What's the difference between size 01 and size 02 drippers? Why doesn't coffee brewed with a larger dripper taste as good?

Understanding Coffee Dripper Sizes: 01 vs 02

The "dripper" is an essential tool for making pour-over coffee. Besides different styles of drippers available on the market, the same dripper also comes in different sizes. The commonly heard 01 and 02 drippers refer to small and large sizes respectively.

The 01 dripper is a small size suitable for 1-2 servings, while the 02 dripper is a large size suitable for 3-4 servings. Generally, in our daily use, the 01 small dripper is most frequently used. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee's brewing tutorials are all standardized around the 01 dripper.

However, it's important to know that the difference between large and small drippers goes beyond just capacity. Their usage methods also need to be adjusted according to their size differences. If this isn't understood, you might encounter situations like this: friends who can skillfully use a 01 dripper to make delicious coffee might end up with a complete mess when using a 02 dripper. So why does this happen? With this question in mind, let's first examine what differences exist between 01 and 02 model drippers!

Differences Between 01 and 02 Drippers

Taking Hario's V60 as an example, the difference between 01 and 02 models from appearance seems to be just one small and one large. The bottom drainage holes change according to size, while the number of flow ribs remains completely consistent. In terms of capacity, the 01 dripper is suitable for brewing with less than 20g of coffee grounds, while the 02 dripper is suitable for brewing with more than 20g. This all seems reasonable and presents no apparent problems, so why can't the brewing methods be shared?

(02 dripper on the left, 01 dripper on the right)

This brings us to the dripper's capacity! For example, the 01 model dripper, although it recommends using less than 20g of coffee grounds, this isn't because it cannot accommodate more than 20g. Rather, it's because brewing more than 20g requires too much hot water, and even with segmented pouring, the dripper can hardly accommodate the amount of water for a single pour. Secondly, due to limited space, the bed thickness increases continuously as the coffee grounds increase, and overly thick coffee beds are difficult for hot water to penetrate. Therefore, an enlarged dripper is needed to increase space and capacity, making coffee brewing easier. However, just as the 01 dripper is suitable for brewing 15g of beans, the 02 dripper also has its optimal bean amount—"30g". Following a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, 30g of beans requires 450ml of hot water for brewing, and this is where the problem lies.

Common Mistakes When Using 02 Drippers

Many friends believe there's only a volume difference between the two, so they use the same brewing method and same water flow size to brew the large amount of coffee grounds in a 02 dripper, meaning only changing the dripper and amount of grounds. The result is over-extraction due to excessively long extraction time.

(The height of 30g of coffee grounds already reaches 2/3 of the 01 dripper's position)

The reason is simple: although the dripper's space and drainage holes are enlarged, the stacked thickness of coffee grounds remains quite high. Thick coffee beds have fewer gaps, so the hot water flow rate will inevitably be much smaller. Secondly, with unchanged water flow size but significantly increased total volume, this extends the pouring time. Meanwhile, due to the increased thickness of the coffee bed, the original water flow size can hardly break through the coffee grounds, causing large amounts of coffee grounds to deposit at the bottom, which very easily leads to blockage.

Proper Techniques for 02 Dripper Brewing

Therefore, when these negative conditions stack up, the coffee extraction time exceeds the normal range significantly. Then, the coffee becomes over-extracted. This is why many friends who use the 01 dripper well struggle with the 02 dripper. Therefore, we need to adjust the grind slightly coarser to increase the hot water flow rate. Then, increase the water flow to reduce pouring time, which can shorten the required extraction time while also allowing proper agitation of the coffee bed due to increased water flow penetration power. This way, we can make delicious coffee using the 02 dripper!

FrontStreet Coffee

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