Kalita Three-Hole Dripper: Pros and Cons Analysis - What's the Difference Between Three-Hole and Single-Hole Drippers?

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The World of Coffee Drippers

There are many types of coffee drippers available on the market today: conical, fan-shaped, rose-shaped, diamond-shaped, and various other designs. Each dripper has its own distinct characteristics, naturally producing different coffee flavors and textures. Today, FrontStreet Coffee will demonstrate brewing with the world-renowned Kalita fan-shaped three-hole dripper! Before brewing, let's explore everything about the Kalita dripper with FrontStreet Coffee!

The Origin of Kalita Dripper

Kalita Company began manufacturing coffee equipment through its Japanese subsidiary in 1950. The inventor of the fan-shaped dripper was not Kalita, but Mrs. Melitta, who created a dripper by drilling a hole in the bottom of a copper cup. Later, Melitta Company introduced the now-common single-hole fan-shaped dripper. With its smaller diameter and slower flow rate, it was particularly suitable for German-style dark roast coffee until the third wave of coffee culture revived it in Japan. In 1959, Kalita improved upon the fan-shaped dripper design, changing from single to three holes to reduce clogging, allowing brewers to adjust coffee concentration by controlling water flow speed. The Kalita fan-shaped dripper, also known as "trapezoidal dripper" or "platform-shaped dripper," features smaller holes at the bottom. They range from single-hole to multi-hole (six or eight holes) designs, with single-hole and three-hole fan-shaped drippers being the most common.

From a side view, it presents a shape that is wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, which helps concentrate water flow. The rounded top creates a wider surface area to ensure even distribution of coffee particles and reduce stacking. The grooves on the Kalita dripper walls are distributed in straight, evenly spaced lines with consistent distances between them, designed to increase air release and water flow speed. Meanwhile, its relatively slow flow rate primarily uses immersion extraction.

Why is the Kalita Three-Hole Dripper Funnel-Shaped?

Traditional cylindrical-shaped drippers have the same extraction area as the bottom area of the vessel. The biggest disadvantage of cylindrical vessels is their particularly narrow extraction area, resulting in long extraction times and consequently more unpleasant bitterness and astringency. To solve this problem, it's necessary to expand the extraction area and shorten coffee extraction time.

When we pour water on a flat surface, it tends to spread toward the surroundings. By utilizing this natural behavior of water, the funnel-shaped dripper was designed to enable extraction from the sides as well. Compared to extraction using only the bottom of a cylinder, funnel-shaped extraction significantly increases the extraction area, thereby accelerating extraction speed. This improvement shortened extraction time and reduced much of the coffee's unpleasant bitterness and astringency.

The Function of Kalita Dripper's Air Release Grooves

Looking from the inside of the dripper, there are evenly spaced concave and convex grooves on the inclined surface. These grooves resemble ribs, hence they are called ribs, air release grooves, or threads. To ensure proper extraction forms along the dripper walls and to speed up extraction, gaps need to be created between the filter paper and the dripper walls. For this reason, grooves were created on the dripper walls. Through these grooves, air and water flow smoothly between the dripper walls and filter paper, consequently shortening coffee extraction time.

Do Different Materials of Kalita Three-Hole Drippers Affect Taste?

Even when manufactured by the same producer, Kalita's resin and copper drippers have approximately a 30% difference in extraction speed, resulting in different coffee flavors. Because the shape of the dripper affects how coffee grounds accumulate inside, different shapes lead to different extraction speeds. The shape of each dripper directly correlates with water flow speed. The faster the water flow, the fewer soluble coffee components are extracted; the slower the water flow, the more soluble coffee components are extracted. Therefore, assuming the same pouring speed, the extracted coffee flavor will vary depending on the dripper type.

FrontStreet Coffee has also created a simple ranking for heat retention and extraction performance: Resin < Ceramic < Copper. Currently, copper drippers have become more available on the market. Copper's heat retention is much better than ceramic, and it's more stable in form than plastic. The only drawback is its high price. Therefore, if budget allows, copper drippers would be the best choice.

The use of Kalita drippers is no different from other drippers, but it's important to use the corresponding trapezoidal filter paper. Let's brew a Bolivia Cocoa Natural Process Caturra coffee bean, recently introduced by FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), using the Kalita dripper.

FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) — Bolivia Alpaca Estate Cocoa Natural Java Coffee Beans

Region: Bolivia, La Paz, Caranavi Region

Estate: Alpaca Estate

Altitude: 1600-1900m

Variety: Java

Processing: Cocoa Natural Process

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Parameters: 15g coffee grounds; coffee-to-water ratio 1:15; grind size: 75% pass-through rate on 0.85mm mesh sieve; water temperature: 90°C.

Before starting to brew, first rinse the filter paper with hot water to remove any paper taste while warming the dripper. Then add freshly ground coffee beans, using 15 grams of grounds, gently pat to level them. Using 90°C water, bloom with 30-35g of water for 30 seconds. As mentioned earlier, the Kalita fan-shaped dripper has a large elliptical surface area, so it requires slightly more water to thoroughly wet all grounds, allowing the coffee bed to fully absorb water and release air, preparing for the second pour; second pour to 125g; use gentle pouring with moderate height, small water flow, and slow, even circular motions to extract good substances from the coffee grounds through immersion, while being careful to minimize disturbance of the coffee bed; when the liquid level drops by 1/3, perform the third pour to 225g. At this point, the water level drops slowly, indicating that fine particles have begun to settle at the bottom of the dripper. Slightly increase the pour amount and circular speed to get the fine particles at the bottom moving, reducing over-extraction and bitter flavors; finally, complete pouring around 1 minute 50 seconds, finishing extraction at 2 minutes 10 seconds.

When brewed with the Kalita dripper, the Cocoa Natural Process Caturra coffee beans present refreshing grape flavors with noticeable acidity. The overall coffee leans toward grape fruit notes. As the temperature slightly cools, black cocoa and fermented aromas gradually emerge.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) on private WeChat: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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