What Pour-Over Coffee Options Does Starbucks Have? What Coffee Bean Varieties Are Used in Starbucks Cold Brew

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Customers who have tried Starbucks pour-over coffee often ask FrontStreet Coffee's baristas: why does Starbucks pour all the water in one go through the center after blooming, while FrontStreet Coffee uses two separate circular pours? What are the differences between these two pouring methods? In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will explain the different extraction effects of these two pour-over methods.

Starbucks Pour-Over Coffee Dripper: Melitta

A very famous figure in coffee history—Mrs. Melitta—whose invention influenced the coffee world for over 100 years. Melitta's full name was Bentz Melitta, born in 1873 in Dresden, Germany. This lady loved drinking freshly brewed coffee but hated the feeling of coffee grounds remaining in her mouth when drinking coffee. One day, with a sudden inspiration, Mrs. Melitta prepared a copper bowl when making coffee and punched a small hole in the bottom. Then she took blotting paper from her child's schoolbag and placed it on top. When she poured hot water, the coffee filtered through the blotting paper and dripped into the pot below the copper bowl, instantly filling the air with rich coffee aroma. This invention helped preserve the rich flavor of coffee while filtering out waste coffee grounds. It was this operation that created the drip extraction method. Before this invention, Germans used filter cloths to filter coffee grounds, but on one hand, filter cloths were difficult to clean, and on the other hand, multiple uses caused hygiene issues, and residues remaining in the filter cloth also affected the extraction of secondary flavors. On June 20, 1908, Melitta registered her invention at the Royal Patent Office: a copper coffee filter with an arched bottom and one water outlet hole—this was the world's first filter-style coffee cup.

Extraction Characteristics

The Melitta trapezoidal filter design presents a shape that is wider at the top and narrower at the bottom when viewed from the side, with a circular appearance at the top. This design helps concentrate water volume and allows coffee particles to distribute evenly, reducing stacking conditions. The cup wall has many ribs arranged in straight lines with consistent spacing between them, aimed at increasing exhaust and water flow speed. At the same time, its flow rate is relatively slow, primarily using steeping for extraction, which can present better body. Starbucks' coffee beans generally use medium to dark roasting levels, so using the Melitta filter can better express the rich body of Starbucks coffee beans.

Starbucks' Single-Stream Center Pouring Method

The center pouring method means—after blooming, during the second pour, start from the inside and move outward in circles, pouring water to fully wet all coffee grounds, then return to the center point and pour continuously at this fixed center point. This method allows coffee grounds to tumble regularly in the filter. The advantage is more balanced coffee extraction, while the disadvantage is that the extracted coffee has relatively low body. Many people mention that the center pouring method often cannot extract completely. FrontStreet Coffee believes that center pouring can extract completely—why is this so?

Key Points About Center Pouring

1. Coffee grounds in the filter actually present a honeycomb structure. Water can pass through the coffee grounds because of these honeycomb gaps, thereby extracting water-soluble substances from the coffee.

2. The taste of the brew depends on the steeping time. Coffee flavor depends on the process of coffee grounds steeping in water—that is, sufficient steeping produces rich flavor, while insufficient steeping results in lighter taste. Therefore, the water-retention capacity of the brewing tool is an important factor. Flannel's water retention is stronger than filter paper, so flannel-brewed coffee will be more concentrated than filter paper extraction.

3. Water poured from the center flows through the most coffee grounds and extracts most completely.

FrontStreet Coffee's Tip

If you choose the center pouring method, pay attention to the water flow speed and pouring time. The water flow should not be too strong nor should it be inconsistent, avoiding uneven extraction and insufficient extraction that brings out sharp acidity and vegetable-like defect flavors. If the time is too short, it's also difficult to fully extract the coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's KONO Filter for Medium-Dark Roast Coffee Beans

KONO is a renowned Japanese company specializing in coffee equipment manufacturing. Since inventing the siphon pot in 1925, KONO has been focusing on coffee bean roasting, research and development, and production of coffee equipment. The creator was a Japanese person named Toshio Kono, and the filter is named after him.

Careful observation of KONO reveals that its ribs do not extend from the bottom all the way to the top, but stop at less than half the filter's height.

This height design ensures that during the dripping process, the filter paper can closely adhere to the filter wall after absorbing water. Once the exhaust space is restricted, air flow is also limited, which increases the water absorption time of coffee ground particles, making the overall extracted coffee more balanced and less likely to have insufficient extraction.

The grooved frame at the bottom of the KONO filter is the key design that can create a siphon effect in subsequent brewing. It is said that President Kono spent more than 10 years deciding on the depth and length of these ribs.

Extraction Characteristics

During the brewing process, when the water level submerges the ribs, since there are no diversion groove ribs at the top, the filter paper fits tightly with the cup wall, blocking air that can only flow downward. This creates a relatively vacuum space between water and coffee particles and forms steeping of coffee grounds. At the bottom of the filter, the ribs extend to the water outlet.

Such design forms a downward gravitational effect for outflow. When the upper air flow has been blocked, a sealed space is created below, generating a relatively strong downward extraction force.

In terms of mouthfeel, the extracted flavors are relatively concentrated. The small opening at the bottom of the filter makes this extraction force more concentrated, allowing water flow to give coffee grounds more steeping time, resulting in higher coffee body with very full flavors and typical Japanese pour-over charm.

Why FrontStreet Coffee Uses Segmented Circular Pouring? What Makes It Special?

FrontStreet Coffee's three-stage pouring overall time is controlled within about 2 minutes, divided into blooming, second pour, and third pour. The segmented extraction method of three-stage pouring can clearly distinguish the front, middle, and back flavor segments of coffee, ensuring the presentation of coffee flavors.

Brewing coffee is actually the process of extracting molecules from coffee cells, and this process includes the following three steps: wetting, dissolution, and release. These three steps occur sequentially and influence each other, ultimately producing coffee flavor.

Wetting

Literally understood, this means coffee grounds are wetted when they encounter water—this is the starting point for coffee cells to begin releasing molecules, which is also what FrontStreet Coffee often refers to as the blooming process.

Coffee beans after roasting are filled with carbon dioxide. The fresher the coffee beans, the more carbon dioxide they contain. When hot water touches coffee grounds, carbon dioxide is released first, forming a layer of bubbles on the surface. During pour-over, you'll see the coffee grounds in the filter begin to expand. Therefore, after wetting the coffee grounds, we stop pouring water and wait for the carbon dioxide to completely release and the coffee grounds to stop expanding before continuing to add hot water to achieve better extraction results.

Dissolution

Dissolution refers to the process where soluble molecules in coffee cells dissolve in hot water. This is the most important step, determining the extracted coffee flavor—which is what FrontStreet Coffee often refers to as the extraction process.

A coffee bean consists of 70% insoluble cellulose and 30% soluble aroma molecules. When encountering water, these dissolve sequentially according to molecular size. Small molecular substances that dissolve first include acids and aromas, such as floral notes, citrus acids, etc.; then medium molecular sweetness like fruit juice sweetness, honey, brown sugar sweetness, etc.; finally large molecular bitter tastes. This is how coffee's different layers of flavor come about. Therefore, if you prefer sweeter flavors, extraction time should be shorter because the longer hot water stays on coffee grounds, the more bitter molecular compounds will be dissolved.

Diffusion

After aroma molecules dissolve, they leave coffee cells through osmosis—this process is called diffusion. Aroma molecules diffuse into hot water, forming the final coffee extract. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, coffee extraction first extracts acids, then sweetness, and finally bitterness. Therefore, after coffee is extracted, it must be shaken several times to allow the coffee liquid to mix evenly, so you can taste the most complete coffee flavors.

Hand-Drip Coffee vs. Cold Brew Coffee

After discussing pour-over coffee, some might ask: what's the difference between pour-over coffee and cold brew coffee?

Common hand-drip coffee is a high-temperature extraction process. High-temperature extraction causes tannic acid in coffee to quickly decompose into quinones, producing sour, sweet, and bitter tastes—which is what FrontStreet Coffee often refers to as the process of releasing coffee flavors.

Hot water extraction of coffee easily leads to complete release of coffee flavors, then begins to release the taste of coffee bean's lignocellulosic fibers—what we often call miscellaneous flavors, woody tastes, and other unpleasant flavors.

Cold brew coffee and iced drip coffee, on the other hand, are low-temperature extraction processes. Low-temperature extraction involves long contact time between water and coffee grounds at low temperatures, where only smaller molecular flavor substances such as floral and fruit aromas are extracted, while larger molecular flavor substances such as smoky and roasted flavors are difficult to extract. Therefore, cold brew/iced drip coffee allows you to better taste the original flavors of coffee beans, with smooth mouthfeel, distinct layers, and obvious sweet aftertaste.

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