The Simplest Pour-Over Coffee Brewing Method Revealed! What's the Difference Between One-Pour and Single-Pour Techniques?

A Pop Quiz from FrontStreet Coffee: What's the First Step in Pour-Over Coffee Brewing?

That's right! It's blooming. Through blooming, we can release the carbon dioxide from the coffee grounds that hinders extraction, thus achieving efficient extraction. Therefore, the vast majority of brewing methods include the blooming step.

However, there's one brewing method that doesn't include this preparatory step of blooming. Not only that, it's also extremely simple to operate. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned in the title, it might just be the simplest brewing method. And this is the "One-Pour Brewing" method, created by Tetsu Kasuya (the famous inventor of the 4:6 brewing method), who was the 2016 World Barista Champion.

What is One-Pour Brewing?

In 2019, Tetsu Kasuya introduced the "One-Pour" brewing method. So-called One-Pour Brewing can be understood as pouring all the water at once. Because its name is somewhat similar to "One-Stream" brewing, people often mistakenly believe that One-Pour and One-Stream are the same thing.

In reality, these are completely different brewing methods. One-Stream divides the total water amount into two pours (bloom and main extraction), while One-Pour pours all the water at once (no blooming). From a procedural perspective, the only difference between the two is the presence or absence of blooming, but precisely because of this change in blooming, the parameters used and the taste of the brewed coffee are quite different between these two methods. FrontStreet Coffee recently shared about One-Stream brewing, so we won't elaborate too much here. Let's look at the One-Pour method invented by Tetsu Kasuya.

In the Japanese coffee magazine "CAEFRS," we can see the specific procedure and parameters. First, in terms of equipment, he uses a size 02 V60 dripper. For parameters, he uses 30g of coffee grounds, a 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio, 95°C water temperature, and very fine coffee grinding! He controls pouring 300ml of hot water all at once within 15 seconds, with an ideal extraction time of around 1 minute and 30 seconds.

This brewing method is typical of high concentration with low extraction. By increasing the amount of coffee grounds and reducing the water amount, the coffee doesn't need to achieve a high extraction rate, as the flavor intensity can be compensated by the increased concentration. Adjusting the grind finer and increasing water temperature allows brewing to complete in a short time, achieving a relatively good extraction rate even with a single pour. Therefore, One-Pour brewing doesn't have a blooming step.

It's worth mentioning that since we need to pour all the water in a short time, there's not much technique required in pouring. We simply need to use a large water flow to continuously circle around. Isn't it very simple?

Important Considerations for One-Pour Brewing

Although One-Pour brewing is extremely simple, there are quite a few things we need to pay attention to when using it. So FrontStreet Coffee will first share some important considerations when using One-Pour brewing, and then proceed with the coffee brewing.

① Dripper Selection: Similar to One-Stream brewing, when we prepare to use One-Pour for brewing, it's best to use a size 02 large dripper (depending on the amount of coffee grounds)! Because hot water is poured all at once, a too-small dripper would have difficulty "holding" all the hot water. Therefore, in dripper selection, we should try to choose those of size 02 or larger for coffee making.

② Bean Selection: Although this brewing method is suitable for all roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee would recommend pairing it with medium to light roast coffee beans. If using dark roast beans, the coffee won't taste bad, but the rich body and high sweet aftertaste characteristics of dark roast coffee will be difficult to showcase. Therefore, coffee beans with fresh and bright characteristics would be more suitable for this brewing method.

③ Coffee Grinding: The book doesn't specify the exact coffee grind size, so during brewing, we can pay attention to the completion time. When the coffee in the cup shows obvious negative flavors (under/over extraction), or when the brewing time is too fast or too slow, we can adjust the coffee grind size according to the problem. For example, when the flavor isn't strong enough and the extraction time is too short, we can grind the coffee finer. If the taste is bitter and the extraction time is too long, we can adjust the grind to be coarser.

④ Pouring Direction: Although we don't need to control the water flow much during pouring, try to maintain one direction for circling. This ensures more even extraction of the coffee grounds and prevents all grounds from accumulating at the bottom and causing blockages.

How to Brew with One-Pour Method?

Next, FrontStreet Coffee will demonstrate how to use the One-Pour method to brew coffee! But to be honest, it's hardly a demonstration since it's just pouring hot water. For this brewing, FrontStreet Coffee is using Colombia La Esperanza Geisha, which is a honey-processed medium-light roast coffee bean. Because honey processing leaves a lot of sugar attached to the coffee beans, more caramelization reactions occur during roasting, making extraction easier.

Parameters are as follows: - Coffee amount: 20g - Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:10 - Brewing water temperature: 95°C - Grind level: Ek43 setting 7 (normally 9.5), slightly finer than granulated sugar - Dripper used: 02 V60 - Brewing method: One-Pour

First, let's prepare everything and pour the coffee grounds into the dripper. After pouring into the dripper, use any object to "dig" a pit in the middle of the coffee bed. The purpose of this is to allow hot water to better contact the coffee grounds at the bottom, making extraction more even.

Then, pick up the pour-over kettle and pour all 200ml of hot water in a large flow in a spiral pattern, like mosquito coils. The spiral pattern starts from the center and gradually expands outward. When reaching the outermost circle, pause briefly, then repeat large circles, and then gradually move inward in a spiral pattern, trying to pour all hot water within 15 seconds.

After pouring is complete, we just need to wait for the coffee to finish dripping through the filter, and then we can end the extraction!

Total time was 1 minute and 36 seconds, which is quite close to what Tetsu Kasuya considers ideal. Now let's taste its flavor~ When drinking the coffee, we can clearly detect grape, rose, and berry flavor notes, with a black tea finish. The sweet and sour notes are prominent, and the texture is very smooth.

Using a concentration meter, we measured the coffee concentration at 1.82% and extraction rate at 16.1% - definitely high concentration with low extraction. Although the concentration reaches 1.82%, it doesn't taste bitter or lack flavor at all. On the contrary, it's very easy to drink with prominent flavors - an acceptable taste and concentration.

So, if you're struggling with brewing coffee well or find regular brewing methods too troublesome, why not try One-Pour brewing? It's both simple and effective~

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