Coffee Equipment Guide: Why Does the Clever Dripper Get Hot? Clever Dripper Usage and Extraction Time

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When coffee beginners first encounter coffee equipment, they often hear experienced coffee enthusiasts recommend using the Clever Dripper. "Does using the Clever Dripper make you smarter?" Perhaps it does, haha~

Among coffee novices, the Clever Dripper is widely used because it satisfies both the pursuit of clean pour-over coffee flavor and the ability to extract coffee substances more thoroughly through immersion, resulting in a fuller taste profile.

What is a Clever Dripper?

The so-called "Clever Dripper" is essentially a funnel with a built-in valve at the bottom. The bottom has a valve mechanism. When not placed on a coffee pot/cup mouth, water will remain in the dripper, creating an immersion effect. The advantage of this design is that it allows for more thorough coffee extraction while achieving cleaner coffee through the filter paper.

The essence of pour-over coffee lies in systematically extracting coffee flavors through pouring techniques that utilize the resistance created by coffee grounds ground as fine as sugar. In typical coffee drippers, after pouring water, coffee liquid will drip from the other end in a very short time—there's input and output.

However, while the Clever Dripper may look like a funnel, its extraction method is actually based on immersion and won't be affected by factors like water flow. Unlike the French press, which also uses immersion extraction, the Clever Dripper's coffee oils and fine particles pass through filter paper before flowing out through the open valve after extraction is complete.

In daily brewing comparisons, FrontStreet Coffee has found that coffee brewed with the Clever Dripper tastes cleaner and has more layers than French press coffee, which uses a metal mesh to separate grounds.

How to Use the Clever Dripper

FrontStreet Coffee is using the "Flora" coffee bean from Panama's Boquete region for this demonstration. This coffee bean is grown at an altitude of 1600m in Boquete, Panama. Due to the high-altitude cultivation and FrontStreet Coffee's medium-light roast method, which preserves the bean's citrus and floral characteristics, the bean density after roasting is relatively low, making it less likely to release coffee substances easily.

Therefore, it's recommended to use medium-fine grinding (75% passes through a #20 standard sieve) and brew with 91°C water for an immersion time of 1 minute 50 seconds.

Fold the filter paper, place it inside the Clever Dripper, and put the dripper on a container. When rinsing the filter paper with hot water, you can simultaneously preheat the equipment. Then move the Clever Dripper to the electronic scale (the valve will automatically close at this point), pour the ground coffee into the center of the dripper, directly pour in 225ml of water, ensuring all coffee grounds are wet, then cover with the lid and wait for 1 minute 50 seconds. After immersion is complete, move the Clever Dripper to the container, open the valve, and filter the coffee liquid from the dripper.

Flavor profile of Clever Dripper-brewed Flora coffee: Full, clean citrus-like bright acidity, gentle white floral notes, honey sweetness, and green tea-like aftertaste.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473