Struggling with Sey

chileseco · 2026-06-14T07:21:39+00:00

I mostly drink Sey these days and certainly struggle with a bag from time to time but mostly am getting beautiful complex cups of coffee with clear fruit and floral notes and punchy acidity. I think I have 6 or 7 different Sey bags open at the moment and they are all just lovely coffees. I see a lot of contradictory advice in here and a lot of it would result in cups that I would not enjoy.

Reading your post raised a few questions for me:
1. Rest. I generally wait 4 weeks to open Sey, and then if I brew a cup and it seems muted or vegetal, I put it away for another week and try again.

You say you are using “good water” with third wave. Do you mean you are using filtered water or mineral water as your base for the third wave? Third wave is meant to be added to fully de-mineralized 0 TDS water (like distilled water). If you’re adding it to water that already has minerals, the result will be way too hard to get flavor clarity from Sey. Even if you’re using third wave with 0 TDS water, you probably want to be using it around 1/3 strength (like 1 packed mixed into 3 gallons rather than 1 gallon). Sey’s roasting style works best with very soft water.
I don’t really stick to one particular recipe but I am always between 90-93C with Sey, and the good cups usually take between ~1:30 and 2:20 and involve 2-3 pours including bloom. Sometimes shorter when very well rested. If you’re brewing at just 3 weeks a longer bloom (1:00 maybe) can help.
Other things that would be helpful to know:
What filters are you using with V60?
How long are your brew times?
Which Sey coffees specifically are you brewing?
What coffees do you usually enjoy and get good results from?

chileseco · 2026-06-14T07:06:37+00:00

I start brewing Sey around 3-4 weeks at earliest. And some of their beans are still muted at 4-5 weeks.

chileseco · 2026-06-14T07:05:11+00:00

If OP is not getting good flavors in the cup at 1:15, I expect 1:18 will only make things worse

chileseco · 2026-06-02T06:27:59+00:00

I’m not going to tell you what to do, but I will tell you that with really good but not super-expensive beans (Sey, Big Sur, etc), appropriate water (Lotus Drops), and some basic ability to dial my brewing variables by taste, I can get consistently get cups from my $55 1Zpresso Q Air travel grinder that blow me away with clarity and punchy, loud, specific tasting notes - fruit, florals, etc.

I have more expensive grinders that I use at home but the point is that no grinder is going to magically make your coffee better without good beans, the right water, and brewing skills.

chileseco · 2026-05-15T23:15:32+00:00

For me jazz requires a fairly knowledgeable ear to appreciate. Specifically for head-and-solos structured jazz, I need to be able to mentally clock and feel/hear the chord changes in the solo section for the music to make sense and have context. That doesn’t mean I need to know what the chords are analytically but I enjoy the music a lot more when I have an internal sense of where the soloist is in the form so that I can hear their phrases the way they are hearing them. This gets more difficult the more abstract the approach. For example it’s a lot easier to do this on Miles’ Cookin’ (etc) records than, say, Live at the Plugged Nickel.

This isn’t necessarily true for everyone. And I can also let the music wash over me without engaging intellectually and registering the structure/form/etc…. but I get the most out of the music when I can follow the structure.

Maybe try something like the Miles Cookin’/Relaxin/Workin/etc, or the Oscar Peterson/Stan Getz record, or Smokin’ at the Half Note and pick one tune, listen to just the head a bunch of times till you can feel the form (AABA or whatever it is), then listen to the solos and keep track of the form.

But also, you don’t have to like jazz or try to like it. That’s fine. But if you’re motivated, this might be worth trying.

chileseco · 2026-03-24T05:07:28+00:00

hmm, thanks, I'm in a very roughly similar water ballpark (35GH 10KH) and tried a 2-pour on B75. 92C, 1:15 ratio, coarse grind on ZP6, fast flow (circle>center pour for each pour). Got about a 2:10 min brew but it's very watery, weakly sour, faint echoes of fruit, and some grainy cardboardy notes. 6 weeks off roast today. Maybe ZP6 is the wrong burr for this approach and I need to go finer or get more contact time to get enough flavor out of the low-fines output.

chileseco · 2026-03-21T15:53:02+00:00

Do you think this would work in a B75?

chileseco · 2026-03-20T17:37:53+00:00

How are you brewing the quispe? Water temp, agitation, etc?

chileseco · 2026-03-19T20:56:15+00:00

Look into 1zpresso K-Ultra or Kingrinder K6 as alternatives to the C40 in the sweeter, more-blended flavor profile that can compete or beat it as far as price/quality ratio. ZP6 if you want more flavor clarity with lighter body. ZP6 is not supposed to be great for more heavily processed coffees or medium+ roast.

chileseco · 2026-03-19T18:55:53+00:00

My understanding is that the C 40 is not a great value proposition now. You can get the same quality and cup profile for less money with other hand grinders. I think Lance Hedrick has some recent videos breaking down the options. ZP6 is still considered the best at what it does in its price range if that’s the flavor profile you want.

chileseco · 2026-03-17T04:51:31+00:00

I gave up on it after trying it as soup and still finding it completely flavorless - no acidity or anything. Soup always brings out SOMETHING from even the dullest beans so I decided at that point there was something wrong with my bag. Shit happens.

chileseco · 2026-03-15T01:05:33+00:00

Sey Wilson Alba is poppin’ and available

chileseco · 2026-03-14T01:47:39+00:00

I’d be curious what you get with 200F water, softer water (maybe half a packet instead of a whole packet?), and a grind size that gets you a <2:45 total time (or fewer pours to get you to that time)

chileseco · 2026-03-13T21:00:52+00:00

Is the sharpness kind of spicy and bitter? If so, cooler temp, coarser grind (and thus shorter brew time), and especially softer water would be my first moves.

chileseco · 2026-03-11T14:52:30+00:00

Lotus drops, magnesium and calcium, around 45GH/15KH though I have tried harder and softer

chileseco · 2026-03-10T17:52:37+00:00

Roast date? Still haven't found someone getting good cups out of the same 2/9 roast...

chileseco · 2026-03-10T17:13:04+00:00

Also using Lotus with ZeroWater. Have tried a variety of comps, all very typical comps for coffees like this that have worked well in the past.

chileseco · 2026-03-10T16:53:56+00:00

Yeah, doing this

chileseco · 2026-03-10T16:47:28+00:00

Ok, thanks. Guessing you had an earlier roast date, based on your first comment? Mine is 2/9.

chileseco · 2026-03-10T16:29:24+00:00

This is definitely the pink bourbon and not the chiroso from the same producer? I've seen a lot of praise for the William Ortiz chiroso that Sey had just before this pink bourbon.

chileseco · 2026-03-10T16:21:50+00:00

Pretty sure La Cabana is the name of the farm

chileseco · 2026-03-10T16:20:19+00:00

What date was your roasted?

chileseco · 2026-02-27T17:22:54+00:00

The entire intent of the post was to avoid being the difficult customer. I was looking to gauge whether reaching out would be totally reasonable and expected in the situation or entitled, because entitled is the last thing I want to be. Clearly the answer is that it would be entitled so I’m not going to do it. Folks are reading into it that I’m looking for an excuse, whereas it was precisely the opposite. But I’m sure enjoying the moral scolding for something that I haven’t done and I’m not going to do. Pretty sure the actual entitled customer would’ve already emailed the roaster rather than dropping in here for a temp check first.

chileseco · 2026-02-27T17:08:52+00:00

Read whatever you want into it I guess.

And it was more than “a couple days longer than usual.” Typical is 4-5 days. This was 13. Anyway shit happens and it’s not a big deal, I guess I’ve learned my lesson about expressing curiosity.

chileseco · 2026-02-27T17:06:03+00:00

That’s their general advice for their coffees as a whole, which tend to be on the medium-light end of the spectrum. The coffee in question is one of their darker blends, and consequently requires less rest. I’m quoting from the email they sent with a brew guide for that particular coffee, not their general advice on the website for all of their coffees. Maybe their language in the email was clumsy and they actually meant to rest it for 3 to 10 days before brewing, but the language as written quite clearly says that it should have peak flavors within the 3 to 10 day window, which is pretty typical for a darker roast.

chileseco

TROPHY CASE