The History and Origins of Pour-Over Coffee: Who Invented the Coffee Dripper and Filter Paper?

As a coffee brewing method that has swept the world, pour-over has become an increasingly popular extraction method for exploring coffee aromas. Almost every coffee enthusiast has a set of pour-over equipment at home. During leisure moments, they select a favorite coffee and brew a pot. Weighing beans, grinding, folding filter paper, wetting the filter cup, pouring grounds, circular pouring, tasting... every action adds a sense of ceremony to each cup of coffee.

So, for those who frequently brew coffee, do you know the origin of this drip extraction method? This article will explore the history of pour-over coffee and various classic filter cups.

The Origin of Filter Cups

For a long time in the past, people around the world made coffee using a simple and crude method: grinding coffee beans, putting them in a pot to boil, then filtering out the residue with burlap or metal mesh before drinking directly. Limited by the production technology of the time, the mesh could not be made with fine enough pores, so even after filtering, the coffee liquid often still contained quite a bit of residue.

It wasn't until the 20th century that a German woman named Amalie Auguste Melitta Bentz, who loved fresh-brewed coffee, found that coffee made with traditional filters tasted bitter, and that coffee grounds would remain between her teeth after drinking, greatly affecting the taste. So, Mrs. Melitta began continuously trying new methods when making coffee, hoping to solve the困扰 of residue filtering, and finally came up with an idea:

She punched holes in the bottom of a copper pot, creating a sieve-like container, then placed a piece of blotting paper on top, put in ground coffee powder, poured in hot water, and the coffee liquid would drip through the blotting paper into the copper pot.

Compared to burlap and metal mesh, Melitta's designed combination could both filter residue and preserve coffee aroma. Not only was it low-cost, but it was also simple and convenient to use. Most importantly, the filtered coffee liquid was clear and residue-free, greatly improving the taste.

The Evolution of Filter Cups

In June 1908, Melitta registered her invention with the German Imperial Patent Office: a copper coffee filter with an arched bottom and a drain hole, along with filter paper. This might have been the world's first drip-style coffee cup. At the same time, she founded The Melitta Company and began officially selling pour-over tools.

Since its establishment, Melitta Company has repeatedly researched and optimized details such as the shape, size, filter holes, and grooves of filter cups to meet the changes in the coffee era and consumer needs. Pour-over coffee equipment has continued to innovate, designing a series of new products, such as the trapezoidal filter cup we're familiar with today, which was a popular representative of Melitta at that time.

During the period when Melitta filter cups were born, many new types of pour-over equipment also emerged. For example, the Chemex coffee pot, developed and designed in 1941 by chemist Peter Schlumbohm, which combines both aesthetic appeal and practicality.

In addition, some pour-over equipment made in Japan has also become very popular. The Japanese company Hario was founded in 1921 and initially focused on producing heat-insulating glass products. Since the popular Melitta filter cups at that time had small drainage holes and slow flow rates, the coffee grounds in the later stages of extraction were basically in a soaked state. Therefore, Hario designers changed the filter cup to a cone shape with a 60° angle body. This causes water flow to gather toward the center, extending the contact time between water and coffee grounds. The bottom also features a large single-hole design, allowing water flow to be smoother.

The Kalita Wave filter cup, also known as the "cake cup," is another invention from Japan, characterized by a flat-bottom structure with 3-4 small holes, which allows for a thinner coffee bed and tends toward immersion-style extraction. The direct contact area between the filter paper and the filter cup is minimized, so even if water flow accidentally hits the filter paper, it must pass through the coffee grounds layer to reach the drainage holes.

The Spread of Pour-Over Coffee

Although pour-over coffee originated in Germany, due to its complex process and time-consuming nature, espresso machines were later invented, and a fast-paced coffee culture emerged. This purely manual drip-style coffee did not become popular in European countries at that time. It was the Japanese who truly made pour-over coffee popular.

Starting from the 1950s, the Japanese developed an almost obsessive passion for pour-over coffee. Various materials of drip-style and pour-over coffee filter cups emerged endlessly. They not only established a complete set of theories and operational techniques for pour-over drip coffee but also made pour-over coffee rise again with the third wave of coffee culture, gaining the love of more and more people and bringing unprecedented prosperity.

- END -

FrontStreet Coffee
No. 10, Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473