Blooming process, the bloom

What is it “The Bloom”, (Blooming, Pre-extraction or Wetting process)?

OVERVIEW

The blooming process is very simple but at the same moment a very important process. The

General idea about the blooming process is to release gas (carbon dioxide / CO2) from ground

coffee in the filter basket.

For The blooming process it is necessary to make coffee preparation. Even at many espresso

machines, there is a whole process where the basket is firstly filled with coffee squirt with a

small amount of hot water, then after a short break a shot is added to the basket and then rest of

the water too. It is called a pre-extraction.

I provide short blooming also at Moka pot where I put hot water with coffee grinds in a basket

before I put the Mocca pot on cookware.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

All organic materials – including coffee beans - possess gas. Roasted coffee beans contain more

gas than dry green coffee beans. The roasting process physically blows holes in every coffee

cell, expanding the size of the beans. Most of the gas leaves the coffee beans within just a few

days after they had been roasted. As soon as the coffee beans are ground, the trapped gases are

discharged much more quickly. The amount of gas in coffee grinds varies depending on the

roasting level and date. When the hot water touches the coffee grounds, they immediately purge

themselves of the gas and create the ‘bloom’. Majority of the gas will get out at first contact

with water. The main idea of bloom (blooming, pre-extraction, wetting...) process is to wet

coffee grinds with hot water and release gas. As soon as we start pouring more water over the

ground the gas will have less space to escape.

If the bloom on roasted coffee beans wasn’t done correctly and some coffee grinds stayed dry,

it can block or it can disturb correct extraction. You wouldn’t be able to get full protentional of

coffee beans and you can bring some unwanted flavor to the final coffee.

The gas in coffee beans is not very helpful for the extraction process, but it is the essential part

in creating the good qualities of coffee like creating the coffee aroma.

THE BLOOM CAN AFFECT:

There are not any uniform rules, recipes or steps of how to do the bloom. Every coffee is

different. There are also many factors which will affect the coffee from beans from one bag:

 Your water, it can be different, the day before, temperature, quality….

 Brewing technics

 Brewing equipment

 Environment, I mean humanity, high level, pressure and very important is the

temperature of your environment. If it is warm, the blooming process is much more

intensive.

 Your skills, experiences, preferences

 Also, your mode, sometimes you more nervous, tired, you don’t focus….

“The best” blooming process will be if with minimum water you are able to wet all the grinds

and release gas in the coffee filter and minimum or any of the water will go through to the cup.
WHAT IS IT IMPORTANT TO KNOW

AMOUNT OF WATER

Don’t focus on the number of regular brewing. The main point is not to leave any dry parts of

coffee grinds. So, sometimes you must add less, sometimes more water. Usually, you need to

add twice the amount of water as compared to the coffee grinds you are using.

I usually do this at bottom flat dripper. (Kalita wave, Brewista, Melitta…). At Kona (Hario

V60, Kinto, Chemex..) dripper the coffee grinds bed is much ticker then at bottom flat drippers.

At Kona shape drippers it is good to add more water, so with the pressure of the weight of the

water it will go down faster. At Kona dripper, around four times more water is used, as

compared to the weight of coffee grinds in the basket.

The coffee beans at the blooming process also releases some sugar, so if you add more water,

the final cup can be sweeter. One method of the blooming process is focusing on the ratio. For

the blooming, the method recommends using 40% of the total used water for brewing. The 40%

you can split into two parts and two blooming processes. If, in the first part you will pour

between 25-35% of the water the final cup of coffee can be sweeter. The sugar which gets

released from the beans needs to be in contact with more water.

For the first method you need to pour between 10-20% of total water at first and then take a

small break for the gas to be released and after that pour rest of the 40% of water. The final cup

of coffee can be more acidic, fruity. You will lower extracted sugar to the coffee. Don’t forget,

the majority of the flavors in the coffee are created within the first one or one and half a minute.

But, be careful, some coffee grinds will soak the water easily, some wont if there will be too

much water above the coffee bed in the filter. This happens because the gas will not have

enough space to get out. You might have a strong taste of coffee and the coffee produced would

have a minimum aroma.

MOVEMENT

The water should be poured in a sharp and consistent manner without stopping. You have to be

sure that you cover maximum amount of coffee grinds and shouldn’t touch the filter paper so

whole of water is extracted to the cup. Don’t change the speed of movement, it has to be sharp

and consistent without stopping. Also don’t change the movement and the height of pouring of

water should be same too. It will be best if you are closer to the coffee grinds and not high.

Many times, if you look at someone brewing you can only see some movement but if you focus

more so you can see that every move is planned and has its own reason behind it.

Some people use a string with a wooden stick to get the gasses out at the blooming process but

in my opinion, it is not necessary. At first the holes are emptied with a wooden stick with water

and extraction is done later on so small parts of coffee grinds don’t block the holes and stop the

water from getting through easily. Also, with the stirring you can lower temperature with

opening space for cold air. So, the coffee might be slightly unextracted. I think you can do the

same stirring very easily with the stream from the pour-over kettle.

Here, you can find three steps, what I advise to do to maximum release the gas from coffee

grinds:

 Start with a small circuit around middle approx. size of 1cent coin, 2-3 seconds

 After that continue to bigger circuits approx. 1.5 cm (1 inch) around the middle, but it

depends on your size, or shape of the dripper. Don’t touch the wall of the dripper, or

paper filter with the water stream. You don’t need to worry, the coffee grinds are the

same as paper or wood, will soak alone the water and push air towards paper filter wall.

Many drippers have some canals for the releasing gas even from the bottom part of the

dripper.

 The end should be long and straight so the gas can pass out easily. For approx.. 2-3

seconds.
TIME

Its not important to use a recipe for coffee blooming. You should pour water until it doesn’t wet

all the coffee grinds on top, after that let it rest for a while for approx. 10-15 seconds. This time

I use for majority of the wet-processed coffees. For Honey, Natural and some other new

alternative processes you will need more time to release the gas. So, I recommend to take a

longer break between blooming and the following extraction or to do a second part of the bloom.

Usually less water than in the first part of the bloom.

The bloom time should be longer:

 A freshly roasted coffee (3-10 days)

 Natural and Honey processed coffee

 At very coarse ground coffee beans, for example at the French press, I will use very

coarse ground coffee and it should be around 45s.

The bloom time should be shorter:

 For old coffee of over one month you can do shorter blooming, or you might not need

any bloom.

 For very fine ground coffee beans

 For some Wet processed coffee, if you are looking for a sharper clean cup of coffee

Other than this the roasting level can affect the bloom time too. I use a shorter blooming time

for a darker roast while light roasting is needed for medium roast.
WATER

Hard water bloom is more than the soft water. Ideally, fresh and natural water should be used

in it but for Urban people its hard to get it. I recommend using filtered water via filter tanks.

There are even special filter capsules for water that can be used for Tea or Coffee. You can also

buy powder or pills for water and in some places you can especially water for brewing. For a

successful brewing, Alfa Omega water is used. Some shops have hidden sources of water and

they keep it even more secret than tips on brewing methods. If you don’t have a supply of good

water, you can even fill up a bottle of water and let it sit for 15 minutes and that way many

harmful chemicals will get out in the form of gases.

The temperature of the water

Other than that, the temperature of the water can be effective as well. If the water is hotter, it

will release the gas faster and more effectively. But still don’t forget to preheat the coffee

equipment and the coffee grinds should also be at least body temperature. You can leave them

after grinding on top of the coffee machine, or on some warmer place. If the coffee grinds or

equipment would be cold so the water would lose a lot of temperature when meets them. Some

people use different temperatures for blooming and for extraction. I like to use a lower

temperature of water of around 84C /183F for the blooming process and a higher temperature

for the extraction process between 88-92C (190 -197F). It is like the method of Tea extraction,

firstly starts with a low temperature then increase it and then increase it more. And you don’t

even get good results with all kinds of beans. If you will use water with a lower temperature

you will have to give it more time, but it also depends on freshness of the coffee.
AROMA

For me it is quite important that the coffee should have good aroma which can be done by giving

it time to release the gases. After a couple of seconds, you will notice it changing and once the

aroma gets sharper you will know that its time for brewing or extraction.

COFFEE BEANS

Level of roasting

The roast level will have a significant influence on the bloom. It might affect the dark roast

minimally since there is only small amount of gas to be released. The roasting level has more

effect on the flavor as compared to the pre extraction process. But the time duration of the

bloom doesn’t have much of an effect.

Roasting date

Then there is the time duration of the blooming process which is one of the most important

things to know when was the coffee roasted. If you use freshly roasted coffee (2-10days) try to

do the bloom longer. The blooming process will also be different for a just opened coffee bag

and from a bag that was opened and closed a couple of times. In the second situation lesser gas

would be released from the coffee beans.

Coffee cultivars

Some Arabic varieties might have a small effect on the bloom time or intensity, but usually,

many coffee bags include a couple of various varieties from the same plantation. Usually, harder

beans release more difficult gas. Generally, harder is peaberry (single bean in one cherry) beans

or lighter roast beans. Some coffee beans from some regions are known to have more strong

bloom than usual.

Pieces of Advice

 Be active in all the processes and don’t do the blooming process and the extraction

process in an automatic manner like a Robot and just go with the flow. Like for example

while taking a bath you never know how much water would you use and you will stop

once you will be clean so its just like that, give it the required amount of time and energy

and start the extraction process once you are fully sure.

 You can warm coffee grinds more in order to get the gas out faster before you start the

brewing process.

 If the coffee is very fresh (2-7 days) grind the coffee half-hour advance to help release

some gas.

 If we create a hill-shaped coffee bed, the gas will be released easier during the blooming

process.