*Legend has it that Baba Budan brought coffee to the subcontinent by smuggling 7 beans from the port of Mocha in Yemen in his beard in 1670. The Yemenis carefully protected their hold on the coffee market through strict policies and exclusively exporting pre-roasted beans. This recipe pays tribute to the well-intended thief. After pouring your grounds into the filter, you will spoon (smuggle) a little back into the grind chamber to use later in the immersion phase of this hybrid brew.
Why the theatrics? Similar to the concept behind the Ninth Circle recipe, the late components of extraction tend to deliver more astringent elements. Instead of lowering the temperature to minimize extraction, we are re-introducing some fresh grounds into the immersion bath to compensate for one of the downsides of hybrid immersion, pre-extracted grounds. *
Ratio: 1:15.5
Coffee: 20.0g
Water: 310mL
Starting water temperature: 201F (208F if using melobloom technique)
Brew Time: 4:20
- Smuggle 4g of grounds out of the filter with a spoon then zero scale
- 00:00 Switch is closed, we bloom with 40ml, give a gentle swirl
- 00:40 Open switch
- 00:50 Pour 55ml (to 95ml)
- 1:20 Pour 50ml (to 145ml)
- 1:50 Close Switch: Pour 165ml (to 310ml)
- Sprinkle in 4g smuggled grounds and give 3-4 gentle stirs to submerge grounds
- 3:20 Open Switch
I welcome your thoughts / critique. I realize it’s a zany approach. I encourage you to try it though as I’ve been using this not infrequently for nearly a year and it hasn’t let me down.
Full details here.
Sounds interesting.
At step three and step 8, it says to open the switch, but there is no step to close it in between
Yikes. Critical error. I just fixed it. It’s part of step 6 just before the big pour.
Thank you for pointing this out.


