”
The Three-Pour Recipe for Anaerobic Coffees
The first coffee Charity brews is Costa Rica Hacienda Copey Geisha (Lot 131), an anaerobic fermentation coffee.
Anaerobic coffees often have very intense flavors. Without careful control, the cup can easily become heavy or overpowering. To keep the profile balanced and elegant, Charity uses a slightly coarser grind and a structured three-pour method with a classic Hario ceramic V60.
The Bloom Phase
The brew begins with a 40 g bloom for 40 seconds.
Because the coffee is only about 10 days off roast, it still releases a significant amount of CO₂. A longer bloom time allows the gases to escape before the main extraction begins. Using a smaller amount of water during this phase prevents over-saturation while still fully wetting the coffee bed.
This step helps create a more even extraction and reduces the risk of early bitterness in the cup.
The Three-Stage Brewing Structure
Charity divides the brew into three functional stages, each serving a different role in shaping the final cup.
Phase 1 – Bed Preparation
The bloom allows the coffee to degas while ensuring the grounds are fully saturated.
Phase 2 – Core Extraction
The second pour is directed toward the center of the coffee bed, bringing the total water weight to 140 g. This stage extracts most of the coffee’s sweetness, acidity, and defining flavor characteristics.
Phase 3 – Strength Adjustment
The final pour increases the total brew water to 200 g. This step fine-tunes the overall intensity and helps shape the aftertaste.
At the end of the brew, Charity gives the brewer a gentle swirl. This redistributes the coffee bed and ensures no grounds remain stuck high on the filter walls.
The target brew time is 2 minutes 30 seconds.
The resulting cup shows candied stone fruit notes—peach and apricot—with a delicate orange blossom finish.
The Five-Pour Method and Temperature Stepping
For the second demonstration, Charity switches to a washed Panama Geisha from Chvas Coffee Estate (Lot 128).
Compared to the anaerobic coffee, the goal here is different. Washed Geishas often display delicate floral aromas and bright acidity. To highlight these characteristics, Charity increases agitation through more frequent pours and carefully manages water temperature throughout the brew.
This recipe uses the Femobook A68 grinder, set to one full rotation plus 7.7 (177), producing a medium-coarse grind.
Five-Pour Brewing Schedule
To maintain even extraction with the coarser grind size, Charity uses a five-pour structure, spaced at 30-second intervals.
- 0:00 — 30 g bloom
- 0:30 — pour to 100 g (70 g added)
- 1:00 — pour to 130 g (30 g added)
- 1:30 — pour to 160 g (30 g added)
- 2:00 — pour to 190 g (30 g added)
This structure increases agitation in a controlled way, helping the coffee extract evenly while maintaining clarity in the cup.
Temperature Stepping
One of Charity’s more advanced techniques is temperature stepping.
The brew begins at 93 °C, which encourages the extraction of acids and sugars during the early stages. For the final two pours (at 1:30 and 2:00), she lowers the temperature to around 80 °C.
Reducing the temperature near the end of the brew helps limit the extraction of heavier, more astringent compounds that often appear during the final phase of extraction.
While 80 °C is the target, Charity notes that a range of 78 °C to 86 °C can be used depending on the desired cup profile.
For brewers using a single kettle, she suggests a practical trick: simply add a small amount of cold water to the kettle mid-brew to lower the temperature before the final pours.
“Increasing my number of pours and using a coarse grind size can really bring out that bright acidity while keeping the sweetness.”
The Role of the Femobook Grinder
During the demonstration, Charity also highlights the practical advantages of the Femobook A68 grinder.
The grinder can be completely disassembled by hand for cleaning and recalibration, without requiring additional tools. This allows baristas to reset the burr alignment and maintain consistent grind settings across different environments.
The entire recalibration process typically takes around 2 minutes, making it suitable for both cafés and home brewers who want reliable grind consistency.
Target Brew Metrics
Costa Rica – Hacienda Copey Geisha (Lot 131)
- Dose: 14 g
- Total water: 200 g
- Grind size: A5 (151)
- Brew time: 2:30
Flavor notes: candied stone fruits, peach, apricot
Panama – Chavas Coffee Estate Geisha (Lot 128)
- Dose: 14 g
- Total water: 190 g
- Grind size: A68 (177)
- Water temperature: 93 °C → ~80 °C (final pours)
Flavor notes: tea-like body, white florals, yellow peach
Intentional Brewing
Charity’s brewing philosophy shows that exceptional coffee rarely comes from a single trick or secret recipe.
Instead, great brewing is the result of many small decisions. Sorting the beans, adjusting grind size, controlling pour frequency, and managing water temperature all work together to shape the final cup.
For professional brewers, equipment precision plays an important role in this process. High-precision grinders such as the Femobook series allow small grind adjustments to be made consistently, giving brewers the control needed to reproduce a specific flavor profile.
When grind consistency, temperature control, and pour structure are all aligned, the brewer can reveal the coffee’s full clarity and complexity.
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