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How to Make Coffee at Home - Pour-over Coffee Equipment: Hario V60 Dripper, AeroPress, and Moka Pot Recommendations

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Making coffee at home is actually not a complicated endeavor, primarily depending on your coffee needs and budget. Coffee is a beverage with characteristics almost identical to tea. Often when we visit coffee shops, it's simply because we want to enjoy a cup. Making coffee at home doesn't require purchasing expensive equipment or

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Making coffee at home is actually not a complicated matter - it basically depends on your coffee needs and budget. Coffee is a beverage, almost identical in nature to tea. Many times when we go to cafes, it's purely because "I just want to have a cup of coffee."

Some people might ask FrontStreet Coffee: "Do I need to buy expensive equipment to make coffee at home? How can I choose the method that suits me best?" Let FrontStreet Coffee introduce you to common home brewing methods for you to choose from.

Pour-Over Coffee

Suitable for: Those who love to explore coffee

Generally composed of a pour-over kettle, filter cup, and filter paper. Making pour-over coffee allows you to get slightly different tasting coffee with each brew, and this is also how FrontStreet Coffee's daily production works. Water temperature, blooming time, water flow rate, pouring technique, number of pours, grind setting, and more - these details all affect the flavor of pour-over coffee.

The Hario V60 filter cup is an extremely popular brewing device, named after its shape - a cone with a 60-degree angle.

It can bring you a clean and rich flavor expression. By adjusting parameters like water temperature, grind size, and coffee-to-water ratio, you'll get different tasting coffee.

Tip: For your first attempt, you can choose to use medium-fine ground coffee, after 30 seconds of blooming, use a fine water stream to pour in concentric circles on the coffee grounds. (For more V60 filter cup brewing methods, you can also pay attention to articles published by FrontStreet Coffee~)

Kalita Cake-Type Filter Cup

Kalita's cake-type filter cup is similar to the V60, but the principles are quite different.

First, the bottom of the cake-type filter cup is flat with three small round holes. This detail design also affects water flow, allowing water to contact coffee grounds more evenly, resulting in stable extraction and balanced taste.

The usage method for this device is the same as V60 - use medium-fine ground coffee, after blooming, pour in concentric circles on the coffee grounds. Note that whether using a thick or fine water stream, the consistency must be maintained from beginning to end, and don't pour onto the edges of the coffee grounds and filter paper. Of course, you can try different pouring methods, such as multi-stage pouring - pouring small amounts of water multiple times to complete the brewing.

Clever Dripper

Suitable for: Those who seek convenience and love balanced flavors

The Clever Dripper is simple to operate with relatively few variables. The Clever Filter Cup is another convenient, simple, fast, and stable good choice besides the AeroPress.

Invented by Taiwanese people, this coffee device brews coffee using a concept similar to tea brewing. First, place filter paper in the Clever Filter Cup, rinse with hot water and warm the cup, drain the water through the clever device (push up the middle valve and the outlet automatically opens, hence it's called the Clever Filter Cup).

As for the coffee grind setting, FrontStreet Coffee would recommend medium-roasted coffee beans for more balanced taste, such as FrontStreet Coffee's Paradise Bird, FrontStreet Coffee's Huilan, FrontStreet Coffee's Strawberry Candy, etc.

Its usage method is slightly different - first, whether to wet the filter paper is up to you; after pouring coffee grounds into the filter cup, first inject a small amount of hot water, then you can stir or choose not to stir. After blooming, inject hot water according to the coffee-to-water ratio. Here, it's not required to pour in concentric circles. After pouring is complete, you can stir to help extraction. When the steeping time ends, place the filter cup on the sharing pot, and the valve will automatically open - coffee extraction is complete.

AeroPress

Suitable for: Those who are fascinated by high-body coffee texture

The AeroPress was born for convenience - it's a portable device that can quickly make a cup of coffee. It has an annual World AeroPress Championship. But rather than a competition, it's more about everyone hoping to celebrate this great invention in this way. It has varied playing methods, high operability, and no absolute rules.

Coffee made with AeroPress has a full body and offers much room for experimentation. AeroPress is very easy for beginners to get started with.

AeroPress Standard and Inverted Brewing Methods/Differences

FrontStreet Coffee believes the biggest difference is that when you use the standard method, coffee is filtered while pouring water, which affects the completeness of the flavor; while using the inverted method can avoid this problem.

As for AeroPress brewing parameters, if you ask FrontStreet Coffee for standard AeroPress brewing parameters, we'd have to say sorry to everyone (shrugs.jpg). But there are two insights: The material of AeroPress determines that it dissipates heat slowly and loses less temperature; but too high a temperature can easily lead to over-extraction, while too low a temperature can cause under-extraction. Using slightly lower water temperature: using temperatures in the range of 84°C plus or minus 2 degrees can result in a smoother, more balanced taste.

Moka Pot

Suitable for: Those who heavily love espresso-style coffee

The Moka pot is also called an "Italian drip pot." Like the French press, it's a common coffee brewing device.

The Moka pot has three chambers - the bottom chamber holds water, the middle holds coffee grounds, and the top chamber holds the brewed coffee liquid. Between each layer are metal filters. After placing the Moka pot on a stove to heat, steam is generated, increasing pressure in the bottom chamber, causing water to pass through the middle coffee grounds layer, and finally settling in the top chamber as brewed coffee. Usually, the last segment of coffee from the Moka pot is not used.

Compared to espresso's 9 bars of pressure, although the Moka pot uses 1.5-3 bars to brew coffee, it's still more aromatic and rich than other coffee brewing methods and can retain crema, making it very popular. If you want to easily extract coffee with crema, FrontStreet Coffee believes freshly roasted medium to dark roast coffee is particularly important. Here we recommend FrontStreet Coffee's Classic Espresso Blend, FrontStreet Coffee's Commercial Espresso Blend, and FrontStreet Coffee's Sunflower Warm Sun Espresso Blend.

French Press

Suitable for: Those who want to drink coffee in the simplest way possible

This should be the world's most well-known and simplest coffee brewing device.

Most French presses on the market are affordable, simple to use, and large-capacity French presses can make coffee for multiple people at once. In terms of taste, it has high body but cannot fully showcase all the flavors of coffee beans.

If you've noticed the surface of brewed coffee, you can see that coffee itself contains oils. French press brewing involves placing coffee grounds in the French press and steeping in hot water for a certain time before extraction. Unlike pour-over paper filters that remove some coffee oils, French press doesn't filter them out, so compared to pour-over, it has a different aroma and taste.

Chemex

Suitable for: Chemex is especially suitable for artistic youth & those who want to brew multiple servings at once

A large Chemex can brew 8 servings of coffee at once. For coffee, the most noteworthy thing about this filter cup is the special filter paper it uses.

Chemex special filter paper is thicker and retains more oils in the final filter. However, due to the deep V design of Chemex, taste consistency is relatively difficult to master. Unlike other pour-over devices, Chemex is more suitable for using medium-coarse grind settings. The coffee taste is particularly clean with distinct flavors, but consistency is difficult to guarantee and requires practice.

Home Coffee Machines

Suitable for: Deep & heavy coffee lovers who are "sophisticated players"

Home coffee machines can mainly be divided into four types: fully automatic espresso machines, semi-automatic espresso machines, drip coffee machines, and capsule coffee machines.

Fully Automatic and Semi-Automatic Espresso Machines

Fully automatic machines don't require manual operation - they can automatically grind beans, fill coffee, and make coffee. Just put in coffee beans and enjoy coffee. With rich features comes a more complex structure, and maintenance costs are higher. Semi-automatic machines are called the most professional coffee machines, with extraction that's more outstanding than fully automatic ones. But they require manual filling and tamping, which demands more from the operator. Compared to fully automatic machines, their structure is simpler and maintenance is easier.

For such equipment, due to pressurized extraction, plus extremely fine grinding and high water temperature, if you choose lightly roasted coffee beans, sour and astringent flavors easily appear. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends prioritizing dedicated espresso beans, especially coffee with nutty, cocoa, cookie, chocolate, and caramel flavors, such as FrontStreet Coffee's Classic Blend, FrontStreet Coffee's Commercial Blend, FrontStreet Coffee's Basic Blend, FrontStreet Coffee's Sunflower Warm Sun Blend, etc.

Drip Coffee Machines

Drip coffee machines are also known as American fully automatic machines.

Drip coffee concentration is relatively light, and operation is also simple - it can produce a finished product in 5-8 minutes, making it very suitable for home and office use. But because it uses atmospheric pressure hot water, it cannot extract coffee oils, and coffee concentration is not high. If you don't want to drink instant coffee but don't pursue espresso, then a drip coffee machine would be recommended.

Capsule Coffee Machines

If you want to drink espresso but fear the hassle, then capsule coffee machines are the best choice.

Just use coffee capsules with one-click operation to enjoy the deliciousness of espresso. Some capsules can also be paired to make specialty coffees.

The downside is the higher usage cost - one shot of espresso from fully automatic and semi-automatic machines costs 1-3 yuan, while capsule costs are between 3-9 yuan; additionally, capsules from different brands are not compatible. The choice of capsule coffee machine is actually choosing a system - the capsule system determines the variety and quantity of capsules you can enjoy later, as well as the price of capsules.

Home coffee machines can make the high-body espresso you love, while also cultivating yourself as a barista.

The above is a general introduction to equipment suitable for home use. They all have one thing in common - as long as you master simple brewing techniques, you can get a cup of coffee that belongs to you!