Why Do Pour-Over Coffee Techniques Involve Circular Pouring? Why Not Fixed-Point Pouring or Stirring?

Why Pour Water in Circles When Brewing Pour-Over Coffee?

Nowadays, there are various brewing methods for pour-over coffee, but regardless of the method used, most employ circular pouring techniques. So, do you know why we need to pour water in circles when making pour-over coffee?

You'll probably quickly think of an answer, but FrontStreet Coffee asks again: why do we pour in circles? Why not pour up and down, left and right like with stirring methods? Take a wild guess, because today, we're going to discuss exactly: why pour water in circles!

The Benefits of Circular Pouring

The first benefit that circular pouring brings is "improving extraction rate"! This is probably the first benefit that comes to mind! Why must we pour in circles rather than using fixed-point pouring like in Japanese brewing methods?

An Analogy: Instant Drink Powders

Let's take an analogy. Think of Banlangen granules that you might drink when you have "heatiness," or other instant drink powders used when you have a cold. If you simply soak them in hot water, two situations will occur: first, you'll experience a "rather unique" layering while drinking—the liquid on top is extremely weak, while the liquid at the bottom is extremely strong, with uneven concentration that makes either layer difficult to drink; second, after finishing, you'll see many undissolved granules accumulated at the bottom of the cup! That's why we generally use spoons or chopsticks to stir them, allowing the accumulated granules to fully dissolve and distribute evenly in every drop of liquid!

The Coffee Powder Bed Experiment

Pour-over coffee follows the same principle. FrontStreet Coffee used a Kono dripper to create a visually clear effect, allowing us to observe the changes in the coffee bed during three fixed-point pours!

As you can see, except for the area where water was poured directly, which produced much foam, other areas not brushed by the water stream generated only a small amount of foam. Even their positions remained almost unchanged until the brewing was nearly finished! This indicates that because they weren't brushed by water, very few variables occurred (very little substance was released).

Why Circular Pouring Instead of Other Methods?

Because of this, when brewing coffee, we generally don't choose fixed-point pouring throughout the entire process. The goal is to ensure that coffee grounds from all directions get stirred, thus better releasing their internal substances! However, this is just the difference between stirring and not stirring. For example, with trapezoid drippers, some people use Z-shaped pouring, or with siphon pots, they use stirring rods to create cross-shaped or infinity-shaped stirring patterns. Since it's all stirring, why not use other types of pouring methods?

1. Avoiding Turbulence

If using other brewing methods, irregular stirring will cause turbulence to occur more frequently! This affects the final extraction, so under normal circumstances, circular pouring is used to reduce errors!

Moreover, we don't want all particles in the coffee to be released. Just like with instant drink powders, if you want all their substances to dissolve quickly, then increase the intensity of stirring! But coffee contains not only positive flavors like acidity and sweetness but also negative over-extraction flavors like bitterness. If you use violent extraction methods like stirring throughout, you'll get coffee as bitter as traditional Chinese medicine! That's why stirring methods are more suitable for brewing methods that require quick extraction, like siphon pots!

2. The Perfect Balance

Our circular pouring method ensures that all coffee grounds get extracted while avoiding over-extraction! Therefore, for regular brewing, circular pouring is the simplest, most practical, and most fault-tolerant pouring method!

FrontStreet Coffee

No. 10, Bao'an Front Street, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province