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What's the Difference Between Drip Coffee and Pour-Over Coffee? Is Drip Coffee Americano?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, For professional coffee knowledge and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). Currently, the most common drip coffee brewing method is pour-over coffee. Of course, besides pour-over coffee, coffee made using an American coffee machine (drip coffee maker) can also be called drip coffee.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

Understanding Drip Coffee vs Pour-Over Coffee

Currently, the most common method for brewing drip coffee is pour-over coffee. Of course, besides pour-over coffee, coffee made using American-style coffee makers (drip coffee machines) can also be called drip coffee. What's the difference between drip coffee and pour-over coffee? In one sentence: Drip coffee includes but is not limited to pour-over coffee—pour-over coffee is just one brewing method within drip coffee.

A drip coffee maker is plugged in, uses ground coffee powder, fills it into the filter cup, filters with filter paper or metal mesh, and the water temperature remains almost constant. If serving more people, use more powder; if fewer, use less. Turn on the power, and drip by drip, coffee falls into the glass pot or thermal carafe...

For brewing drip coffee machines with fixed water temperature and fixed flow rate, FrontStreet Coffee believes there are the following opportunities for optimization:

The Right Water-to-Coffee Ratio: 1:18.18

As the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) persistently reminds us, we still recommend using a 1:18.18 ratio—that is, one gram of coffee beans paired with 18.18 milliliters (cc., cubic centimeters) of water. However, since drip coffee makers recommend using cold water for filling, we suggest first measuring the correct volume directly in a measuring cup, then adding it to the coffee maker! This ratio will brew coffee that most easily falls within the Golden Cup range! Concentration: 1.15%~1.35%, extraction rate: 18%~22%.

Of course, if you don't have a measuring cup at home, I would recommend using a scale. Here we directly suggest using this ratio: single serving coffee powder at 15 grams, paired with 225 grams of cold water (if by volume, then 265.4 milliliters). This is the ratio used at FrontStreet Coffee shop, and we suggest everyone give it a try. We have already converted the density of hot water at 93~96°C from volume to mass, under one atmosphere pressure and room temperature at 25°C, directly recommending the grams of coffee and water to use.

The right water-to-coffee ratio won't make you waste coffee powder. During the coffee extraction process, we hope to directly achieve acidity, sweetness, and slight bitterness from the extraction of sour, sweet, bitter, and astringent notes, while completely avoiding over-extraction of the remaining bitterness and astringency! Correctly extracting the flavor compounds from coffee will further enable your coffee to achieve the right flavor.

To avoid having to pull out a bunch of equipment every time you use a measuring cylinder or scale, we suggest applying a piece of tape to the water level viewing window of your drip coffee maker. Treat the 225 grams or 265.4 milliliters of water just mentioned as the basic unit for one cup per person. Measure out one cup, two cups, three cups... pour into the coffee maker, and mark segment by segment on the viewing window. This will make it convenient to quickly pour the correct amount of water according to the number of people when making coffee next time.

Stirring

Typically, when brewing drip coffee, after scooping the powder into the filter cup, flattening and spreading it evenly, you immediately turn on the power. However, if your beans are too fresh? Or if your powder is ground too fine? Or if you need to brew three to four times the usual number of cups? If today's brewing subject is light roast beans? Then stirring comes into play!

The purpose of stirring is to help extraction! The result of stirring will show many CO2 bubbles coming out, helping the coffee powder to be soaked in water, allowing hot water to drip onto the coffee powder, facilitating the perfect extraction of the entire coffee.

Therefore, if the coffee powder is too fresh, or if you choose medium-dark roast coffee powder, or if you find that hot water seems to only drip to the lower pot; or if you find that coffee powder seeps out of the filter cup; or if it's ground too fine but you still want to brew it without waste? If you encounter any of the above situations, we recommend starting to stir when hot water first drips onto the coffee powder (it's recommended that the water amount equals the coffee powder amount), ensuring all coffee powder and water are evenly adhered, then immediately stop stirring. The stirring time is recommended to be 5~10 seconds! (Because if you continue stirring, the coffee will become overly bitter and astringent due to your stirring!)

Therefore, the above problems could actually be avoided from the beginning, mainly because you might have ground it too fine, so we suggest grinding it coarser!

But when should stirring be recommended? I recommend it for light roast beans—if the brewed taste lacks enough 'sweetness,' then adding the step of stirring is suggested! This helps the coffee machine increase extraction slightly, making the overall flavor more outstanding. Of course, if you over-stir... the 'astringent' flavor will come out... Believe me, after practicing a few times, you'll become very skilled!

Pre-infusion

Generally speaking, drip coffee machines do not have pre-infusion! What is pre-infusion?

The purpose of pre-infusion is to allow a waiting period before the coffee powder is fully moistened by water. During this time, pour hot water over the coffee powder, and in the process of moistening, the coffee powder heats up and continuously releases CO2 gas. After this, it can accept the baptism of hot water and fully extract flavor compounds.

When doing pour-over, you would first pour some hot water over the coffee powder, wait for a while, then start pouring water! Different schools have different approaches—some wait 30 seconds, some wait until the surface of the coffee powder loses its shine! Or when the surface falls, immediately pour water, while others use a segmented pouring method, but at the beginning, the water flow is slower... All these methods demonstrate the necessity of pre-infusion!

Drip coffee machines have the advantage of being electric! When to pour water, when to stop water, when to pour water again—all can be controlled through switches. Therefore, if you want to maximize the effectiveness of your drip coffee machine, we recommend starting to use the pre-infusion technique! Two-stage water pouring: Turn on the machine, start the first water pouring, with water amount approximately equal to the coffee powder volume, turn off the machine, (patiently) wait 30 seconds, turn on the machine until brewing is complete, then turn off the machine.

Grind Size

In pour-over coffee, grind size affects flavor changes, but in drip coffee makers, there's another factor—the flow rate.

During the coffee extraction process, the order in which coffee flavor compounds are washed out follows the difficulty sequence of sour, sweet, bitter, and astringent (that is, the order in which coffee flavors emerge). Therefore, grind size is a means of extracting flavors. The finer the grind, the larger the contact area of the coffee powder (as we learned in middle school about factors affecting the speed of material changes, one of which is surface area), so the faster the flavor compounds will flow out, and vice versa! Among all the flavor compounds in black coffee, the one we least want to encounter is 'astringency.' How to achieve a 'correct' extraction? Well~ this depends on your taste! If the brewed coffee tastes 'astringent' to you, it means the coffee powder is ground too fine and should be adjusted coarser. Conversely, if your brewed coffee doesn't taste sweet enough to you? Then it means you can make the coffee grind finer!

The extraction rate mentioned above is recommended by SCAA to be between 18%~22%. The method used in SCAA's Golden Cup course is to use VST, an optical refraction concentration measuring instrument, to first find the concentration of the coffee solution, then combine it with SCAA's 'Coffee Brewing Control Chart' to determine the current extraction rate of the coffee. However, this is a method to find Golden Cup brewing, and moreover, everyone's taste and definition of good coffee are different. Therefore, here we suggest determining your required grind size based on your own taste! Therefore, is the extraction correct!? Using such instruments to measure here seems like 'making a mountain out of a molehill'! Of course, if you're a candidate taking the Golden Cup exam, you'll need to take this seriously!! Additionally, the purpose of this article is not to explain or calculate concentration and extraction rates, so we'll briefly cover this!

Next is flow rate: Coffee powder that's too fine will prevent hot water from passing smoothly through the coffee layer into the lower coffee pot. Therefore, appropriate grind size that allows water to pass through smoothly and extract at a proper flow rate is surely a research topic!

In fact, you can still find a balance point between flow rate and flavor, depending on the observation and taste preferences of the person brewing the coffee!

Interrupted Water Extraction

Want to enhance flavor? This technique cannot be skipped!

If you're a heavy user of pour-over coffee, you surely know the importance of pre-infusion. Pre-infusion is a necessary means to help extraction. The application of the interrupted water method is an alternative technique to increase flavor. Generally, the two-interruption method and three-interruption method are what more people are trying!

You can also apply this method to drip coffee machines! What does 'interrupted water' mean? It means turning off the power! How many times do you want to interrupt? Turn it off that many times! Of course~ not for fun, but to increase flavor!

So how long should you wait before turning it back on? We suggest, if possible, observing the water in your drip coffee maker's filter cup—when all the water has seeped down, that's the time to add water again! If you can't see it?! Use the counting method, approximately 10~15 seconds should be sufficient. Why only 10~15 seconds? Because we're afraid the coffee powder will cool down, which would then be unfavorable for extraction. Therefore, 10~15 seconds will do!

We recommend this method for relatively 'fresh' beans, such as beans roasted one to three days ago, or beans with a 'light roast' level!

Of course, interrupted water is meant to increase 'good' flavors. If you find that flavors haven't increased after using interrupted water, then you can skip it~ Generally speaking: sweetness will increase! However, if astringency increases, it means: too many interruptions! Or perhaps no interruption is needed at all!

Commercial Drip Coffee Analysis

Starbucks, KFC, and McDonald's all sell black coffee made with American-style drip coffee machines, because this type of American drip machine produces more stable coffee flavors, can make multiple servings at once, is efficient, and serves quickly. As long as you use specialty coffee beans (cupping score above 80) rather than commercial-grade coffee beans (cupping score below 80, around 70 points), you can make a decent-tasting black coffee that won't have a burnt bitterness even without sugar or milk.

Many people ask why the American-style drip black coffee I drink at KFC or Starbucks only has burnt and scorched flavors. Previously, I couldn't figure this out, but a few days ago when passing by KFC and seeing their billboard, I suddenly understood.

The advertisement introduced freshly ground coffee and Arabica coffee—none of this has any problem.

Why Fresh Grinding Matters

Why grind fresh? Freshly ground coffee ensures the freshness of the coffee because good coffee flavors are easily lost, which is also why coffee beans need to be stored sealed. When ground into powder, flavors are lost even faster, so it should be ground fresh and drunk fresh.

The advertisement also mentioned 100% Arabica variety. In coffee, Arabica is considered a premium variety because Arabica has better flavor and sweetness. However, due to poor disease resistance and relatively low yield, it's more complex to grow and requires higher altitudes to produce good Arabica coffee, making it more expensive. Instant coffee uses Robusta coffee variety, which has more monotonous flavors, larger yields, good disease resistance, and higher caffeine content—2-3 times that of Arabica.

I usually make pour-over coffee in my own shop, and sometimes even seven or eight cups a day won't cause insomnia.

Due to its good disease resistance, Robusta varieties are widely planted in Yunnan and Hainan. Because of good disease resistance, large yields, and market demand, Robusta varieties are used for instant coffee and commercial coffee. The specialty coffee market is mainly dominated by Arabica varieties.

Why KFC's American Drip Coffee Doesn't Taste Good

So where exactly is the problem?

The Coffee Beans Have Been Burnt

Looking at the details, we know that the coffee in the picture has reached French roast level. At this roast level, the good flavors of the coffee have already been lost. If there's even a slight mistake during the roasting process, it will result in a batch of coffee that's both bitter and astringent. Some coffee beans in the picture have already been burnt, with burn marks on the surface. This is caused by too much heat during the roasting process and is considered a defect roast, so of course this coffee won't taste good.

Among the popular roast levels in the world today, there are light roast, medium roast, and at most city roast level. Few coffees are roasted to French roast level.