How to Brew Delicious Pour-Over Single-Origin Black Coffee: Tutorial - Is Pour-Over Coffee Better Than Drip Coffee Machines?

Pour-over coffee has become a very common method of coffee brewing. Whether in coffee shops or at home, you can easily brew a pot of black coffee. However, learning to brew a delicious pot of pour-over coffee still requires understanding coffee extraction knowledge. FrontStreet Coffee will teach you the basics of pour-over coffee in this article.

What is Pour-Over Coffee?

Pour-over coffee is gradually becoming part of our daily lives. FrontStreet Coffee's drip coffee is always brewed using equipment such as drippers and pouring kettles. One characteristic of this brewing method is using a dripper with filter paper or other filtering media to separate coffee grounds.

If you're observant, you'll notice that although we call it "手冲咖啡" (pour-over coffee) in Chinese, there are different expressions in English: pour-over coffee, hand drip coffee, and filter coffee. So what do these expressions represent respectively?

FrontStreet Coffee believes that as coffee is an imported product, the term "手冲咖啡" might have been translated from "hand drip coffee." These different names are due to cultural variations. "Hand drip coffee" is more commonly used in Japan and South Korea. As the name suggests, it emphasizes the "drip" image, which reminds FrontStreet Coffee of Japan's famous drop-by-drop pouring method.

Similarly, "pour over" seems to emphasize the action of water tumbling through coffee grounds, and might be more common in European and American countries. "Filter" refers to the filtering equipment, and some coffee shops in China also use "filter coffee" to refer to pour-over coffee. However, in many countries like Melbourne, filter coffee might refer to coffee made with drip coffee machines.

What Do You Need to Prepare?

Based on FrontStreet Coffee's years of experience, to brew a cup of pour-over coffee, you generally need the following tools:

Electronic scale, pour-over kettle, dripper, filter paper, server, thermometer, grinder, and most importantly—coffee beans.

The dripper and filter paper are responsible for filtering coffee grounds while absorbing oils from the coffee, making the extracted coffee liquid cleaner and more refreshing.

FrontStreet Coffee's daily offerings typically use V60 and KONO drippers. Regular readers of FrontStreet Coffee's articles should also know that light roast and dark roast coffee beans require different water temperatures and drippers. Lower water temperatures are used to avoid extracting excessive undesirable flavors. When FrontStreet Coffee selects dark roast beans, many aromatic compounds have already been released. If we continue to extract with water temperatures suitable for light roasts, it will lead to over-extraction.

Compared to the KONO dripper, the V60 dripper has a faster flow rate, making it prone to under-extraction at low water temperatures. The KONO dripper has fewer ribs located at the bottom, and the filter paper adheres closely to the dripper, which can restrict airflow, prolong contact time between water and coffee grounds, ensure full extraction, and enhance the rich body.

The electronic scale is used to weigh coffee beans and water, as well as brewing time. Only when each parameter is quantified can replication be achieved, while ensuring consistency in quality. The same applies to thermometers, which must ensure water temperature is within the appropriate range before pouring.

The grinder is also crucial. The grind size directly affects the taste of pour-over coffee. If the coffee grounds are too coarse, the extracted coffee might taste too weak; if too fine, the taste will be bitter.

FrontStreet Coffee recommends a medium-fine grind for pour-over coffee. For light roast coffee beans, the grind size should have an 80% pass rate through a 0.85mm standard sieve, while for dark roast beans, it should be 70% to 75%.

How to Brew a Good Cup of Pour-Over Coffee

Brewing pour-over coffee is actually quite simple. The key is to control several factors that affect coffee taste: coffee-to-water ratio, grind size, water temperature, and extraction time.

When brewing at FrontStreet Coffee, we first weigh 15 grams of coffee beans, with a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15, meaning we pour 225 grams of hot water.

Before brewing, wet the filter paper with hot water to make it fit better with the dripper. Then grind the coffee beans to the desired consistency—the medium-fine grind we just mentioned.

Pour the ground coffee into the dripper, wait for the water temperature to reach the appropriate level, and begin brewing. The entire brewing process is divided into three stages. The first pour uses 30 grams of water for blooming, ensuring all coffee grounds are moistened. The bloom time is 30 seconds, aimed at releasing carbon dioxide so the subsequent water flow can better extract the coffee. The second pour brings the total water to 125 grams, then wait until the coffee liquid drops to half. Finally, pour the last amount of water to reach 225 grams, again waiting for the coffee liquid to filter through. The total extraction time is 2 minutes.

Next, FrontStreet Coffee will use one bean as an example:

FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Natural Typica
Region: Lincang, Yunnan, China
Altitude: 1300m
Variety: Typica
Processing: Natural

As usual, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce the basic information of this bean. Everyone knows that Yunnan Province is where our country produces specialty coffee. Yunnan Province has four small sub-regions: Dehong, Baoshan, Pu'er, and Lincang. FrontStreet Coffee established its own coffee plantation in Lincang as early as 2013.

The history of coffee cultivation in Yunnan can be traced back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exact starting year is controversial, with three theories: 1892, 1902, and 1904.

The initially cultivated coffee variety in Yunnan was Typica. However, with the implementation of national reform and opening-up policies, some international brands like Starbucks and Nestlé entered Yunnan. To increase coffee production, these large brands began promoting the cultivation of Catimor. To increase personal income, farmers cut down the elegant-flavored Typica trees and switched to planting Catimor varieties, which have stronger disease resistance and higher yields.

FrontStreet Coffee pursues more original and elegant flavors, planting Typica at our Lincang plantation.

FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Natural Typica Brewing Parameters

Dripper: KONO
Water Temperature: 88°C
Coffee Amount: 15g
Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: 75% pass rate through China standard #20 sieve

FrontStreet Coffee uses the three-stage extraction method mentioned earlier: bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, pour with a small circular flow to 124g for segmentation, continue pouring to 227g when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed (timing starts from the beginning of blooming), total extraction time is 2 minutes.

Taste Description

Yunnan Natural Typica coffee also has nutty notes, with a fuller body than washed Yunnan coffee. The acidity is slightly lower than washed Typica Yunnan coffee, but the sweetness is slightly higher, with better balance. It has berry-like acidity, mixed with brown sugar, and a slight tea-like sensation.

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: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473