What Are the Techniques for Pour-Over Coffee Watering? Illustrated Guide to Pour-Over Coffee Steps! How to Practice Pour-Over Coffee Watering?

Mastering Pour Control: Who's Hands Are Shaking When Making Coffee?

Let me see, who's hands are trembling when pouring coffee, with water flow fluctuating between large and small, intermittent and uneven?

In yesterday's article, FrontStreet Coffee shared the importance of water flow for extraction. Once we understand the importance of water flow, what remains is practice—that is, brewing coffee. But as the saying goes, "seeing is believing, but doing is understanding." Many friends discover when they actually start brewing coffee that pouring water isn't as easy as imagined.

Water flow that's suddenly large, then small, intermittent, high and low—shaking hands that rival the cafeteria ladies at school—these are all normal states for beginners when they first start with pour-over brewing. The coffee bed after brewing perfectly demonstrates the unevenness during pouring. The reason is quite simple: "water flow control" is an operation that requires skill. When we're not proficient enough, haven't formed muscle memory, and haven't developed a good rapport with the pour-over kettle, achieving perfect pouring is very difficult. But on the other hand, when we brew more frequently and our proficiency improves, we can naturally control the water flow at will. Under normal circumstances, a complete beginner can achieve effortless pouring of desired water flow after about two and a half weeks of practice.

Obviously, for many friends, this period is somewhat long. If we want to shorten this time, it's best to master some pouring techniques in advance. In the fastest case, you can achieve relatively stable water flow in about 3 days.

Technique 1: Choosing the Right Gooseneck Kettle Spout

In the article "How to Choose the Right Pour-Over Kettle Spout," FrontStreet Coffee introduced that the kettle spout has a significant impact on water flow, which directly determines the difficulty of our water flow control (interested friends can check out that article for more details). Generally, FrontStreet Coffee would recommend beginners to choose a "gooseneck eagle-beak" kettle when selecting a pour-over kettle. That is, one with a slightly longer neck and a spout with a smaller diameter that curves downward. Because this combination can help beginners better control the water flow.

But as the saying goes, you can't have your cake and eat it too—they also have certain disadvantages. Due to the limitations of the spout, it's difficult to pour both droplet-like and large water flows, making the versatility relatively lower. So how to choose depends on personal preference. For those friends who have already purchased kettles with difficult-to-control spouts, you can choose to modify the spout like some experienced players do. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's pour-over kettle was violently transformed from a flat spout to an eagle-beak spout using pliers, thereby reducing the difficulty of water flow control. But modification also has a prerequisite—the kettle must be able to withstand prying and be malleable, which is very important.

Technique 2: Controlling Water Amount in the Kettle

The amount of water in the pour-over kettle can determine the stability of pouring! Generally, when there's more water in the kettle, controlling the flow becomes easier. This gives the kettle body a certain weight, making our center of gravity less likely to shift. At the same time, it allows for a smaller tilt angle needed to pour vertical water flow, making it easier to achieve vertical pouring.

What needs to be noted is that excluding the blooming stage, the entire pour-over process requires holding the kettle for at least about a minute and a half. Although this time might not seem long, it's not an easy task for friends with less wrist strength. So everyone should act within their capabilities and control the water amount within a range they can handle. Of course, you can also get used to it, because weight is something that requires adaptation. Although we currently can't control a heavy kettle well, when we continuously hold a kettle of the same weight for a period of time, our muscles will form memory, and using it won't be difficult anymore.

Technique 3: Adjusting Pouring Posture

Or rather, we can adjust our posture when pouring. Although most baristas use one-handed pouring, they do so because they have sufficient strength and proficiency to support it. For friends who are just starting with pour-over brewing, FrontStreet Coffee would recommend using both hands to hold the kettle while practicing pouring. That is, holding the handle with the right hand while supporting the lid with the left hand.

This posture not only reduces the burden on the right hand but also better stabilizes the kettle and improves control over the water flow.

Technique 4: Pouring Practice

Finally, it's time for pouring practice! First, we need to master pouring a continuous vertical water flow! Although it sounds simple, it's actually somewhat difficult to execute.

Because the hot water inside the kettle continuously decreases as the water flows out, the tilt angle needed to maintain vertical water flow will constantly increase. It's like when we're latte art-ing—the coffee cup needs to be gradually leveled as milk is poured in. Therefore, the first thing we need to practice is keeping the water flow vertical throughout the entire process. Start by practicing fixed-point vertical water flow throughout, and once you've mastered that, begin practicing circular pouring.

For circular training, you need to continuously move in circles while keeping the water stream vertical. These circles can be fixed large circles or small circles, or even mosquito-repellent coil patterns (starting from a small circle and spiraling to a large circle, then spiraling back to a small circle). Regarding the circular motion, FrontStreet Coffee suggests using your arm rather than your wrist to control the movement trajectory of the pour-over kettle. Using your arm to control the water flow ensures that the pouring height remains at the same position, so when we're pouring in circles, we only need to adjust the kettle's tilt angle and movement trajectory. Initially, our circular speed can be appropriately slower, gradually increasing as our proficiency improves. When you can freely control the water flow at any speed, it means you've become a master of water flow control!

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