What Coffee Beans Are Best for Pour-Over Coffee_9 Common Mistakes in Pour-Over Coffee Brewing

Understanding the Art of Pour-Over Coffee

A perfect cup of pour-over coffee reveals layers of acidity, aroma, and sweetness. Once you discover the delicate flavor nuances, you'll develop a deep appreciation for this brewing method that's hard to forget.

However, pour-over coffee is highly individualistic. Even subtle differences in a barista's brewing technique can produce distinctly different flavors. Many coffee enthusiasts encounter technical challenges when learning to brew pour-over coffee. Despite following all the steps correctly, why can't they achieve that ideal cup?

Today, we'll analyze the nine common mistakes in pour-over coffee brewing from three key perspectives.

The Impact of Coffee Beans

Grind Size: ★★★★★

Freshness: ★★★★☆

Coffee Bed Distribution: ★★★☆☆

Common Issue: Inappropriate Grind Size

The first step in making coffee always involves grinding pour-over coffee beans. The quality of your grinder determines the quality of your coffee grounds. Coffee grounds need to be uniform in size, with particles suitable for your specific brewing method.

Ideal grind size for pour-over coffee: medium grind, similar to sugar granules.

If the grind is too coarse, water contact time becomes insufficient, making it difficult to fully extract aromatic compounds from the coffee.

If the grind is too fine, it will clog the filter paper's water-permeable spaces. This prolongs the soaking time of coffee grounds in hot water, leading to over-extraction and bitter flavors.

Common Issue: Fresh Grinding

Many home or office coffee brewers choose pre-ground coffee or grind large quantities at once to save time, simply brewing when they want a cup. This habit significantly affects coffee flavor.

Once coffee is ground, its oxidation rate accelerates. After about 40 seconds, aromatic compounds begin dissipating into the air. Therefore, coffee brewed from non-fresh grounds will lose much of its aroma.

Common Issue: Coffee Ground Distribution

When pouring ground coffee into the filter paper, there's a step that's often overlooked: gently shaking the filter to ensure coffee grounds are evenly and flatly distributed. This action determines the uniformity of subsequent blooming and extraction.

Pay attention to your shaking technique: too much force or excessive shaking affects the water-coffee interaction process. Finding the perfect "gentle shake" requires experimentation to determine your ideal standard.

The Impact of Water

Water Quality: ★★★★★

Water Temperature: ★★★★★

Water Flow: ★★★★☆

Water Volume: ★★★★☆

Common Issue: Don't Use Pure Water

Water carries coffee flavors, yet this is the most easily overlooked factor. People often find it difficult to distinguish water quality differences by taste. However, pour-over coffee contains no milk, sugar, or cream—only coffee and water. Therefore, the recommended standard is: water total dissolved solids (TDS) should ideally range between 100-250ppm.

Coffee made with pure water lacks complexity and richness in texture. We recommend using mineral water for brewing.

We suggest using well-known mineral water brands, as any inherent off-flavors in water become more pronounced in coffee.

Common Issue: Temperature Control

Water that's too hot makes coffee bitter, while insufficient temperature accentuates acidity.

Recommendation: Dark roast corresponds to 80°C-85°C, while medium-light roast corresponds to 90°C-92°C.

Common Issue: Water Flow Control Techniques

For pour-over brewing, the moment a barista holds the kettle and pours water into the filter embodies the essence of "pour-over." The pouring process is the extraction process—coffee's aroma and complexity emerge during these brief tens of seconds.

Easily overlooked issues include: water flow that's too fast or too heavy, tilted pouring direction, which creates depressions in the coffee bed, leaving "holes" where water flows directly through the filter paper into the cup, resulting in severely under-extracted coffee.

Holding the kettle too high during pouring creates too vigorous a water flow, introducing air into the grounds and causing uneven extraction. It also increases the water column's exposure to air, causing rapid temperature drops. Keep the kettle spout as close to the coffee surface as possible, pour at a steady speed, and avoid interruptions.

Common Issue: Water Volume Affects Mouthfeel

Remember, there's never a single "correct" flavor—only the one that suits you.

Each taster has different preferences for coffee strength.

The Golden Cup extraction concentration range is 1.15%-1.35%, with a water ratio of approximately 1:13 to 1:15.

If you pursue a rich flavor by using very little water, you won't achieve good results.

Using too much water to extract coffee grounds dilutes the concentration. Since coffee extraction has a certain upper limit, don't be "greedy"!

The Impact of Equipment

Filter Paper: ★★★★☆

Pour-Over Kettle Spout: ★★★☆☆

Thermometer: ★★★☆☆

Heat Retention: ★★★★☆

Common Issue: Use Quality Filter Paper

Qualified filter paper should be odorless and have good water permeability.

Cheap filter paper quality is unreliable, often being too thin and prone to leakage.

Paper with poor water filtration flows too slowly—you see water being poured but little coffee coming out. This results in over-extracted coffee with poor flavor, wasting perfectly good coffee beans.

Common Issue: Professional Pour-Over Kettle

Don't underestimate that pour-over kettle. The long, slender spout and elegant S-shaped curves aren't just for visual appeal.

Professional pour-over kettles use long, narrow spouts to better control water flow, ensuring smooth, uninterrupted streams. More advanced pour-over kettles come equipped with thermometers, allowing you to easily master both water temperature and flow!

Recommended Pour-Over Coffee Bean Brands

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted single-origin pour-over coffee beans offer excellent guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they provide exceptional value—at around 80-90 yuan per 227-gram half-pound bag. Calculating at 15 grams per cup, one bag makes about 15 cups, costing only about 6 yuan per cup. Compared to café prices of dozens of yuan per cup, this represents excellent value.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473