Pour-over coffee is brewed by hand rather than at the push of a button. The payoff for a few careful minutes is a cup of coffee tuned exactly to your own taste.
The Gear You Need to Make Pour-Over Coffee
You need only a few pieces of gear to make pour-over coffee.
A cone-shaped brewer
Paper filters cut to fit that brewer
A gooseneck kettle
A burr grinder
A digital scale
A mug or carafe to brew into
Picking the Beans For Your Brew
Buy whole coffee beans and grind your coffee just before each brew. Fresh coffee grounds carry more aroma into the cup than pre-ground packs, which lose their aroma soon after grinding. Lighter and medium roasts bring out the bright, clean flavours that suit this method, though a darker roast brews well too.
Set your grinder to a medium grind so your grind size feels like coarse sand. The strength of your coffee comes down to the coffee-to-water ratio. A ratio of 1 gram of coffee to 16 grams of water suits most tastes, so a large mug takes around 30 grams of coffee to 480 millilitres of water. Weigh both on a scale rather than guessing by the scoop, since the same scoop holds different amounts depending on the grind.
Wetting The Ground Coffee
Pour-over coffee needs water hot enough to draw flavour from the grounds without scorching them. Heat yours to between 90 and 96 degrees Celsius, just off a rolling boil. Set a paper filter in the cone and pour hot water through it to rinse out any papery taste and warm the brewer, then pour that water out.
Add your freshly ground coffee and shake the brewer gently to level the coffee bed. Pour a small amount of water over the grounds first, about twice the weight of the coffee, moving the stream in a slow circular motion. This first pour is the bloom, when fresh coffee releases trapped carbon dioxide and swells, so let it rest for 30 to 45 seconds before the next pour.
Draining the Coffee
After the bloom settles, slowly pour the rest of your water over the coffee, keeping the stream near the centre and spiralling outward without striking the filter walls. Hold a steady layer of water above the coffee bed so every ground stays wet and brews at the same rate.
Pour-over coffee can take two and a half to four minutes to finish draining after the first pour, and a larger brew runs longer than a single mug. Once the water has passed through, the coffee bed should look flat and even. Lift off the brewer, bin the filter and grounds, and pour your coffee from the carafe into a warm mug.
Where To Take Your Coffee Skills Next
Pour-over coffee gives you the final say over how your cup tastes. Brew it by hand often enough, and that control becomes second nature. A coffee making course gets you there sooner, with a trainer to flag what your own taste might miss. Your brewing has plenty of room to grow from here, and you give it that room when you enrol in coffee making training.
What is Drip Coffee?
Drip coffee is made by an automatic machine that heats water and sprinkles it over a basket of grounds with no hand pouring. The machine sets the flow and timing for you, which makes it faster but gives you less say over the result than a hand brew. Most home coffee makers and the large batch brewers in offices use this drip method.
What is the Best Kettle to Make Pour Over Coffee?
A gooseneck kettle is the top pick for filter coffee brewing, because its thin, curved spout slows the water to a trickle and lets you steer the stream around the bed. Electric gooseneck kettles that hold a set temperature save you from guessing whether the water has cooled too far. A plain stovetop kettle can do the job if you pour with a slow hand and check the heat with a thermometer.
What is a French Press?
A French press is a way to brew coffee where the grounds steep in the hot water, then a mesh plunger pushes them to the bottom to separate them from the liquid. Its metal mesh lets the coffee’s oils and fine grains through, so the cup comes out heavier and fuller in body than a paper-filtered pour-over.
