The Best Coffee Beans For Chemex

A Chemex is a manual pour-over style glass coffeemaker, invented by Peter Schlumbohm in 1941 and manufactured by the Chemex Corporation. It’s an elegant way to brew coffee that can be used in cafes or at home. Chemex brewed coffee tastes better because of its unique filter, glass construction, and curved shape. Chemex coffee is widely considered the best choice for people who want a smooth cup with less bitterness. There’s no single best bean for brewing coffee in a Chemex, but medium roast beans are by far the most popular. I recommend Kenyan Special Medium Roast. It has a well balanced flavor with full body and some sweetness but low acidity.

Another great bean for brewing coffee in a Chemex is Peruvian. It has a smooth flavor with mild acidity and light body. Its flavor profile ranges from vanilla to nutty with mild chocolatey notes and subtle tones of citrus.

Ethiopian coffee is one of the best beans to brew in a Chemex because it’s light and fresh with almost no bitterness. It has a fruity taste that’s sweet and citrusy with some floral notes. Brewing Ethipian beans in a Chemex helps bring out its bright, exotic notes.

In this article, I’ll go over the basics of how to brew great coffee with a Chemex, the correct grind size, and how to choose the best coffee beans for a well balanced cup.

The Best Coffee For Chemex

The Chemex coffee maker is a manual pour-over brewing system invented in 1941. It’s made from high-quality glass and uses a special coffee filter. Coffee brewed in a Chemex is clear with a pure, full and rich flavor. It’s less bitter than coffee brewed in a standard coffee or espresso maker and not overly thick. The taste of Chemex brewed coffee is better than other coffee makers but it takes time and must be manually poured, which is why most people use an automatic pot instead.

However, even if you use the best coffee maker, you still need the right bean for the type of coffee you prefer.

Coffee beans all have a very different flavor profile based on how and where they’re grown. There isn’t one coffee bean that tastes best when brewed in a Chemex. But I suggest starting with a medium roast bean from Kenya. They have a well balanced flavor with full body and some sweetness but low acidity.

Choose a bean based on which coffee roast you like best and the bean’s origin.

Coffee characteristics differ greatly based on the coffee’s roast and country of origin. The best way to try different coffee beans is to find a local coffee roaster that offers small samples.

When I first started using a Chemex, I bought a few cups of different beans and started experimenting until I found the perfect combination. For me, a mix of Kenyan and Peruvian beans is best.

Country Of Origin

Where your coffee beans come from, a.k.a. the country of origin, has a big impact on how they taste when brewed in a Chemex. A Chemex has a thicker paper filter than conventional coffee makers which retains more oils and blocks more solid. This combination brings out the coffee bean’s pure taste with less bitterness.

A Chemex is the best way to experience the purest flavor of a bean. For this reason, I recommend using single-origin coffee beans at first before experimenting with blends.

Single-origin coffee has a different flavor profile than coffee blends. A country’s soil and climate produces beans with unique flavors. This is why each country has coffee with its own unique flavor.

Here is my list of the best single-origin coffee beans to brew in a Chemex coffee maker.

Kenyan Coffee

Kenyan coffee is my favorite single-origin bean for brewing in a Chemex. They’re among the best medium roast beans in the world. When brewed in a Chemex, Kenyan coffee tastes bold and bright, with fruity undertones with a hint of wine and a full or medium body.

Kenyan coffee is among the finest in the world no matter how you brew it, but a Chemex removes some of the bitterness and has a cleaner flavor than other coffee makers. This elevates the bean and allows you to taste some of the finer flavors.

Kenyan coffee is highly acidic.

What does Kenyan coffee smell?

Floral
Fresh
Chocolate

What does Kenyan coffee taste like when brewed in a Chemex?

Bold and bright
Fruity undertones
A hint of Wine

Peruvian coffee is mostly a medium to dark roast with high acidity. One of the best brewing methods for it is pour over with a Chemex because it removes some of the bitterness. It’s essential to use the correct grind size and coffee-to-water ratio to brew a high quality cup of coffee.

Peruvian Coffee

Peruvian coffee is a great single-origin bean for brewing in a Chemex coffee maker. It has a subtle flavor and mild acidity. When brewed in a Chemex these mild flavors stand out because there’s less bitterness.

Peruvian coffee is smooth and mellow with light body and mild acidity. It has notes of dark chocolate, caramel, nuts, and spices like cinnamon with a touch of sweetness and subtle tones of citrus.

What does Peruvian coffee smell like?

Spices like cinnamon
Subtle sweetness
Hints of dark chocolate

What does Peruvian coffee taste like when brewed in a Chemex?

Dark chocolate
Caramel
Nutty
Spices
Subtle tones of citrus

Peruvian coffee is mostly a medium to dark roast with medium acidity. One of the best brewing methods for it is pour over with a Chemex because it removes some of the bitterness. It’s essential to use the correct grind size and coffee-to-water ratio to brew a high quality cup of coffee.

Brazilian Coffee

Brazilian coffee is one of the best single-origin beans for brewing in a Chemex. It has sweet caramel and chocolate notes, full body, and a relatively low acidity with a subtle nutty flavor like hazelnut. When brewed in a Chemex these sweet flavors stand out even more because there’s less bitterness.

What does the Brazilian coffee smell like?

Very sweet
Fruity
Hazelnut

What does Brazilian coffee taste like when brewed in a Chemex?

Fresh chocolate
A bit nutty like hazelnuts
Caramel

Brazilian coffee is roasted medium to dark roast with relatively low acidity, a well balanced flavor profile and an overall great taste. One of the best brewing methods for it is pour over with a Chemex because it removes some of the bitterness. It’s essential to use the correct grind size and coffee-to-water ratio to brew a high quality cup of coffee.

Guatemalan Coffee

Guatemalan coffee brewed in a Chemex produces very rich and intense flavors. Depening on the region, it can have chocolate, fruity, wine or nutty flavors with sweetness and a hint of burnt caramel. It’s known for a full and balanced body and a pleasant acidity. The scent is floral with hints of chocolate, citrus and caramel. It can be strong and sweet with a mild acidity.

Guatemalan coffee beans are used in a variety of blends because their aroma has citrus, fruits, and spice notes.

Guatemalan coffee can be bitter, but the thick paper filter used in a Chemex reduces that bitterness quite a bit. This is what makes a Chemex the best way to brew Guatemalan coffee.

What does Guatemalan coffee smell like?

Citrus
Fruits
Burned caramel and chocolate
Spices

What does Guatemalan coffee brewed in a Chemex taste like?

Intense with a full body
Chocolate and sweet caramel
Fruity, wine or nutty flavors
Some sweetness
Hints of bunt caramel

Guatemalan coffee is roasted medium to dark roast with relatively low acidity, a full and balanced body and an overall great taste and pleasant scent. One of the best brewing methods for it is pour over with a Chemex because it removes some of the bitterness and amplifies the coffee’s subtle sweetness. It’s essential to use the correct grind size and coffee-to-water ratio to brew a high quality cup of coffee.

Ethiopian Coffee

Ethiopian coffee has a fruit like acidity and a sweet taste with bites of citrus, spice and honey. It’s a light and fresh coffee with almost no bitterness. When you brew Ethiopian coffee in a Chemex, it brings out all the bright, subtle flavors and reduces bitterness levels to basically zero.

Ethiopian coffee smells aromatic and spicy. Many people notice a hint of jasmine flower, bergamot and blueberry as an aftertaste. The body of Ethiopian coffee isn’t very strong and the acidity is mild and pleasant.

What does Ethiopian coffee smell like?

Sweet
Fruity
Aromatic spices

What does Ethiopian coffee taste like when brewed in a Chemex?

Sweet
Hints of jasmine, bergamot and blueberry
Honey
Tastes fresh with a mild acidity and no bitterness

Ethiopian beans are fantastic when brewed in a Chemex. The taste becomes very sweet and fruity with a nice acidity and basically zero bitterness. It’s a light coffee with a very mild taste that’s soft on the pallet. I think Ethiopian coffee is light enough to call refreshing when you brew it properly in a Chemex because even more of the subtle flavors pop out.

One of the best brewing methods for Ethiopian beans is pour over with a Chemex because it amplifies the coffee’s subtle flavors. It’s essential to use the correct grind size and coffee-to-water ratio to brew a high quality cup of coffee.

Costa Rican Coffee

Costa Rican coffee brewed in a Chemex produces a clean, sweet and fruity taste with moderate acidity. Some of the usual flavor notes associated with Costa Rican coffee are honey, chocolate, citrus, vanilla, grape and molasses.

A Chemex brings out the well-balanced fruit flavors, light body and sweetness of the Costa Rican beans. The scent is floral with hints of chocolate, citrus and caramel.

Costa Rican coffee can be strong and sweet with a moderate acidity.

What does Costa Rican coffee smell like?

Sweet floral notes
Hints of chocolate
A touch of citrus and caramel

What does Costa Rican coffee taste like when brewed in a Chemex?

A clean, sweet and fruity taste
Honey
Chocolate
Citrus
Vanilla
Grape
Molasses
Mold sweetness

Costa Rican coffee is well-balanced with a slight floral flavor and moderate acidity. It’s best when brewed in a Chemex because the flavor is cleaner which allows subtle hints of flavor to pop when the bitterness is removed.

One of the best brewing methods for Costa Rican beans is pour over with a Chemex because it amplifies the coffee’s subtle flavors. It’s essential to use the correct grind size and coffee-to-water ratio to brew a high quality cup of coffee.

The Best Coffee Roast For Chemex

The best and most popular coffee roast for Chemex is medium roast. Chemex is a pour-over coffee maker in which water passes through a bed of coffee and a filter typically made out of paper. Chemex paper filters are 20 to 30% heavier than other filters so they retain more oils and block more solids during the brewing process. The result is a remarkably clean cup of coffee that’s less bitter than other coffee makers.

The type of roast has a huge effect on how your coffee tastes. It influences the coffee’s taste, bitterness, sweetness and acidity. The three basic coffee roast categories are light, medium, and dark roast.

Coffee brewed in a Chemex tastes a little different than other coffee makers you may be more used to. The heavier paper filter changes the flavor because it retains more oils and blocks more solids. The results is a more balanced flavor profile that’s less bitter.

Lightly roasted coffee beans typically keep more distinct flavors. They’re less oily because the beans aren’t roasted long enough for oils to come to the surface. However, they keep more of the acid and contain more caffeine than other roasts.
Dark roasted beans lose some of their flavors in the roasting process, but they have a deeper flavor that’s full but smooth. Dark roasts are more bitter and oil but less acidic and they contain less caffeine.
Medium roasted beans strikes the perfect balance between the flavor of lightly roasted beans and the strong roasting flavor spike of dark roasted beans. The bitterness, acidity, sweetness and caffeine content are half way between dark and light roasts.

Chemex can brew fantastic coffee with any level of roast. The Chemex’s thick paper coffee filter picks up more oils and blocks more solid than standard filters. This helps reduce the bitterness of the coffee. Medium roast is the best choice for beginners because it’s a mid point between light and dark.

The Best Grind Size For Chemex

It’s essential to use the correct grind size and coffee-to-water ratio when brewing coffee in a Chemex. A Chemex coffee maker uses a thick paper filter which filters out impurities and excess oils, acidity, bitterness, fats and sediments. A medium to medium-coarse grind works best to extract more flavor out of the coffee beans.

Avoid using a coffee grind that’s too coarse. Water will run through it too quickly which results in a watery coffee with less flavor. However, if the grind is too fine, water will drain too slow and the coffee will be over-extracted and bitter or it could completely stall.

Grinds for a Chemex should be slightly finer a French press, and should look like granules, not sand.

For reference, the grinds should be slightly finer than coarse salt.
If the coffee tastes a little sour use a finer coffee grind.
If the coffee tastes overly bitter, use a coarser grind.

Brewing coffee in a Chemex works best when you experiment a little with different roasts, grind sizes and beans than you’re normally used to. The shape of the Chemex and thick filter changes the flavor of the coffee a little vs instant and french press coffee makers.

I recommend buying a good quality grinder and grinding the beans yourself. With a grinder, you’ll be able to experiment with different grind sizes to see what works best for you.

How To Make Chemex Coffee

Chemex is a manual pour over coffee maker made of glass. It uses a special thick paper filter to make the coffee. They’re better than conventional filters because they absorb more oils and solid which reduces the coffee’s bitterness. But if you don’t have them, you can layer 3 regular coffee filters instead.

Ingredient measurements depend on how much coffee you’re making, but the ratio should 1:10 to 1:15 coffee to water. Scale your measurements up or down based on how many cups of coffee you’re brewing.

Keep in mind that Chemex produces a light-bodied brew, so start with a 1:10 ratio (1 gram coffee per 10 ml of water). Increase the coffee dose or use less water to adjust the taste.

Once you have all your ingredients and equipment ready, you can start brewing:

Boil the water
Place the filter into the Chemex
Rinse the filter with a little bit of hot water to help it stick to the glass, then pour the water out
Pour coffee into the filter
Gently and slowly pour boiled water over the coffee about 1/4 at a time
Let the water sit for 30 seconds to 1 minute
Pour another 1/4 of the water over the coffee

Chemex is a manual, slow brewing method for making coffee. Don’t rush it, the entire process typically takes about 5 to 10 minutes depending on how many cups you make.

Does A Chemex Reduce Coffee’s Acidity?

Yes, brewing coffee with a Chemex will reduce its acidity. This is due to the special thick paper filter used with a Chemex. It absorbs more oils, acidity and solids than a conventional coffee filter does. The result is a cleaner, less acidic and bitter cup of coffee with a pure flavor.