Can a Teapot Replace a Pour-Over Filter for Coffee? Can You Brew Coffee in a Zisha Teapot?

While surfing online at night, FrontStreet Coffee discovered an interesting "dad-disapproved series" brewing method—making coffee with a purple clay teapot. It's said that purple clay teapots can not only extract aroma but also absorb impurities in coffee, effectively reducing bitterness and astringency. Is this really true? Practice makes perfect, so let's give it a try.

Purple clay teapots are made from ceramic clay containing high iron content that has undergone geological sedimentary lithification and possesses crystalline sandy properties. Different materials determine different performance characteristics. Purple clay teapots have high-density pores and strong adsorption properties, which can reduce aged and off-flavors in tea when brewing. Additionally, most purple clay teapots feature narrow spouts and small openings, resulting in slower heat dissipation and more prominent heat retention.

The purple clay teapot in FrontStreet Coffee's possession has a small capacity of about 150ml, suitable for brewing 8-9 grams of coffee powder each time. The interior uses a porous design that can filter most fine tea leaves, but for coffee, the outlet diameter is still too large, easily allowing fine grounds to escape and affect the drinking experience. Therefore, an additional filtration step is needed after extraction.

Clever readers have probably noticed that this is immersion extraction, so it works on the same principle as a French press. This means the parameter settings don't need to be overly strict—as long as you choose good coffee beans and control water temperature, grind size, coffee-to-water ratio, and ensure the steeping time isn't too long.

To be on the safe side, FrontStreet Coffee first used a relatively balanced flavor bean for the initial test—choosing a medium-dark roasted "Bird of Paradise," which has toasted bread aroma, high sweetness like sugarcane, and slight fruit acidity, with a soft and delicate mouthfeel.

Brewing Parameters:

Coffee beans: Papua New Guinea · Bird of Paradise
Amount: 9 grams
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Water temperature: 88°C
Grind size: EK43s setting 10.5 (75% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve)
Steeping time: 3 minutes

(A barista's persistence: circular pouring)

The pre-filtering process is quite similar to brewing tea: place the ground coffee powder in the purple clay teapot (no preheating), then pour 135ml of hot water all at once and start timing. Since no "stirring" is added during the process, use the water flow to disperse and wet all the coffee powder as much as possible, then immediately cover with the lid and patiently steep for three minutes.

After 3 minutes, FrontStreet Coffee used filter paper and a dripper to separate the grounds. During the process, particles sometimes blocked the spout, so the teapot needed to be shaken occasionally to continue pouring and ensure all the coffee liquid was poured out.

Finally, this cup of Bird of Paradise brewed in a purple clay teapot measured a TDS value of 1.00%. The coffee entry had a distinct oolong tea sensation, with roasted nuts and almond cookie aromas, clear aftertaste, and almost no bitterness. However, each flavor was somewhat weak, and FrontStreet Coffee suspected it might be slightly under-extracted.

Testing Fruity Coffee Beans

Since brewing medium-dark roasted coffee in a purple clay teapot didn't fail, let's turn our attention to fruit-acid type beans next—choosing one washed coffee and one honey-processed coffee to see how each performs.

Learning from the first round, FrontStreet Coffee hoped to extract more aromatic substances from the coffee for a fuller mouthfeel, so adjustments were made to both grind size and temperature: first, increasing water temperature by 1-2°C, and second, making the grinder half a setting finer. (Finer grinding can lead to increased fine powder, causing over-extraction during immersion, so FrontStreet Coffee recommends not changing the grind setting too much each time.)

Brewing Parameters:

Coffee beans: Colombia · La Esperanza Geisha & Ethiopia · Kochere
Amount: 9 grams
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Water temperature: 94-95°C
Grind size: EK43s setting 9.5 (80-82% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve)
Steeping time: 3 minutes

Finally, the honey-processed Geisha from La Esperanza measured a TDS value of 1.21%, while the washed Kochere measured a TDS value of 1.11%.

In terms of flavor, La Esperanza Geisha had distinct fruit characteristics with aromas of dried fruit, orange, and black tea. The fruit acidity was fresh, and the aftertaste was clean—especially the candy-like high sweetness left a deep impression on FrontStreet Coffee. In comparison, Kochere performed more balanced, dominated by citrus fruit acidity, with flavors of orange, honey, roasted sweet potato, and the sweet aftertaste of green tea.

Conclusion

Overall, these cups of coffee brewed in a purple clay teapot all had good sweetness, with a tea-like clarity in the mouth. However, the drawback was that they all lacked a certain richness, so compared to regular pour-over coffee, they felt somewhat lacking in "flavor impact" with thinner flavor layers.

Having had our fun, and before anyone notices, FrontStreet Coffee is going to thoroughly clean the purple clay teapot and put it back in its original place. If you've read this far and are interested in this brewing method, and there happen to be no adults at home, why not find a teapot and try it quietly? 🤫

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473