The Art of Japanese Drip Pour-Over: A Complete Guide to the Kanazawa Method | Mastering Delicious Pour-Over Coffee Techniques

Previously, FrontStreet Coffee shared the Kono-style drip and Matsuya-style brewing methods, which received excellent feedback. So in this issue, we're introducing another interesting brewing method—the Kanazawa-style.

The Principle of Kanazawa-style Pour-over

Kanazawa-style was created by Mr. Masayuki Kanazawa, the owner of Kanazawa Coffee Shop. He studied at the Kono Coffee Academy and received serious coffee consulting from Kono himself. His book "コーノ式かなざわ珈琲" (Kono-style Kanazawa Coffee) also very clearly and simply explains how to use the Kanazawa method to brew delicious coffee. (Friends who have the opportunity should read it)

Kanazawa-style is also a very Japanese pour-over method, characterized by gentleness, slowness, and that dragonfly-dipping-water-like pouring technique. The viewpoint mentioned in the book is that when extracting coffee, the last 2/3 of the coffee liquid is full of various bitter and negative flavors, while the first 1/3 of the coffee liquid is the most delicious and essential part of the coffee.

Therefore, Kanazawa-style only extracts the first 1/3 of high-concentration coffee liquid, then adds 2/3 of water to dilute it to the appropriate concentration.

This 1/3 refers to using a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:10 as the foundation. That is, if based on 24g of coffee grounds, extract 80ml of high-concentration coffee liquid, then mix with 160ml of clear water to get a 240ml cup of Kanazawa-style coffee.

Kanazawa-style Brewing Process Demonstration

Mr. Kanazawa came from the Kono Coffee Academy, so he also highly approves of Kono equipment. For equipment, using Kono's dripper, serving pot, and filter paper is the standard configuration. The pour-over kettle is quite interesting—he uses Kalita's handle-style pour-over kettle, which is the same as conventional Japanese pour-over kettles.

Traditional Japanese pour-over kettles are tall with side handles, while this kettle is short and stout, with a different kind of handle—a carrying handle. This design places the kettle's center of gravity directly above the kettle body when in use, and the spout uses an extremely narrow opening, allowing for flow control when pouring water.

Below is a video of Mr. Masayuki Kanazawa demonstrating the Kanazawa brewing method at an exhibition, with the YouTube video creator being "suling hung".

In the video, Mr. Kanazawa uses a 10-cup Kono dripper with 120g of coffee grounds. You can see that before pouring water, a hole needs to be dug in the middle of the coffee bed because the middle layer is too thick, which is not conducive to blooming. Due to the huge amount of coffee grounds this time, the hole dug will be correspondingly larger. The water temperature is 88 degrees Celsius, the grind size is consistent with Kono-style, and the coffee beans used are all relatively dark and fresh.

First, pour water from the small hole in the middle and slowly circle outward to wet all the surface coffee grounds. The amount of water for blooming doesn't need to be too much—just enough to wet the surface coffee grounds. Too much water will cause some coffee liquid to flow down during blooming, which actually makes the blooming insufficient.

The timing for blooming is mainly determined by observing the changes in the coffee bed. When the entire coffee bed rises into a big hamburger shape and maintains this state for 5 seconds, you can begin the next water pour.

Next comes the dragonfly-dipping-water-like pouring (shaking the pour-over kettle up and down to make water drops drip out), about two drops per second. First, continuously drip water at the center, and when the foam in the middle stabilizes, start dripping water toward the surroundings.

When foam emerges from the entire coffee surface, you can pour water in a circular flow pattern until the coffee liquid in the lower pot reaches the 400ml mark, then remove the dripper. Then add 800ml of hot water to the pot and stir well to complete.

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