Realized I was cleaning my Chemex wrong after 6 months

I kept getting this bitter taste and thought it was the beans. Turned out I was using dish soap and scrubbing the hell out of it, which left residue. A buddy at a cupping class told me to just rinse with hot water after brewing and that fixed everything. Anybody else made a dumb mistake with their gear that took way too long to figure out?

2 comments

2 Comments

linda_butler2826d ago

Oh, I'm gonna push back a little here. In my experience dish soap and a good scrub is actually fine as long as you rinse really well, and just hot water alone might not cut it if your beans are oily. Your mileage may vary but I've seen plenty of folks who never had a bitter taste problem doing it the "wrong" way for years.

price.alice26d ago

I actually saw something online about how the whole "never use soap on cast iron" thing came from back when soap had lye in it, which would strip the seasoning. Modern dish soap is way milder so it's fine as long as you don't go crazy. I mean, I've been rinsing with hot water and a stiff brush for years and it works for me, but if someone has oily beans or burnt on bits, I could see needing a drop of soap. At the end of the day, it's just cookware, not some sacred relic.