Do you remember the feeling that the first time you enjoy pour over coffee? I don’t know about your feeling but the very first cup of pour over coffee totally got me. The rich taste of pour over coffee made it stand out from the rest of brewing methods. Then, an idea came to my head “Why not make pour over coffee by myself? So that I can have fun with the brewing process and enjoy the incredible coffee at home.” However, there were so many pour over coffee makers on the market. What should I be aware of?

What is pour over coffee?

Among these years, worldwide coffee market has grown rapidly.Pour over coffee is made by hand-pouring water over coffee. A lot of people mistaken that it came from Japan. The truth is a German lady (Melita) created this hand-brewing method in 1908. She invented own filters paper and dripper and applied for patent. She also set up The Melitta Company to start selling coffee. As the product sold well all over Europe, pour over coffee went viral and established the “godmother” position in coffee aspect.

In 80s century, the commercialization of coffee and the rise of Starbucks let pour over coffee out of fashion. However, with the third wave of coffee, pour over coffee is being popular in Japan and spread this “slow” and “hand-brewing” culture over the world again.

Before discussing different coffee makers, let’s talk about why pour over coffee is so popular right now and it almost replaces regular drip coffee.

Why pour over coffee is more flavor than regular drip coffee?

It seems that pour over coffee and regular drip coffee share the same theory on brewing, adding water to coffee ground and separated from the liquid. However, when you taste 2 cup of coffees, it comes to different level.

If you use the same type of coffee beans, the taste of pour over coffee will depend by on your brewing skill. Utilizing different ways to pour a cup of coffee induce various coffee aroma and taste. Nevertheless, drip coffee doesn’t have many variations since the brewing method is fixed, every single cup of coffee is the same.

Due to the different brewing method, pour over this technique allows us to control the water temperature and the brewing time & speed. All these factors enable us to adjust the flavor, aroma, and texture of coffee. If you want a fuller flavor today, you can adjust the water amount or slower the flowing speed of water so it can stay with coffee powder for a longer time to pull out more flavors. Although pour over coffee creates more good flavor. It also increases the chance to pull out more bad flavors from the coffee ground.

 Let’s take a deeper look into how to choose your own pour over coffee maker.

How to choose pour over coffee maker

1. Grinder

Fresh grinded coffee always has the best flavor. Almost all coffee lovers suggest that idea. One of the key points of choosing grinder is grind size. As increasing the touching area of coffee ground, it allows extracting more coffee. For different roasted level, there are recommended grind size. For cinnamon roast, we usually use fine grind size.

Consistency is another key point. If grinded coffee ground is in different size, the extracting process will not be at an average level. The flavor of coffee will be mess. 

2. Coffee dripper

There are many types of drippers (e.g., metal, ceramic plastic…). The materials will definitely affect the final flavor of coffee.

1. Metal Dripper

2. Ceramic Dripper

3. Plastic Dripper

❤ Product Recommendation: TAMAGOxORIGAMI ceramic coffee dripper

3. Filter’s Paper

There are two categories of paper filters on the market, bleached or unbleached. As its material is made from wood, if you choose unbleached one, it may taste papery. To avoid this situation, you can rinse before brewing coffee.

4. Pour-over coffee kettle

To Choose the most suitable kettle, there is many details need to be noticed.

1. Spout shape

2. Flow rate

3. Electric or stovetop type

❤ Product Recommendation: TAMAGO mini pour-over coffee kettle

A lot of people think that all you need to do is throw grounded coffee in your cup and fill in hot water, then you can enjoy a cup of perfect coffee. But there’s much more tricks to enhance your coffee’s taste. Here are some techniques you can also learn right now to enhance your coffee.

How to use pour over coffee maker

There are 5 easy steps to make your own pour over coffee anywhere.

1. Heat Water and pre-warm your cup

Temperature affects coffee’s flavor deeply. It is very important to use hot water to warm up your cup. It can prevent the cup cooling down of the coffee and make sure coffee temperature decrease much slower, which It helps to keep the best? taste as long as possible.

85～92℃ degrees are the most suitable temperatures for brewing water, we can use thermometer to check it.

2. Place filter and wet it

3. Weight and grind coffee beans

2 main elements for grinding

1. Grind before brew to keep fresh

2. Grinding size stay consistency

4. Place coffee ground into filter

Gently shake coffee ground to settle and keep the ground flat.

5. Pour water for brewing

Blooming is the first pouring. It pours a small amount of water on fresh coffee ground. After that we wait for 30 seconds. Blooming can help releasing carbon dioxide and prevent a the sour taste into coffee. When the blooming is over, we can keep pouring water in a slow and steady speed to maintain water on top of the coffee grounds.

 

6. Enjoy coffee time

Following all those steps, then you can get an own stylish pour over coffee. There are so many factors affecting the flavor of pour over coffee. Let’s enjoy every cup of pour over coffee.

 

 

Being a coffee lover, experimenting different methods and combinations (e.g., water temperature, time or pouring method) is full of fun and it is worth your time to try, just like exploring the unknown world. Pour over coffee doesn’t have an absolute answer. Just keep trying and finding your own favorite flavor.