KONO Dripper Coffee Bean Types Recommendations and Extraction Flavor Characteristics

Like the Hario V60, the KONO dripper features a conical shape. The biggest difference lies in the rib height—KONO has 12 ribs that are lower than those of the Hario V60, which helps with air circulation during brewing and increases blooming efficiency. When the KONO dripper is used together with its server, it creates extraction through pneumatic pressure similar to a siphon effect. Consequently, the coffee grounds achieve higher water saturation initially than with the Hario V60, resulting in much higher concentration. This is because during KONO extraction, soluble compounds have longer contact time with water, combined with the drip-by-drip pouring method, making it generally more suitable for medium-dark roast or coffee beans with rich body characteristics.

The Design Philosophy Behind KONO

The original purpose of the KONO Meimon dripper was to solve the inconvenience of cleaning flannel filters while最大限度地还原法兰绒滴滤的味道还原ing the flavor of flannel drip coffee to the greatest extent possible. To achieve this, Mr. Kono designed the dripper with a conical shape similar to flannel filters, which both concentrates the coffee grounds to form a sufficiently thick powder layer and increases water flow concentration. To prevent hot water from staying too long at the bottom of the dripper, a wider opening design was adopted to achieve drip speed nearly equivalent to flannel filters. However, the drawback of fast water level drop is insufficient water absorption by the coffee grounds, leading to inadequate extraction. To solve this problem, the dripper interior features 12 half-length radial ribs.

The smooth curved surface allows the filter paper to fit tightly against the upper cup wall after absorbing water. The only exhaust direction is the water outlet at the bottom of the dripper. Under the effect of gravity, coffee liquid can only concentrate and drip into the server below. Limited exhaust space also restricts air flow, ensuring that every coffee particle can fully absorb water after pouring, more effectively and uniformly extracting flavor compounds. Because the KONO dripper's flow rate tends to be slow, the brewed coffee exhibits more pronounced sweetness, with body leaning toward richness, overall extraction is more uniform, and aromas are more reserved. It's more suitable for brewing darker roasted coffee beans, such as Indonesia's Golden Mandheling coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee comes from Indonesia's famous PWN company and is processed using the wet-hulled method. Although the wet-hulled method increases the defect rate of coffee beans considerably, the coffee flavor doesn't become particularly negative; instead, it brings herbaceous aromatic notes. In the final drying stage of wet-hulling, coffee beans are directly exposed to the environment without parchment protection, allowing various microorganisms to proliferate. This gives Indonesian coffee its unique woody, spicy, and herbaceous characteristics—what we call "terroir flavor."

Brewing Parameters

When FrontStreet Coffee brews a cup of coffee, they use 15g of coffee grounds. The choice of coffee amount typically references the filter cup's design specifications, and FrontStreet Coffee's filter cups are suitable for 1-2 servings, allowing between 15-20g of coffee. Too much coffee is harder to control, and the extracted coffee flavors can become muddled. Regarding the coffee-to-water ratio, 1:15 is most commonly applied.

Dark roasting makes the internal texture of coffee beans loose—they can be easily crushed with a gentle pinch, indicating that the coffee bean structure has been significantly altered. After grinding into powder, they exhibit strong water absorption. To avoid over-extraction after coffee grounds absorb water, which would release large amounts of bitter compounds, FrontStreet Coffee uses a coarser grind than for light roast coffee beans. Here they use medium-coarse grinding (70% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve), EK43s setting 11 in-store.

Roasting promotes caramelization and Maillard reactions in coffee beans. As roast level increases, non-enzymatic browning caused by the interaction and decomposition of monosaccharides and amino acids under heating becomes more pronounced, making it easier to release bitter-tasting large molecular compounds. To avoid extracting too many undesirable flavors, FrontStreet Coffee slightly lowers the water temperature. While the brewing temperature for light roast coffee is 91-93°C, FrontStreet Coffee recommends 87-88°C for dark roast coffee beans.

Three-Stage Pouring Method

The brewing method uses a three-stage pouring approach, which can better express the rich body and caramel sweetness of Golden Mandheling coffee.

Wetting the KONO dripper allows the filter paper to fit more closely with the coffee dripper. After pouring out the water from the server, add 15g of ground coffee, then bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds. This initial pour completely wets the coffee grounds for degassing, enabling better extraction of flavor compounds in subsequent steps. Some friends extend the bloom time to 45 or 50 seconds when extracting light roast coffee beans to enhance the front-end aroma. However, if the bloom time is too long for dark roast Mandheling coffee, it tends to release excessive woody and undesirable flavors. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee chooses a 30-second bloom.

For the second stage, begin pouring slowly from the center with small circular motions, maintaining steady water flow until reaching 125g. When the coffee bed drops to half the dripper's height, revealing the powder bed, begin the third pour using the same technique until reaching 225g. Wait until all dripping is complete before removing the dripper. The total extraction time should be two minutes, with a 10-second margin of error. Finally, shake the coffee in the server to mix well, and you can begin enjoying your hand-poured Golden Mandheling black coffee.

Tasting Notes

The ground Golden Mandheling coffee has aromas of nuts and toasted bread. During brewing, you can smell the sweet fragrance of caramel. The brewed Mandheling coffee reveals notes of spices and dark chocolate on the palate, with a rich yet clean body, distinct sweet aftertaste, and persistent finish.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473