How to Use a Spring-Style Portable Dripper Made from a Single Steel Wire? Should Hand-Brew Parameters and Brewing Methods Be Adjusted?

In their initial inception, drip cones were merely trapezoidal ceramic vessels. However, with the evolution of time, various styles and materials such as flat-bottomed, conical, resin, and metal have emerged! Different styles of drip cones can produce varying brewing effects, while different materials offer distinct heat retention properties. Among these, the vast majority of drip cones share one important function - supporting the filtration device!

If there were a drip cone whose sole purpose was to support the filter paper, without excessive design affecting water flow and brewing, what difference would the coffee it brews have compared to conventional drip cones? Believe it or not, FrontStreet Coffee has a "veteran employee" that perfectly meets this condition! Its overall contact area with the filter paper is not particularly large, so it doesn't significantly impact the brewing. Its main function is supporting the filter paper - it is the "Portable Drip Cone" made from a single steel wire!

Construction and Design

That's right - as you can see, the entire drip cone is constructed from just one steel wire, with clearly visible cuts at both ends. This drip cone has a conical structure, so it naturally requires conical filter paper.

Additionally, it features a spring-like design that allows us to stretch and deform it. When external force from stretching is removed, the drip cone returns to its original shape through its own elasticity. Interestingly, the spring design was incorporated to make it portable. Therefore, when not in use, we can press down, flattening the top steel wire onto the supporting base, creating this compact, lightweight drip cone in its "transformed" state!

Advantages and Disadvantages

Lightweight, easy to carry, and affordably priced are the distinctive advantages of this drip cone. However, where there are advantages, disadvantages naturally follow. Since the entire drip cone, including the base that supports it, is constructed from a single steel wire, they don't sit on the same horizontal plane! When we place it on a serving pot, this disadvantage becomes apparent - the entire drip cone tilts to one side.

Brewing Experiment

Now that we've discussed the obvious advantages and disadvantages, let's put it to use and see what characteristics the coffee it brews has!

For this brewing experiment, FrontStreet Coffee used Colombia · Divisa Geisha beans. When brewed with a V60, this coffee presents flavors of honeysuckle, citrus, and red pomelo. Following V60 brewing parameters:

Coffee amount: 15g
Grind size: Ek43 setting 10, with 75% passing through #20 sieve
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Water temperature: 92°C
Brewing method: Three-stage pour

Before brewing, we first moistened the filter paper with a small amount of hot water, warming the cup in the process. As you can see from the image below, after moistening, the filter paper almost perfectly conforms to the steel wire of the drip cone! Now, let's begin brewing!

First, pour 30ml of water (twice the coffee amount) for a 30-second bloom! After the bloom, we used a steady, large circular motion to inject the second stage of hot water (120ml). When the water level was about to bottom out, we used a steady, small circular motion to inject the final stage of hot water (75ml). When the coffee finished dripping, we could remove the drip cone to declare the brewing complete~

Total time was 2 minutes and 50 seconds. Without flow ribs, the flow rate was much slower compared to the V60, which is why it took more time! As for its taste... FrontStreet Coffee guesses many friends might think the coffee is filled with over-extracted bitterness, right! But actually, it's not entirely bitter - rather, it's a complex bitterness with a very thin mouthfeel.

This is because the extraction of this coffee is extremely uneven! Without wall contact or prominent ribs to guide water flow, hot water can only penetrate directly downward by gravity, making it very slow and causing some coffee to be over-extracted! Additionally, because too much hot water was poured at once, excess water bypassed the coffee bed, flowing directly through the surrounding filter paper, creating "bypass water"! This is what led to the coffee's complex, bitter, and thin flavor!

Conclusion

However, this isn't the fault of the drip cone itself - it's simply because we applied an unsuitable brewing method, which resulted in uneven extraction. By adjusting to a coarser grind, lower water temperature, and changing from fast, large water flow to slow, small flow injection, a properly brewed pour-over coffee naturally follows! Besides its higher brewing requirements, this drip cone's cost-effectiveness and portability are impeccable. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee feels it doesn't need performance comparisons with other drip cones - when their purposes differ, there's no need for comparison~

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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