Why Pour in Circles When Making Pour-Over Coffee? How Should You Pour and What Size Circles Should You Make?

Sudden Question: What is the Soul of Pour-Over Coffee?

Since it's called "hand" pour-over coffee, the soul must be the "person"! (Just kidding) What makes pour-over coffee different from other extraction methods is that it requires manual water pouring to complete the coffee extraction. Therefore, in addition to regular extraction parameters such as time, ratio, grind size, and water temperature, the pouring method also affects the taste of coffee. FrontStreet Coffee has shared many cases about how pouring affects coffee in the past. For example, pouring height, water flow rate, and the number of segments are often mentioned pouring points in FrontStreet Coffee's articles. Besides these aspects, there's another element that we take for granted but has a significant impact on coffee extraction: the water flow path.

When brewing coffee, we use a circular motion to pour hot water, which is a very basic operation. But such a simple operation actually has a much greater impact on coffee than you might imagine. So today, FrontStreet Coffee will share with everyone why we need to pour in CIRCLES when brewing coffee!

Why Do We Pour in Circles When Brewing Coffee?

There are two reasons for pouring in circles. The first one, FrontStreet Coffee believes that smart readers have already guessed the answer. That's right! It's to improve extraction efficiency. By pouring in circles, both the liquid concentration in the filter cup and the release rate of coffee substances will be altered.

It's just like what we do in daily life when preparing formula, sugar water, or instant drinks. If we don't use any external force to stir, and merely soak sugar or instant powder with hot water, these particles will be difficult to dissolve completely. But if we apply stirring, the dissolution rate of these particles will be greatly improved. The same principle applies to coffee - the poured water stream takes on the responsibility of stirring, agitating the coffee grounds, and increasing the dissolution rate of coffee flavor compounds.

This is why pour-over coffee requires circular pouring rather than pouring water at a fixed point throughout the entire process. Of course, FrontStreet Coffee is not saying that pour-over cannot be done with fixed-point pouring; it's just that fixed-point pouring needs to be combined with other current extraction parameters. For example, when other parameters provide too high extraction efficiency (too long extraction time, too high water temperature, extremely fine grind), we need to use fixed-point pouring to reduce water flow stirring, thus preventing over-extraction of the coffee. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, there are two main reasons for using circular pouring. Besides improving extraction rate, another reason is to reduce the generation of turbulent flow.

When we use tools like Clever Dripper or French press to make coffee, we apply stirring during the coffee soaking process to improve extraction efficiency. Methods like cross-stirring, infinity-shaped stirring, and Z-shaped stirring are all stirring methods we can freely use in immersion extraction. However, if we use these stirring methods when making pour-over coffee, not only will it easily generate turbulent flow, but it will also prevent hot water from evenly extracting all coffee grounds. Simply put, it will increase instability during extraction. Because the stirring form of water flow differs from solid stirring tools like wooden sticks or spoons, this makes it difficult for the brewed coffee to meet expectations. Therefore, compared to other "irregular" stirring methods, using circular pouring in pour-over coffee is more reliable.

How Should We Pour in Circles?

Now that we've covered why pour-over coffee requires circular pouring, let's talk about how to pour in circles, which is a question many friends often ask when FrontStreet Coffee is brewing coffee.

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned at the beginning, it's a very basic operation, so you don't really need to overthink it during the process. During pouring, we only need to ensure that water passes through all the coffee grounds while maintaining a stable circular pouring motion (that is, stable stirring of the coffee grounds).

Many friends might focus on the speed of circular pouring, having thoughts like: "The faster the circular speed, the more times the coffee grounds are stirred, and the higher the extraction efficiency." Although the speed of circular pouring does affect extraction efficiency, the impact isn't as significant as everyone imagines. "The size of the water flow and the height of the pouring position" - these two factors actually have relatively greater influence. Moreover, the faster the circular motion, the more difficult it is to pour a stable water flow. This not only prevents even stirring of the coffee grounds but also promotes easier generation of turbulent flow, decreasing extraction efficiency instead. Therefore, we don't need to excessively pursue fast circular pouring. Appropriately slowing down the circular speed and maintaining a stable water flow to stir the coffee grounds is the most reliable approach.

In summary, regarding how to pour in circles, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using the simplest and most common method: pouring in "mosquito coil circles." As the name suggests, the water flows in like the pattern of a mosquito coil. Start slowly from the center and work outward, and when approaching the edge of the filter cup, gradually reduce the circular range, that is, circle back from outside to inside. This is what's called pouring in "mosquito coil circles." Because our circular speed is slow, we have more time and energy during the pouring process to observe the coffee bed, drainage speed, liquid weight, and better control the water flow size, angle, etc. This can greatly reduce the occurrence of "failures."

Additionally, FrontStreet Coffee often mentions "large circles" and "small circles" in brewing sharing sessions. These terms mean that the focus of the circular pouring should emphasize the outer circle or inner circle. These terms mainly appear in cone-shaped filter cup brewing because the coffee bed distribution in cone-shaped filter cups is not as wide as in flat-bottom filter cups; comparatively, the coffee bed thickness is higher. To ensure all coffee grounds receive even extraction, we need to change the extraction focus according to the brewing progress. Since FrontStreet Coffee mentions this often, we won't elaborate further here. In short, we can simply understand that when pouring in "mosquito coil circles," "large circles" means circling more times in the outer area, while "small circles" means reducing the circular range and pouring within a coin-sized area at the center of the filter cup. They mainly stir the surface and lower layers of coffee grounds. That's all to note, and everyone can gradually understand through practical experience~

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