Pour over coffee is one of the preferred brewing methods at cafes worldwide – and especially for the high-end cafes that feature this option, it’s becoming an increasingly popular choice amongst even “regular joe” consumers around the world. And for good reason – it produces some really fantastic tasting coffee, teasing out the intricate flavor profiles from your coffee grounds that are not possible to reproduce with a machine.
To make a good cup of pour over coffee, you must first start with a good dripper – this is the key component that makes or breaks the flavors that you can get in your cup of pour over coffee. Apart from that, it actually requires a minimal amount of equipment – you just need filters, a kettle to boil your hot water in, and a container to be placed at the bottom of the dripper to collect the brewed coffee product.
The brewing methods range in complexity, from a simple one-cup, one dripper and paper filter setup to a fancy, self-contained all in one device with special filters called a Chemex. The Chemex brewing method is well known in the coffee world as the pinnacle of coffee brewing technology – melding the physics and chemistry of coffee making into some sort of alchemic, almost mysterious method that produces the best cup of coffee possible.
Because you are in control of every aspect of the coffee making process during the pour over coffee method, you can create and tweak your own process to consistently create a great cup of coffee each time, making it a truly personalised experience.
Another great thing about the pour over coffee method is that because it takes the most amount of meticulousness and attention to brewing, you are sure to extract the finest qualities out from the beans that you use to brew your cuppa. Unlike espresso machines which use super hot steam pressure to produce espresso, the coffee grounds in pour over coffee are slowly bathed in hot water, reducing the all-too-common risk of having a shot of burnt, bitter tasting espresso in your coffee drink.
The slower pouring time also gives the water more time to extract more flavor from the coffee grounds, resulting in a richer, more intense flavor in every cup of coffee you brew.
The quality of water you use in pour over coffee method also plays a big part in the process. The better and cleaner your water tastes, the better your coffee will taste – so if you’re planning on having a home pour over coffee setup – it’s wise to invest in a good water filtration system for your home, or to buy and use only high quality filtered bottled water to make your coffee.
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