
How to Make the Best Pourover Coffee - Mz
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/06/make-better-pourover-coffee-how-pourover-works-temperature-timing.html
======
JasonCEC
Generally a good article;

I run a startup[1] for quality control in the craft beverage industry (coffee,
beer, distilling), and we have over 7,000 full sensory reviews of the flavor
profile from various brewing methods.

I would highly suggest that anyone interested in brewing better coffee at home
(or in the office, etc), invest in the following:

1) freshly roasted coffee - flavor profile degradation begins around day ~10
in most 3rd wave light-medium roast coffees. I would suggest Intelligentsia
coffee, Blue Bottle, Stumptown, or Counter Culture. These guys are the "big 4"
and trying either single origin or blends from them will give you a better
idea of what to look for in high quality beans.

2) a conical burr grinder. Do not use a spice grinder (whirly blade) which
will shatter the bean causing large amounts of micro-fines and make your
coffee bitter. Capresso makes an OK home grinder, or (if you have the patients
for it) the Hario hand grinder (with a ceramic burr) is excellent (but takes a
while.... though it can be used in situations lacking electricity). In our
dataset, conical grinders increase the Perceived Quality of "3rd wave" beans
by 1.4 standard deviations on average - there is almost no effect on burnt
beans or lesser coffee.

3) a Chemex or French Press. These are both simple, elegant, and allow you to
make a range of quantities depending on how much coffee you have and who's
drinking. Both of these brew methods score .75 standard deviations higher in
perceived quality than average with less experienced (in our dataset that
means 'non-expert') tasters. The average perceived quality can be further
improved by correct dosing and pouring methods.

4) a swan neck kettle. This is 80% of what you need to to perfect your pouring
method. The rest is practice.

Finally, one of the best things that you can do is record and rank the coffees
you consume. This will help you objectively remember what you liked and
disliked about the product, and gain intuition on your preferences. My
company's tools are built for professional tasters in quality control, but
anyone serious about coffee could find suitable use for it. Gastrograph Review
is available free on the Google play store here[2].

[1] www.Gastrograph.com [2]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gastrograp...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gastrograph.testggapp&hl=en)

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
I buy my coffee from a local chain: Dunn Bros, always within few days of
roasting. Often the same day it was roasted. After having a particularly good
cup of coffee there (they offer a "free" large cup of the variety of the day
with every pound you purchase), I went on a quest to understand why their
coffee always tasted better than mine. Finally it came down to the grind as
the last variable and it totally blew my mind how different the taste was
whether I bought it ground from them or with my "whirlybird" grinder.

Ground in store, made with a cheap drip brewer tastes infinitely better than
ground at home with the crappy grinder and a French press. Unbelievable!

~~~
Kluny
What factor was it, exactly? Is their grinder cleaned every time they use it,
or is it to do with the evenness of the grind?

~~~
gabbo
Brewing coffee is all about extracting good tasting stuff from ground coffee
beans - some factors which affect extraction include:

    
    
      Water temperature (hotter water => more extraction)
      Grind size (finer grind => more extraction)
      Brew time (longer time => more extraction)
    

Overextracted coffee tends to taste bitter (or, as many people say when
they're used to bad coffee, "like coffee" :)) and underextracted tends to
taste sour. A bad grinder won't give you a uniform result (some will be more
coarse, some will be more fine). Brewing should match up an appropriate water
temperature + brew time with your grind size, but if your grind isn't uniform
the coarser stuff will underextract and the finer stuff will overextract. So
your coffee can end up having both sour/bitter flavor if the grind isn't even.

------
rubiquity
I absolutely love coffee. And I don't mean that in a way that I'm dependent on
it to be awake and get work done. Coffee is my second biggest hobby just after
programming. I'm so glad Nick Cho is the author of this article because he's
the person who turned me on to the Kalita[0] products that have taken my home
coffee brewing addiction to a whole new level. Nick also has another great
video of the technicalities of brewing pourover coffee[1]. It's a great watch.

I think coffee is a lot like programming, really. Coffee is incredibly simple
when you distill it down to the basics, which is what pourovers do. _Hot
water, ground beans, gravity and time._ That's it. And just like software, we
have complicated the heck out of coffee with all of these electronic machines
that promise a decent cup of coffee in 30 seconds.

Coffee is something I love to share with other people. As I've gone from
workplace to workplace I always bring my hand grinder, kettle and Kalita
dripper with me. After the eyebrows are done being raised, my coworkers have
always embraced the quality of the coffee as well as the fun experience of
making coffee together. It's been great for the culture of the companies I've
worked at.

0 - [http://kalita-usa.com/](http://kalita-usa.com/)

1- [http://vimeo.com/42382657](http://vimeo.com/42382657)

------
aaronbrethorst
I almost always do a pourover at home in the morning (except the last two
mornings when I was out of filters and did a french press instead). I think
they're significantly better than what you can get out of an automatic coffee
maker, and easier than any other coffee-making process I've seen.

It's kind of odd that there aren't any links given to buy the stuff you need
to get started:

* Coffee filter holder: [http://www.amazon.com/Cilio-Porcelain-Coffee-Filter-Holder/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Cilio-Porcelain-Coffee-Filter-Holder/dp/B001B194FY)

* Filters: [http://www.amazon.com/Melitta-Coffee-Filters-Natural-Brown/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Melitta-Coffee-Filters-Natural-Brown/dp/B00006IUTQ)

There are a couple other things I do to simplify or improve the process:

* Wet the inside of the filter holder. This'll make it easier to get the filter to stay put.

* Wet the filter once it's in the holder, but before you fill it with coffee. I think this makes a difference in the final taste.

I use a rounded tablespoon of coffee grounds per 4-5oz water (i.e. two for a
regular cup of coffee, and three for a travel mug). I don't worry about water
temperature outside of whether or not it was recently brought to a boil.

~~~
x0x0
How do you compare it to an aeropress?

~~~
JasonCEC
You don't really... Espresso makes highly concentrated brewed coffee that
people consider to be closer to espresso.

The 'debate' is that any coffee pulled under pressure is technically espresso
- but (real, read: not home machines) pull espresso shots at ~9 bar. Aeropress
generates about 1.5 - 2 bars of pressure, and thus is... something between
coffee and espresso. Most people have taken to calling it "Espresso style
coffee" which is like calling Tofurky meat style tofu. WAT?

Anyway, most people (but not me) dilute their Aeropress coffee in water to
make a Americano-style drink, so its not really comparable at this point to a
true pour-over anyway.

All that said, I think aeropress makes quite good coffee - but its not a
replacement for a pourover, and there's a lot more batch variation due to the
lack of control in an aeropress.

Hope this helps!

~~~
swah
I love my Aeropress. I make a single cup from 20g of lightly roasted coffee
beans, that I grind in a blade grinder because thats the one available around
here (Brazil). I don't dillute this very much - sometimes 10% to just to fill
the cup.

This "pourover renaissance" is very surprising - its how everyone "down here"
does their coffee[1] for the last hundred years and, at least with my way of
doing it, doesn't produce anything as flavorful as the Aeropress...

~~~
stevewillows
If you use your Aeropress daily, check out the S Filter from Kaffeologie --
it's a mesh filter. It allows for more oil to come through instead being
absorbed by the paper. I find it's best with an inverted process, but that's
personal preference.

The filter is pricey for what it is, but it does have a lifetime warranty.

[http://www.kaffeologie.com/shop/s-filter-for-aeropress-
coffe...](http://www.kaffeologie.com/shop/s-filter-for-aeropress-coffee-
makers)

------
traughber
I roast coffee at home and have been experimenting a lot with ratios and
techniques for brewing. I've come to realize that my favorite technique is
cold brewing. For home coffee brewing, I think it's underrated. I make a batch
on the weekend, and for the rest of the week I have coffee ready to drink
whenever I want it. The concentrate can last a long time without any big
changes in the flavor profile, and I can make coffee of varying strengths (by
adjusting the water dilution). I highly recommend cold brewing at home if you
like coffee and have yet to try it.

~~~
morsch
I always wanted to try that. Care to share your technique, or link to a
recommended one? I read that it uses a lot of raw coffee. I don't roast at
home; these days I'm ashamed to say that I don't even grind fresh.

~~~
erikcw
After reading about it in "Modernist Cuisine at Home", I picked up the
Toddy[1] cold brew device.

My wife and I both love the results. It comes with 2 filters, which last for
about 10 batches each. Each batch takes 12-24 hours in produce in the fridge.
We consume it in about a week.

The downside to the Toddy is that it is basically a carafe with a big plastic
bucket. When done brewing, you put the carafe in the fridge and store the
brewing "bucket". A friend of mine has the Hario[2] -- it is a much more
attractive unit, and as an all-in-one you can keep the entire device in the
fridge. When it is time to order replacement filters for the Toddy, I think
I'm going to pick up the Hario instead and give that a try.

Either way -- the quality of the coffee has been fantastic. Super easy to
brew, and really nice having it already ready to go in the morning when we are
rushing out the door.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Toddy-T2N-Cold-Brew-
System/dp/B0006H0J...](http://www.amazon.com/Toddy-T2N-Cold-Brew-
System/dp/B0006H0JVW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1407358455&sr=8-2&keywords=cold+brew)

[2] [http://www.amazon.com/Hario-MCPN-14B-Water-
Coffee-1000ml/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Hario-MCPN-14B-Water-
Coffee-1000ml/dp/B001VPXEBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407358455&sr=8-1&keywords=cold+brew)

~~~
elithrar
> A friend of mine has the Hario[2] -- it is a much more attractive unit, and
> as an all-in-one you can keep the entire device in the fridge. When it is
> time to order replacement filters for the Toddy, I think I'm going to pick
> up the Hario instead and give that a try.

I have the Hario (bought it last week, in fact) and like it a lot. 80g of
ground beans (same coarseness as my Aeropress), fill it up and once it's full,
in the fridge for 10-12 hours. The filter is _very_ easy to clean and the
whole thing is made from thick glass, so I'm not too worried about cracking it
from an accidental bump.

And cold brew with a dash of milk is very, very good. Much (much) healthier
than the sugar-loaded (65g per 500mL!) stuff from the supermarket too, which I
recommend everyone avoid regardless.

------
gegtik
Looks similar to how I do it
[https://vimeo.com/62869435](https://vimeo.com/62869435)

Pourover is great because it lets you get intimate with the variables. Good
coffee is in a state of tension, between bitter and sour flavors. If you find
your coffee doesn't taste good, it's usually out of balance in one direction.

Luckily there are several ways to nudge your coffee toward one end or the
other of the continuum, they are related as follows:

    
    
      Sour <--> Bitter
    
      Colder <--> Hotter
      Coarser Grind <--> Finer Grind
      Shorter Brew <--> Longer Brew
      Lighter Roast <--> Darker Roast
    

The first time I applied these threories and ACTUALLY improved my coffee was
an epiphany

~~~
JasonCEC
Interesting;

not to lessen your ideal, but both sour and bitter fall into a category of
complex flavors.

I absolutely agree that good coffee is a balance _of_ sour (acidity) and
bitter, but I take acceptation to the idea that it's a balance _betwen_ these
2 flavors;

a coffee can be both very sour and very bitter!

Consider - nearly all of the complexity in coffee is from the development of
acids as the coffee is growing, and the conversion of amino acids and proteins
during the roasting process (Maillard reaction) of the bean;

if you over roast the bean the coffee will breakdown too far and develop
carbonates, which are both cancerous and unpalatable. That's one type of
bitter.

Coffee that's roasted a little less (but still far too much) will contain a
campfire note (smokiness).

In both of these instances, good acids (which cause sourness) such as malic,
tannic, and citric, are broken down - while less palatable acidic compounds
such as acrylamide are produced.

~~~
jdnier
Carbonates? Like sodium carbonate? Maybe you mean acrylamides (think burnt
toast), which appear to be carcinogenic
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylamides#Toxicity_and_carcin...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylamides#Toxicity_and_carcinogenicity)).

------
ctdonath
FWIW...

Get a hot-air popcorn popper. A $3 one from Goodwill (thrift shop / flea
market) will do, so long as the heating chamber is metal. Pour about 3/4 cup
of green coffee beans in (you'll learn to adjust this to the popper). Turn it
on. Wait until you hear the beans crack (you'll know) ... keep going just
until you start to hear the beans crack again. Turn off, pour beans into cool
steel pans, swirl them around until pan warms, repeat until beans are cool.

Home-roasted coffee, cheap, fresh. Your pour-over/Aeropress/etc process will
have a foamy head much taller than you've ever seen. Flavor will be wonderful
& rich.

Oh, and do the roasting outside. You'll stink up the kitchen good.

------
TarpitCarnivore
There is a golden ratio to brewing that has been determined to be 17.42 units
of water per 1 unit of coffee. I have found this to be pretty spot on and most
roaster recommend brew methods are right around this number. This isn't a
definitive number, but a good baseline to begin with.

One of thing of note is there is most definitely variation between roasters,
regions and even within the same bag. I've had certain regions come out with
different tastes from different roasters. I've also had bags go from awesome
to crap back to awesome all within a week of delivery.

~~~
macavity23
17.42:1 by mass or volume?

------
swah
I recommend listening to this episode of Pragmatic
[http://techdistortion.com/podcasts/pragmatic/episode-30-coff...](http://techdistortion.com/podcasts/pragmatic/episode-30-coffee)
as a better way to learn a bit about coffee.

Marco says, for example, that the CO2 thing is bullshit i.e. doesn't affect
the coffee in ways he can notice. This is the kind of thing I'm most
interested: someone who made all the experiences and came to a conclusion.

~~~
TarpitCarnivore
Is the CO2 thing specific to letting roasted coffee sit X days before use and
blooming? While I haven't really tried to see if blooming matters when it
comes to taste (it's a good indicator of bean freshness), I can say there is a
difference in days since roast impacting taste. Beans release gas after roast
and if you have some too close to roast date the taste can be dramatically
different from a day or two later. In fact I've seen recommendations of beans
best used for espresso have rested for 5-7 days post roast.

~~~
swah
They mentioned that in the podcast as well and I found it very interesting
(although they said 2 or 3 days after roasting would be best).

Unfortunately I can't find "unroasted" (raw?) beans here.

~~~
TarpitCarnivore
Not sure where you're located, but if you're in the US you should be able to
order green, unroasted beans from Sweet Marias.

~~~
swah
Brazil

------
jdnier
Your pour over brewing experience can be greatly enhanced by roasting your own
coffee. It's surprisingly easy to do. Unroasted green beans cost half what
roasted beans go for. You'll never have a dull pour over moment again. The
roaster I started with and still use is the Behmor 1500 ($300). You can get
started for closer to $150 (e.g.,
[http://www.burmancoffee.com/roasting_equipment.html](http://www.burmancoffee.com/roasting_equipment.html))

If you're in the US, there are several great home roasting web sites where you
can buy fresh coffees from all around the world.

The Captain's Coffee: [http://thecaptainscoffee.com/shop/green-coffee-
beans](http://thecaptainscoffee.com/shop/green-coffee-beans)

Roastmasters:
[http://www.roastmasters.com/new.html](http://www.roastmasters.com/new.html)

Sweet Marias: [http://www.sweetmarias.com/store/coffee-
list.html](http://www.sweetmarias.com/store/coffee-list.html)

Burman Coffee Traders:
[http://www.burmancoffee.com/coffeelist](http://www.burmancoffee.com/coffeelist)

------
koffiman
I'm having a hard time getting the current "hype" about pourover coffee. To me
it generally tastes like Grandma's drip coffee. IMHO, it takes pressure and
heat to really extract maximum flavor from the beans, thus espresso has been
invented.

~~~
falsedan
I've used a 6-cup Bialetti Moka Express for the last 6 years, it was the only
piece of kitchen equipment we packed into our hand-luggage when we flew over
to the states. It extracts a strong, flavourful liquor from most every coffee,
although the typical US pre-ground coffee is a bit courser than optimal.

Steam pressure buildup in the reservoir forces sub-boiling water through the
grind; not as high-pressure as an espresso machine so crema extraction is non-
existent, but delivers a similar taste.

------
pinko
Why can't/hasn't this technique be automated into a "pourover-style" drip
coffeemaker? If such a thing already exists, are cultural factors the only
reason it hasn't displaced manual labor in frou-frou coffeehouses?

~~~
maxerickson
Pod machines approximate it. They pump the water, which most drip makers don't
(they usually just have a heating element and a one way valve).

I think drip machines are the way they are because they are cheap and reliable
and people mostly don't care that much.

~~~
aestra
Pod machines make terrible coffee though.[1] I'm no coffee snob at all and
even I can agree that the coffee that they produce sucks.

I've never had pour over coffee (or even heard of it until just now) but I
gotta say I'm very curious now. Is it common at coffee shops or do you have to
buy the stuff and do it at home if you want to try it?

[1] [http://abcnews.go.com/Business/11-best-pod-coffeemakers-
buck...](http://abcnews.go.com/Business/11-best-pod-coffeemakers-
buck/story?id=20048462)

~~~
maxerickson
Yeah, I guess I've never had pod coffee, I was just pointing out that if you
squint a little bit, they are a machine making a sort of pour over.

I don't frequent coffee shops, but I don't think I've ever seen pour over as a
choice. You can often find plastic filter holders for ~$3, so you don't need a
lot of equipment to give it a try.

------
sequence7
I'm really intrigued as to how much of the coffee connoisseur's appreciation
of a coffee is down to the flavour and how much is actually down to a placebo
style effect and the enjoyment of the ritual.

I love an espresso and make myself one every day but I can't shake the idea
that if there were some blind taste tests 95% of the people who say they can
really taste the difference between different pourings/grindings etc.
(including myself) couldn't tell an aeropress from an old school drip filter
machine.

~~~
nesyt
I think you're right that the ritual accounts for a lot of the pleasure, and
I'm okay with that. Another drink I love, yerba mate, is all about the ritual.
I don't know if this is universally the case, but the protocol I was taught
includes the proper way to prepare the mate in the gourd, that the host always
pours new hot water in, that making the sucking sound when you're out of hot
water is okay (and I think even encouraged), and that everyone drinks from the
same gourd together. It's an acquired taste, but the company and friendship
that the ritual begets is worth the initial palate shock.

------
sramsay
This is pretty much exactly what I do, and I based it on instructions I got
over at CoffeeGeek. There is one difference with their method, though, and
that is that they recommend that you give it quick stir after the second pour.
Does anyone know why this might be good or bad?

~~~
metaldood
I do the quick stir just to wet all the grounds. If I don't then the grounds
on the wall remain little dry.

------
maninalift
Put enough ground coffee into a cup that a spoon shushed into it goes "thunk"
like a spade into sand and stands up.

Pour over hot water to just cover, stir until saturated, fill cup, allow to
settle, drink.

No need for filters or devices. All the flavour stays in the cup.

------
taternuts
This is how I made coffee when I lived in Costa Rica! Most people there prefer
this method, even if they can afford a machine
[http://i.imgur.com/kDKCuMa.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/kDKCuMa.jpg)

------
kazinator
Indeed, "pourover": because "drip" requires a euphimism!

"drip" is often a negative word: liquid is falling from something, and it is
not wanted. Careful not to drip on the carpet! You're dripping with sweat! Oil
is dripping out of your engine's rear main seal ...

Also, "drip" is used as slang epithet in some English-speaking parts of the
world. A drip is a person without a strong character: a lamer, downer, etc.

I'm glad we don't have to call it "drip" coffee any more; though "pourover" is
uncomfortably close to "pushover", which is one of the synonyms that
aforementioned slang use of "drip". :)

~~~
squidfood
Well, 'drip' includes automatic coffee makers, so this distinguishes pouring
by hand.

------
stevebot
" Start with a grind size around that of coarse sugar. (Think Sugar in the
Raw.)" Does anyone know what type of grind this would be (e.g. french press,
conical)?

