Pour over coffee brewing for beginners
Pour over coffee brewing is becoming the favored method for home coffee aficionados. Here’s why:
- It’s very versatile and allows great control over every variable in the brewing process (such as coffee ratio and grind size) to create your perfect cup.
- Pour over coffees better showcase the unique flavors of each coffee.
- Pour over coffee equipment is more affordable than an espresso machine.
- Pour over methods are easy to learn.
Just beginning to pick up pour over coffee brewing? Some tips
- You’ll need some basic equipment, like a good quality burr grinder (hand grinders are cheap if you don’t want to splurge on an automatic one), a digital scale, and a slow-pouring goose-neck kettle.
- Choose a dripper to start learning with. The Kalita Wave (pictured above) is most commonly recommended for starters, as it’s more forgiving in terms of pouring technique required to produce a good cup of coffee.
What makes pour over coffee taste so good?
With any pour over method, there are 3 main variables that affect the taste of your pour over coffee, and changes in any one will require you to adjust the others as well. They are:
- Grind – how coarse your coffee grounds are
- Dose – how much coffee to use
- Time – how long the water is in contact with the coffee to extract its flavor
Other factors (once you’ve gained some familiarity and skill) include the type and roast of coffee, water quality and temperature, and more advanced pouring methods.
If all this is starting to sound like too much trouble, don’t fret. Pour over coffee brewing is complex, but not complicated. First, head to our guide on how to make pour over coffee, where we break everything down into easy step-by-step instructions. You just have to get some hands-on experience, and in no time you’ll be making pour over coffee like the pros!