What is Pour-Over Coffee? Can You Add Milk to Pour-Over Coffee? Beginner's Tutorial and Guide

What is Pour-Over Coffee?

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FrontStreet Coffee's products mainly consist of house-roasted specialty coffee, prepared using the pour-over coffee method.

As the name suggests, pour-over coffee uses hot water filtered through paper filter cones to extract coffee. The barista controls the flow rate, direction, and temperature of the hot water, so each barista presents a unique flavor profile.

Unlike brewing with machines or siphon pots, pour-over coffee presents a softer body with distinct layers, making it easier for people to accept black coffee.

All pour-over coffees at our shop use 15 grams of coffee grounds to extract 225cc of coffee. If after your first taste you find the strength needs adjustment, you can discuss it with the barista, or try adding hot water to dilute the coffee. Moderate dilution will reveal different layers of clarity!

Compared to moka pots, I prefer the mouthfeel of pour-over coffee because it's cleaner. However, after trying several coffee beans, I found that some beans are suitable for pour-over, while others might be better suited for other extraction methods.

Essential Pour-Over Equipment for Beginners

To enjoy the pleasure of extracting your own coffee, beginners can purchase some basic pour-over equipment:

Hario Manual Hand Grinder

In addition to being cheaper than electric grinders, manual grinding offers a DIY pleasure, but my hands get sore after each grinding session, and there are no scale markings. Adjusting the coarseness requires experience from several uses. If grinding more than two cups, I recommend using an electric grinder like the small Flying Horse.

Hario V60 Narrow-Spout Kettle 1000ml

I didn't want to choose a narrow-spout kettle with less than 1 liter capacity, fearing it would be too light and unstable for pouring. This V60 kettle's capacity, price, and material fit my budget well, and it's actually very easy to use. Although the water stream is thicker compared to the imitation Kalita Magic Lamp narrow-spout kettle, continuous pouring can be more stable, and the water capacity is sufficient, allowing the coffee's aroma to be fully released. Additionally, it can be heated directly on flame, and hot water doesn't easily splash when boiling.

Sanyo Arita-Yaki Single-Hole Ceramic Trapezoid Dripper

The dripper's grooves run from the rim to the bottom and are numerous and dense. As long as the coffee beans aren't ground too finely, the coffee liquid flows down quite smoothly. The ceramic material also helps maintain water temperature during extraction without rapid cooling.

Pocket-Sized Electronic Scale

This allows precise weighing of coffee beans. Combined with the markings on heat-resistant coffee servers, you can control the amount of coffee liquid to extract, avoiding too much or too little water that would result in over-strong or over-weak coffee.

For pour-over coffee, I use 15g of beans to extract 200ml of coffee liquid as ideal.

Trapezoid Filter Paper Usage

Compared to flannel filters and metal drippers, filter paper has smaller pores, making it less likely for coffee grounds to fall through.

Both sides have printed dotted lines. Fold the printed dotted lines on both sides in opposite directions, and it's ready to use.

The above are the pour-over equipment I frequently use.

Pour-Over Coffee Learning Experience

"Pour-over coffee is easy to learn but difficult to master..."

"Pour-over coffee extraction has been very popular recently. The seemingly simple circling motion + water extraction method is actually quite challenging for brewing a cup of coffee that's both fragrant and rich!"

Choosing a Narrow-Spout Kettle

1. The handle must be long enough with sufficient spacing from the kettle body to avoid burning your hand when holding it.
2. The bottom area of the kettle body should be wide.
3. The spout should present a 'crane-beak shape' so the water stream doesn't easily split.
4. The connection point between the spout root and kettle body should be low.
5. The curve from the spout opening to the root shouldn't be too large, otherwise the water stream force will be too strong when pouring.

When brewing a cup of pour-over coffee, you need to extract using circular motions, but how do you draw these circles? This requires knowledge:

First circle: The water volume must be sufficient because the first circle's water temperature and volume determine the coffee's richness. The key is to draw the water stream from inside to outside, densely, evenly, and without repetition—the more circles, the better.

Second circle: Can be drawn more loosely than the first circle.

Third circle: The water stream pours in from the outermost edge, opposite in direction to the first two circles. This circle's purpose is to catch water.

When manually extracting a cup of coffee, whether using siphon or pour-over, the control of water temperature and time is very important. The water temperature must be between 92-94°C for best results, because if the temperature is too low, you can't extract the coffee's aroma; if too high, you'll lose the coffee's colloids. Water temperature might be controlled with a thermometer, but mastering the timing of each step can only come through practice."

Below is a video of my first time using a flannel filter for pour-over coffee. I hadn't practiced pour-over for over half a year, so besides the circling speed being too slow, the way I circled was somewhat random (perhaps this is related to my personality...). Although the flannel filter was being used for the first time and gave the coffee a cloth-like taste, fortunately the coffee bean quality wasn't bad, so the coffee wasn't too difficult to drink. Compared to using filter paper, it also had a smoother coffee oil mouthfeel.

Brewing a cup of pour-over coffee seems easy, but it's indeed difficult to brew one that's both fragrant and rich. My recent realization is that pour-over technique and heat control have a significant impact. This is why teachers constantly emphasize that students should practice maintaining consistent water stream thickness and stability during pouring. However, compared to siphon brewing, the reason pour-over has become so popular recently, I think besides the equipment being simple and inexpensive, is that no matter how poorly you brew, as long as the coffee beans and roasting quality aren't bad, it's hard to brew a truly terrible cup of coffee. After all, the quality of the coffee beans is what matters most.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473