Chemex Brew Guide

R0.00

Equal parts brilliance and common sense, the Chemex uses immersion and gravity to brew the perfect cup. Invented in 1941 by a chemist in the USA. Easy to use.

Enjoy this downloadable PDF overview of how to make a perfect Aeropress with your coffee. You can also have a look at our visual guide, and if you want to gain a deeper understanding of the brew method, click here.

Resulting brew: sweet, light, very clear
Body: light — medium
Acidity: low — medium
Effort: medium
Grind: medium — coarse
Best with: bright, fruity and floral coffees, e.g. Central Americans and Africans.

Our single origin coffees are all packed into 250g bags straight from the roaster. For optimal freshness, if you select 1kg of a single-origin coffee, it will be shipped as 4x250g bags.  
Our blends and decaf are packed into both 250g and 1kg bags. 

THE CHEMEX — UNDERSTANDING THE BREW METHOD

THE CHEMEX: SIMPLICITY, MINIMALISM AND A MILDLY PREDETERMINED EXTRACTION PROCESS

One unique characteristic about the Chemex is it’s simplistic design and affinity to a minimalist lifestyle compared to other brewers that fall in the pour-over category. The Chemex can be a standalone brewer if you need it to be. It’s not entirely required to use a gooseneck kettle as in the case of V60 brewing. You could actually just use your standard kettle that you use to boil water at home and just pour really slowly in as thin a stream as possible.Just be careful to not pour to aggressively around the edges as you could still create channeling and consequently an uneven extraction (albeit on a lower level to that of v60 brewing). I’m saying all of this because the standard filter for the Chemex is 20-30% thicker than other common brands and seems to restrict the flow rate and govern the brewing dynamic. In this way- immersion is more in play and extraction seems to occur a little slower. Thus, a longer extraction is inevitable and grinding in the coarser spectrum will only get you so far. This is a bonus for those who prefer the simpler life with less hassle.

THE FILTER EFFECTS

Chemex filters are the most effective I’ve ever encountered. Other common filters already remove up to 90% of the oils in coffee, and I suspect the Chemex removes even more. The oils in coffee are composed of a similar triglyceride composition to butter and cotton seed oil, and similarly can impart particular textural qualities to your brew. Oils, by their very nature carry aroma compounds in the cup, and get released as vapours when you take a sip.

Losing out on aroma compounds in this case is not such a bad thing. When oils get removed by means of an effective paper filter- acids are accentuated, and these are critical in adding structure to the cup, which essentially makes it feel more alive.

Using Chemex paper filtration can also be an effective means of making bad coffee taste a little better. A great deal of the negative characteristics in coffee represent themselves as aroma compounds.

CONCLUSION

The Chemex brewer would be a good investment for someone who wants a tasty, hassle-free experience. I would highly recommend getting a scale, as you should still be working according to a particular coffee to water ratio just like any other brew method.