Pour-Over Coffee Brewing Water Pouring Techniques Analysis: Why Do We Need to Pour in Circles?

Pour-over coffee circular water pouring is almost a basic operation. But have you ever thought about why we pour water in circles? FrontStreet Coffee will explore this question with you today.

The first reason is to improve extraction rate, which is also what many people think of first. In daily life, when making instant coffee or dissolving powder particles, simply using hot water likely won't dissolve everything completely, so we would use a small spoon to stir, allowing these particles to fully dissolve in the water.

The same principle applies to pour-over coffee, which requires "stirring" to release more coffee substances. However, for pour-over coffee, we don't use a small spoon to stir, but rather use the water stream for stirring.

This reason explains why we don't pour water at a fixed point, but stirring doesn't necessarily only mean circular pouring. For siphon coffee, the stirring methods are not just circular stirring - there are also cross-stirring, infinity-shaped stirring, and Z-shaped stirring methods.

Why Circular Pouring?

So the second reason needs to explain why, despite all being stirring methods, pour-over coffee only chooses the circular approach. The reason is that our control over the water stream is not as proficient as using physical objects like wooden sticks (spoons).

Using other forms of stirring to pour water can easily generate turbulence. Generally, there are two main reasons why turbulence easily occurs when making coffee. First, gases are not completely expelled during the blooming stage, and subsequent water pouring causes these gases to release, creating turbulence. Second, turbulence caused by improper stirring techniques. Currently, unidirectional circular pouring rarely produces such obvious turbulence.

Mastering the Circular Pouring Technique

Of course, circular pouring requires finding the right method to use. Returning to the example of "stirring powder particles," if we want the particles to dissolve faster, we would increase the stirring intensity. The same applies to pour-over coffee - you can increase stirring intensity by speeding up the circular motion. However, the difference is that we don't want all substances in the coffee particles to dissolve; we only need to extract the better-tasting flavor compounds (18-22% extraction rate). Therefore, we must control the stirring intensity to improve extraction rate while avoiding over-extraction.

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Approach

For how to perform circular pouring well, FrontStreet Coffee suggests using the simplest approach to achieve "no turbulence, even extraction." Use a slower circular pouring method to better control the angle of the water stream, which will provide better stability. The circular motion can start from the center and slowly move outward in a "mosquito coil" pattern, and when reaching the outermost edge, slowly circle back toward the center.

This method helps beginners better control the intensity and duration of stirring, thereby reducing many "failed attempts." There are many pouring methods, so please start with the simplest yet most effective approach.

Important Notice :

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