2019 Latest Edition: Top 10 Recommended Drip Bag Coffee Brands - Are Drip Bag Coffees Delicious?

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

What is Drip Bag Coffee?

Drip bag coffee excellently preserves the aroma of coffee and its original regional flavors. It completes coffee brewing through the drip method. As long as you have access to hot water and a 200ml cup, you can conveniently brew a cup of coffee. It's especially suitable for various places where using coffee equipment is inconvenient.

Drip Bag Coffee Brewing Method

Generally, drip bag coffee contains 8-12g of coffee grounds, and each brew requires about 150-180ml of hot water. The flavor of drip bag coffee can be chosen according to personal preferences for coffee beans and roast levels. Therefore, in terms of selection, it offers more variety than instant coffee. Moreover, in terms of pure coffee aroma and flavor performance, it's more natural and outstanding than instant coffee.

The biggest advantage of brewing drip bag coffee is that professional baristas have already set most of the variables for brewing coffee. You don't need to select beans, consider water-to-coffee ratio and coffee grind size, nor do you need brewing equipment or expert-level skills. All you need is hot water and a suitably sized mug to enjoy freshly ground good coffee anytime, anywhere.

History of Drip Bag Coffee

In 1990, the earliest drip-style coffee was invented by Yamanaka Industries Co., Ltd. of Japan, and a patent application was formally submitted in the same year, but the drip bag at that time only had a single-sided hanger.

In 1996, Taiki Shoji Co., Ltd. proposed an improved filter bag, moving the hanger component to the lower edge of the filter bag, but the hanger was still on only one side of the filter bag.

In 1999, Taiki Shoji applied to the European Patent Office for a patent for an invention with double-sided hanger components. This improved design finally allowed the filter bag to sit steadily on the cup rim, and the opening of the filter bag could fully expand. This design concept has become the mainstream in today's market.

In 2001, the Japanese invented drip bag coffee and registered a patent, then launched it to the market. Due to its simple operation and portability, and the fact that the brewed coffee tastes much more pure and aromatic than instant coffee, drip bag coffee now occupies 15% of Japan's regular coffee market share.

In 2011, global sales of drip bag coffee had already reached 1.4 billion bags, approximately 11,200 tons, of which 94% of sales came from Japan.

(So, Japan is truly the country most obsessed with pour-over coffee in the world.)

Drip Bag Coffee Reviews from Domestic and International Brands

In fact, coffee is not as high-end and sophisticated as the general public perceives it to be. Drinking coffee doesn't necessarily represent elegance, wealth, or that coffee must be expensive. Just like tea, coffee is merely a daily beverage. However, China produces abundant tea, with soil and climate conditions suitable for tea cultivation, and tea culture is rich in its long historical and cultural heritage; similarly, most regions that produce coffee beans abroad do so because the local climate and soil are suitable, and they simply treat coffee as a daily beverage. (Many coffee varieties are also named after local place names, and our country's Yunnan Province also has coffee growing regions.)

Just as tea has differences in quality due to growing environments and production methods, there are price differences in the market, and the same applies to coffee. This time, 9 cost-effective coffee brands from the market have been selected for recommendation:

International Brands

NO.1 Japan · UCC Shokunin Coffee

Brand Introduction: Japanese brand. The anti-inspirational quote "If you feel tired like a dog, you're greatly mistaken - even dogs aren't as tired as you" that became popular nationwide is UCC's marketing copy.

Reviewed Product: Green Special Rich Blend

Price: 36 yuan/18 bags = 2 yuan/bag

Green: The most bitter of the three flavors. Rich taste with slightly higher bitterness and slightly lower acidity. The bitterness hits first, but you can still feel a bit of acidity in the aftertaste. Additionally, because they're sun-dried beans, they retain a slight fruity aroma.

Red: The most acidic of the three flavors. Acidity hits immediately, with bitterness and a hint of fruitiness in the aftertaste.

Blue: The most balanced in terms of bitterness and acidity. Rich and mellow taste, suitable for most people who dislike acidity or bitterness.

Recommendation Reason: Excellent cost-performance ratio

NO.2 Japan · Sumida River

Brand Introduction: Japanese brand. Sumida River is a river in Tokyo, Japan, and Sumida River Coffee is the proprietary coffee brand of Japan's CICT Co., Ltd.

Reviewed Product: Green Kilimanjaro and "Spring Koi" from the combination pack

Price: 39 yuan/10 bags = 3.9 yuan/bag

Green Kilimanjaro: Medium roast, balanced acidity with bitterness, 5-star richness.

Spring Koi: Belongs to Mandheling flavor, with bitterness significantly higher than acidity. Entry taste is relatively mellow and aromatic, suitable for friends who don't like high acidity.

Recommendation Reason: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Cherry collaboration editions, with exquisite packaging design. Each edition has a theme - tasty and beautiful.

NO.3 Italy · Illy Drip Bag Coffee

Brand Introduction: Italian brand, a globally renowned coffee bean supplier with nearly 90 years of company history.

Reviewed Product: Medium Roast Drip Bag Coffee & Deep Roast Drip Bag Coffee

Price: 45 yuan/5 bags = 9 yuan/bag

Medium Roast: Both acidity and bitterness are moderate, with slight fruit acidity, subtle nutty flavors, and a hint of sweetness that cleverly balances some of the acidity and bitterness, resulting in a smooth drinking experience.

Deep Roast: 100% Arabica beans. Deep-roasted beans naturally lack the acidity of medium-roasted beans, smelling and tasting more mellow, though the coffee's own flavor is slightly lighter. Personally, I recommend the medium roast more.

Recommendation Reason: Strong brand, long history, subtle taste, premium beans.

Nowadays, many people love to drink lattes, cappuccinos, and milk specialty coffees. They are all based on Espresso (Italian espresso), which is the essence of Italian coffee. When mentioning Italian coffee, we have to mention the Illy brand, a common brand in cafés.

Illy offers various types of coffee powder including deep roast, medium roast, mocha, and decaffeinated. The one recommended today is medium roast, using Arabica coffee beans to create a mellow flavor. Its taste is quite balanced, with acidity and bitterness in equilibrium. Compared to the heavy bitterness of deep roast, it's suitable for most people's tastes.

NO.4 Starbucks Drip Bag Coffee

Brand Introduction: No introduction needed.

Reviewed Product: Pike Place & Verona

Price: 67 yuan/6 bags = 11 yuan/bag (expensive)

Pike Place: Follows Starbucks' consistent American-style flavor, medium roast, quite smooth taste with low acidity and slightly heavy body.

Verona: Deep roast, origin is Japan, supposedly only available at select stores. I bought it on a certain e-commerce platform. The coffee aroma is strong, tastes neither acidic nor astringent, with only light bitterness.

Recommendation Reason: Just listed for reference, fans can buy it on e-commerce platforms.

Domestic Brands

NO.1 China · Ziyu Coffee

Brand Introduction: Under 3W Coffee (the founder is Xu Dandan, founder of Lagouwang). Even the Premier has visited their Zhongguancun store for coffee.

Reviewed Product: American Rich / Italian Strong / Blue Mountain Flavor

Price: 69 yuan/8 bags = 8.6 yuan/bag

American Rich: Under a blend of various beans, dark chocolate flavor, rich and heavy taste.

Italian Strong: A blend of various nut flavors and oatmeal taste, strong flavor.

Blue Mountain Flavor: Rich taste, with balanced acidity, aroma, sweetness, and mellowness. Smooth and mild taste, popular with the general public.

Recommendation Reason: I've been drinking it for over two years.

Ziyu Coffee can be called the "internet celebrity of drip bag coffee." First, what attracts people is its minimalist, cool packaging style, followed by the quality of its drip bags. Ziyu's drip bags use imported Arabica beans scoring above 80 points, employ fully automated closed production lines, with experienced professional roasters overseeing the entire process. The coffee powder is placed in environmentally-friendly kraft paper and food-grade filter paper bags, filled with nitrogen to maintain the coffee's original aroma.

NO.2 Yongpu Coffee

Brand Introduction: Shanghai coffee company. In 2014, founder Hou Yongpu (a graphic design major from the China Academy of Art) established Yongpu. Focuses on packaging design and brand collaborations.

Reviewed Product: Yongpu | Rishi Ji's Crispy Biscuits and Little Cubs Story Dirty Xiao Bai Illustrator Edition

Price: 79 yuan/7 bags = 7.9 yuan/bag

("Crispy Biscuits" is a cat)

Little Kitten Blend: A combination of Ethiopian washed and sun-dried Yirgacheffe, with fruit aroma and acidity as refreshing as a spring breeze.

Recommendation Reason: Super interesting and cute design style - what's being sold and bought is no longer just coffee itself.

Yongpu Coffee is quite unique in the specialty coffee space. The brand excels at launching co-branded drip bag coffee products with other IPs and brands, while also handling business customization. For example, they have launched many co-branded drip bag coffee products with Rishi Ji, NetEase Cloud Music, and Little Cub Theater.

NO.3 Mingqian Coffee

Brand Introduction: Established in 2009, one of the pioneers in China's specialty coffee industry, with Mingqian Coffee Estate, Mingqian Roasting Factory, Mingqian Coffee Academy, and Mingqian Coffee stores.

Reviewed Product: Indonesia / Sumatra / Golden Mandheling

Price: 50 yuan/5 bags = 10 yuan/bag

Mingqian is one of the earlier domestic brands to enter the drip bag market. Mingqian Coffee founder Cai Zhongshun noticed drip bag coffee in 2010 and began producing them afterward. However, compared to brands like Ziyu, Mingqian is relatively more traditional, positioned upstream in the supply chain, with coffee retail business still mainly focused on selling coffee beans, OEM processing from their own roasting factory, and supplying coffee beans to offline cafés.

Speaking of Mingqian, it was also the reason I said goodbye to the coffee industry. When I was passionately thinking about opening a coffee shop after graduation, I signed up as a volunteer for the World Barista Championship China region to learn and gain experience. I was fortunate to meet several judges from the competition, most of whom were from Mingqian Coffee Academy. When I hopefully inquired about the potential of the coffee industry, they said: "Either you have a lot of money, or you really love it." Well, later I became an internet operations manager.

NO.4 FrontStreet Coffee

Brand Introduction: Guangzhou coffee company, established in 2013. One of the pioneers in Guangzhou's specialty coffee industry, with coffee estates, roasting factories, China Coffee Network, FrontStreet Coffee public account, and FrontStreet Coffee stores.

Reviewed Product: A box of 10 single-origin seasonal drip bags

Price: 39.9 yuan/10 bags = 4 yuan/bag

Recommendation Reason: Very drinkable, good sales on e-commerce platforms, and they often have discount promotions. Seasonal drip bags are frequently 50% off, making this price the most affordable on the entire network, and the quality is actually quite good!

FrontStreet Coffee is one of the brands that has delved deeply into specialty coffee culture. You can find a series of pour-over coffee beans and various tutorials on Baidu and WeChat. They have their own website, public account, and roasting factory. I heard their owner even has a plot of land in Yunnan specifically for growing coffee trees? Currently, they mainly focus on specialty coffee beans and specialty drip bag coffee. In short, affordable and worth trying.

NO.5 Jirui Coffee

Brand Introduction: Beijing coffee company, established in December 2002, mainly producing roasted coffee products. In 2016, they introduced coffee capsule production equipment, becoming one of the domestic enterprises efficiently producing international products through automated production.

Reviewed Product: Jirui 70-bag gift box

Price: 107 yuan/70 bags = 1.52 yuan/bag

Recommendation Reason: Super cheap, of course it's ordinary coffee beans, but it accompanied my university life. When the café first opened, they used this drip bag to replace freshly ground pour-over coffee for a period of time, keeping costs very low.

There are some others worth trying: Fisher Coffee, Colin, Jiying, etc.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473