I recently hosted a dinner party where the main course for the evening was, um … coffee. A discussion began among the coffee lovers gathered at the table about the best practices for brewing pour over coffee at home. So, I thought I would update this article with more tips you can follow to ensure an amazing pour over coffee experience. Cheers!
Three Benefits To Pour Over Coffee
There are any number of tutorials online that will give you the 1, 2, 3’s of manually making a cup of coffee. One of the most popular methods today for both home and coffee bar is pour over. It’s not unusual to walk into your local coffee shop these days and see pour over coffee offered from the bar by a skilled barista. Still, the best experience is doing it yourself, at home. Here is a great tutorial from Counter Culture on making a cup of pour over coffee:
To me, there are really three benefits to the pour over method:
Pour Over gives me control over each step of the coffee making process.
Hario V60 Ceramic Coffee Dripper
Control freak? No, not at all. But I must admit that there is gratification in participating in each step of the coffee making process. Armed with a quality grinder, kettle and pour over drip cone, with a little experimentation you will be able to consistently create a quality cup of coffee.
One of my favorite smells is the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans on a Sunday morning. The steam of the water (200° F) as I pour it into my Hario ceramic coffee dripper creates the perfect coffee slurry, letting me know that I’m only a few minutes removed from a fantastic cup of coffee. Clean up is a cinch and best of all, no line to stand in!
With Pour Over, you can experiment and find that perfect calibration of water and grind for your unique taste.
The pour over coffee method brings out the inner “mad scientist” in me. It reminds me of sitting in basic science as a kid in elementary school. All I could think about was, when do we get to mix the chemicals and blow something up. I was the kid who loved to “experiment” a little too much. Throw in a little of this and a little of that to see what happens. Manual coffee-making revives my “experimenting” juices. How fine is my grind, what is the ratio of coffee to water, and at what temperature do I get the best results? It doesn’t take long to find the perfect process that yields the best brew for your unique taste.
Photo credit: NY Times – Coffee Bar at Maialino
Pour Over highlights the finer qualities of the coffee bean.
One of the advantages of the pour over method for brewing coffee is the quality cup it produces. If your visiting a local coffee shop, definitely ask for pour over. You may have to wait a little longer than normal but its guaranteed to be fresh since its brewed to order.
If at home, the ability to control the speed with which you pour water over the coffee grounds is important. The slower the pour, it allows time for the water to pull out more flavor from the grounds. The result is a richer and bolder flavor.
The Coffee Maven Presents How to Make Pour Over Coffee
*Courtesy of https://www.thecoffeemaven.com
3 Tips For Brewing Perfect Pour Over Coffee
Tip #1 – Use Fresh Roasted Coffee Beans
If you are ordering roasted coffee beans, make sure that it’s from a roaster who prints the roast date on the package. Reputable roasters will always be transparent with the roasting dates. If ordering online, find a roaster who advertises “roast to order”. Then you know when your coffee arrives its been roasted within just a few days.
Coffee can go stale, so be sure to use it within 4 weeks of the roasting date. To store your beans, keep them in an airtight container at room temperature, not in the refrigerator.
Tip #2 – Only Grind The Coffee You Are Going To Brew
Air and moisture are enemies to fresh coffee, so only grind the beans you intend to brew at that moment. The grind is also very important. Consistency with ground beans is essential to great pour over coffee. For pour over, you want a course grind.
If you are using a coffee grinder with a blade, you will be limited in the grind sizes you can produce. Instead, add a burr grinder to your coffee appliance list. Burr grinders us a mill, allowing you to choose the size of grind you need.
Tip #3 – Use Good Tasting Water
Remember, coffee begins it’s life as a fruit and like any fruit it is sensitive, even to subtle changes. Contaminates within water can affect the taste of your coffee. So, if the water tastes bad, it’s a safe bet that your coffee will also taste bad.
The brewing process rely’s on the minerals within water to extract the flavor of the bean, so avoid distilled or softened water when brewing pour over coffee. Coffee that’s made with water absent of minerals produces a flat tasting brew.
Think about it this way; coffee is almost 99% water, so there’s a lot riding on it for a quality cup of coffee.
Ready to try pour over for yourself? There should be enough information here for you to make an outstanding cup of pour over coffee. So next time you have a dinner party, make coffee the main course. Treating your friends and family to a pour over coffee experience, will make it an unforgettable event. Cheers!
Still need more helpful information on pour over coffee? Check out this helpful Beginner’s Guide to Pour Over Coffee Brewing from team Prima Coffee Equipment.
Coffee Beans via photopin(license)
Pour-Over Coffee via photopin (license)