Which Dripper is Best for Pour-Over Coffee Beginners? Are Flat-Bottom Drippers Better Than V60? What are the Pros and Cons of Conical Drippers?

If you want a complete beginner with no pouring experience to brew a good cup of coffee, FrontStreet Coffee believes that most coffee experts would not recommend the V60—the "all-purpose" filter cup—but rather a wave filter cup. This is because compared to cone-shaped filter cups, wave filter cups don't require as much pouring skill, while also making it easier to extract the sweetness from coffee.

So today, FrontStreet Coffee will share with everyone what exactly makes wave filter cups special, why they don't require high pouring skills, and why they can more easily extract sweetness from coffee!

What is a Wave Filter Cup?

When most friends hear about wave filter cups for the first time, they might imagine that the shape or design of these filter cups has some connection to cake. However, as we can see from the picture below, without exception, these so-called wave filter cups hardly have any connection to cake.

Without a doubt, they have no connection to cake whatsoever. They're called wave filter cups mainly because the filter paper they use resembles cupcake liners, which is why people started calling them wave filter cups.

But it's not hard to notice that these filter cups all share a common characteristic: unlike cone-shaped or fan-shaped filter cups, their bottoms aren't pointed—they're flat-bottomed (except for the origami filter cup). Because of the flat bottom, the filter paper is different from regular ones, which is why they also have a special alias—flat-bottom filter cups.

The world's first filter cup was actually a flat-bottom version, invented by Melitta Bentz. However, it wasn't promoted at the time. It wasn't until 2010, when the well-known Japanese coffee equipment manufacturer Kalita released a filter cup called the Kalita Wave (translated as "wave"), that flat-bottom filter cups became known to the world.

In recent years, many competition champions have used flat-bottom filter cups to win prestigious awards, so we can know that flat-bottom filter cups are by no means inferior to pointed-bottom filter cups—they have their own unique advantages.

Advantages of Wave/Flat-Bottom Filter Cups

The advantages of wave filter cups mainly come from their flat bottom. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, whether it's cone-shaped or fan-shaped filter cups, their bottoms are pointed. So when coffee grounds are added, the coffee bed structure primarily forms an inverted cone. This inverted cone coffee bed structure means that each layer's cross-sectional area is different from top to bottom, gradually decreasing from large to small, which results in a relatively thicker coffee bed. Our pouring position and force will have a significant impact on extraction. Because water flowing through different positions passes through different thicknesses of coffee bed, this leads to variations in liquid concentration and penetration force, resulting in different extraction efficiencies for the coffee grounds.

As shown in the picture, because wave filter cups have a flat and relatively large bottom, the coffee bed structure after adding coffee grounds becomes an inverted truncated cone. In fact, some filter cups with less steep walls have coffee bed structures that are even closer to cylindrical. Whether it's a truncated cone or cylinder, the cross-sectional areas of each layer are very similar, which means the coffee bed thickness is reduced. Even if our pouring position isn't standardized or uniform, using different water flows, the extraction rate of coffee grounds in every area will be very similar. This means that when using flat-bottom filter cups, we don't need to deliberately change the pouring range and position as we would with pointed-bottom filter cups, such as making large or small circles.

At the same time, because most flat-bottom filter cups have fewer and smaller holes, the liquid permeation speed is slower. This adds a certain immersion function to the extraction process, allowing all coffee grounds to achieve roughly the same extraction. While this may not achieve the excellent layering that cone-shaped filter cups can provide, the brewed coffee will have a more balanced flavor with enhanced sweetness.

This is one of the reasons why wave filter cups are recommended for beginners! However, as always, there's no such thing as a "good" or "bad" filter cup—each has its own advantages. We can also achieve similar extraction results with different filter cups by adjusting parameters and brewing methods.

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