Coffee refractometers are changing the coffee game for both shop owners and coffee roasters. It allows roasters to improve their roast  profiles and enables coffee shop owners to shape and mould their barista’s.

So what is a coffee refractometer ?
In lay mans term when light hits your brew, it gets deflected or shifted to one side. How far this moves tells how much TDS is in your coffee. Tools like these tells coffee professionals and home enthusiast how to best extract and develop the profile.
What is TDS?  
TDS stands for Total Dissolved Solids, this is what gets extracted in water when its brewed.

Once you know the amount of solids in your brew you can calculate the extraction yield this now can tell you how good or bad your coffee is. Now the maths part, 🙂 the equation used is below

Brewed coffee weight (g) x TDS % ground coffee weight (g) = extraction percentage or extraction yield

The above information sounds complicated yet the actual process is very simple you will need a coffee refractometer like the one we have Atago PAL Coffee Refractometer. You add few drops of your brewed coffee into the well and the unit will display your TDS.

So what should you aim for in terms of achieving a good TDS reading ?
– Aeropress 1.4 – 1.7
– French press 1.4 – 1.7
– Pour over 1.2 – 1.5
– Espresso 8 – 12

We think every good roaster and coffee shop owners will benefit from owning one and the investment vs benefits is higher when you consider one that sells for approx £300 + VAT.

www.coffeeomega.co.uk