Types of Pour-Over Coffee Equipment, Recommended Brands, and Equipment Suggestions

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When you drink enough coffee, there will come a day when you want to try brewing it yourself, attempting to replicate the flavors produced in cafés. Hmm, naïve! FrontStreet Coffee tells you it's not that easy! First, you need a complete set of professional, precise, and sophisticated pour-over equipment. Is having these enough? No, but at least you have an 80% boost toward brewing a good cup of coffee. But what does this set include? If you don't even know these, you still want to brew coffee? Hmm, childish. Read through to the end to truly understand!

Coffee Grinder

Coffee grinders are divided into manual and electric grinders. In principle, both manual and electric grinders can adjust the coarseness of coffee grounds. The particle size of coffee grounds affects the final flavor presentation. Generally, medium-fine grinding is recommended, with an 80% pass rate through a China standard #20 sieve.

Manual Coffee Grinder

They are more affordable in price, easy to clean, don't take up much space, and are convenient for carrying around. The only drawback is that they are more time-consuming and labor-intensive, especially wooden manual grinders, which are harder to clean. Residual coffee particles over time will affect the flavor. It's recommended to purchase manual grinders made of materials like glass, plastic, or stainless steel.

Electric Coffee Grinder

Due to the size and price of electric grinders, generally those who purchase them are advanced experts—when pour-over coffee has become an integral part of life and cannot be lived without, then consider getting an electric grinder. Electric grinders are divided into propeller-style, conical burrs, flat burrs, and ghost tooth burrs. Propeller-style (commonly known as bean choppers) are not recommended because the chopping method results in very uneven coffee ground particles, which affects coffee taste, but they are relatively cheaper. Flat burrs use a shaving method, shaving coffee beans into flake shapes. When used for pour-over, the aroma is rich but the layers are relatively simple. Conical burrs use a grinding method to crush coffee grounds into block shapes, presenting a richer taste. Ghost tooth burrs grind each coffee bean evenly into spherical shapes, generate less heat during the grinding process, and won't affect the taste of coffee grounds, but the price is not very affordable. Friends with sufficient budgets can consider purchasing this type of grinder.

FrontStreet Coffee conical dripper

Dripper

Common dripper types include conical drippers, trapezoidal drippers, and wave drippers. Many different drippers are available on the market, each with its own focus. As long as you grasp the two points of flow rate and extraction time to analyze each dripper, you can initially master the taste and flavor of pour-over coffee (the key point is still to practice diligently).

Conical Dripper

Represented by the Hario V60 dripper, it's suitable for brewing light roast coffee beans. If you're more particular, Kono drippers can be used for medium-dark roast coffee beans. Conical drippers have extremely fast flow rates, so pouring technique requires special attention. Poor pouring can lead to under-extraction or over-extraction. Coffee brewed with conical drippers has a brighter, lighter, and cleaner flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee trapezoidal dripper

Trapezoidal Dripper

This belongs to the advanced expert category. On the market, they are mainly divided into single-hole, double-hole, and three-hole types. Due to the smaller opening, different numbers of holes affect the flow rate speed, but generally, the flow rate is relatively slower compared to conical drippers. Precisely because of this slower flow rate characteristic, coffee grounds can be fully extracted, and the brewed flavor will be richer. If the technique is not mastered well, it's easy to over-extract, producing a heavier bitterness.

FrontStreet Coffee wave dripper

Wave Dripper

Because its dedicated filter paper resembles cupcake paper, it's also called a cake dripper and is very friendly to beginners. The wave-shaped filter paper replaces the dripper's flow channels, reducing the contact area between hot water and the dripper, allowing coffee grounds to concentrate in the center, enabling even coffee extraction and lowering the technical threshold for brewing. Using a wave dripper to brew coffee can achieve balanced coffee flavor in optimal proportions. The biggest disadvantage might be that the corresponding filter paper is more expensive—one sheet of wave filter paper costs about twice as much as regular filter paper.

Filter Paper

The main function of filter paper is to filter out coffee liquid. Good filter paper can also isolate impurities from coffee beans, preventing them from being filtered out, making the coffee taste more aromatic and smooth.

Filter paper is mainly divided into bleached and unbleached types, with the main difference being whether the paper taste is heavy or light. Bleached filter paper has less paper taste, but most people have concerns about the word "bleached." Nowadays, bleached filter paper on the market is bleached using oxygen and enzymes, which won't affect health. When using unbleached filter paper, it's recommended to wet the filter paper first to remove the paper taste, avoiding the filter paper flavor being extracted during brewing and affecting the coffee flavor. The advantages of filter paper are convenient use, fewer impurities, and the ability to present cleaner coffee flavors. The disadvantages are that it's less environmentally friendly and cannot present the oily sensation of coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee filter paper

In addition to using filter paper to filter coffee grounds, you can also use metal filters and flannel filter cloths. Metal filters can present the oils from coffee, with good layer performance, and are environmentally friendly and reusable. The disadvantage is that they cannot filter fine powder, leading to possible coffee ground texture when drinking coffee. Flannel filter cloths combine the advantages of filter paper and metal filters, but the disadvantages are that they are difficult to clean and require skill to use.

FrontStreet Coffee flannel filter cloth

Pour-over Kettle

Pour-over kettles come in various styles, but in reality, they don't have too much impact. You can choose according to personal preference. Important considerations are the spout, opening size, capacity, and heat preservation effect. The first two directly affect the difficulty of water flow control, capacity affects the amount of coffee liquid, and temperature affects the presentation of coffee flavor.

Narrow-spout kettles are more suitable for beginners. Before learning to control water flow, beginners find it easiest to start with kettles that have thin spouts and consistent openings. Narrow-spout kettles provide stable flow rates during pour-over, keeping the quality of brewed coffee at a certain level. Purchase recommendations are pour-over kettles with an opening of 5mm or less and a large wave-shaped spout, which are easy to control water flow and better preserve the complete coffee bean flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee pour-over kettle

Crane-neck kettles belong to the expert level. Due to their larger openings, the controllability of water flow thickness is higher. Both large and small water flows are within their control. They can be paired with water temperature, pouring height, and water flow size variations to make coffee flavor more layered. Using crane-neck kettles requires long-term practice.

FrontStreet Coffee crane-neck kettle

Serving Pot

The serving pot is used to hold coffee. If you're drinking alone, you don't need a serving pot—you can directly place it over a mug to drip. For brewing multiple servings, a serving pot is necessary. With the help of the serving pot's own scale display and transparent material, you can more easily understand and control the extraction process. The serving pot thus serves more than just the function of distributing cups.

FrontStreet Coffee serving pot

Thermometer

A thermometer is used to measure water temperature. You can also buy a pour-over kettle with a thermometer on the lid. The effect of water temperature on pour-over coffee cannot be ignored. High temperatures may cause over-extraction, while low temperatures may cause under-extraction. FrontStreet Coffee generally uses water temperature around 90°C when extracting light roast coffee beans, and 88°C for medium-dark roast coffee beans. Everyone can use this as a reference to adjust the water temperature that suits them.

FrontStreet Coffee thermometer

Digital Scale

A digital scale mainly allows you to accurately obtain the desired amount of coffee liquid. During the extraction process, this can avoid over-extraction or under-extraction to a certain extent. When choosing a digital scale, it's recommended to select one with a minimum scale of 0.1 grams. If it has a timing function, that's even better, as it allows you to accurately grasp the extraction time during the brewing process.

Important Notice :

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