How to Brew Highly Sweet Coffee with Switch? What's the Difference Between Hario and Mr. Clever's Clever Dripper?

With its unique valve design and straightforward operation, the Clever Dripper has become a "beginner's coffee miracle." Even newcomers can achieve professional-level coffee extraction through simple operations. Consequently, the Clever Dripper gained widespread popularity upon its release, winning the affection of many.

As the Clever Dripper gained popularity, more and more manufacturers began to draw inspiration from this concept, designing their own "Clever Dripper" products. For instance, Hario's design is arguably the most popular version aside from the Mr. Clever (the Clever Dripper shown above, invented by EK INTL, the originator of the Clever Dripper). Therefore, after FrontStreet Coffee shared the features of the Clever Dripper a couple of months ago, many friends requested FrontStreet Coffee to introduce Hario's "Clever Dripper" – the Switch.

Wait, FrontStreet Coffee knows what some of you are thinking right now! But unfortunately, this "Switch" is not that "Switch," so this article contains no content about making coffee with a gaming console (and of course, there won't be any in the future either).

Switch is an immersion-style dripper ("Clever Dripper") launched by Hario a few years ago. Its highlight is the ability to switch extraction modes at any time, which is why FrontStreet Coffee guesses it was named "Switch" (meaning switch or toggle).

Design and Structure

Whether it's the Switch or the originator Mr. Clever, all Clever Drippers control water flow through a valve at the bottom, thereby switching between immersion extraction and drip extraction. However, Switch controls water flow through a switch rather than relying on its own weight, making it more convenient to switch. This is the biggest difference between it and the originator. The structure of the Switch "Clever Dripper" is mainly divided into two parts: the dripper body and the base with a valve system. The main dripper is a glass classic "all-purpose" – the V60. Its size is somewhat similar to the regular 02 V60 but slightly smaller. It's a single-serving dripper, but because immersion extraction requires pouring all hot water at once, its body is designed to be larger than the regular 01 V60.

The base connected to the bottom of the dripper uses silicone material. Its built-in valve system consists of a small steel ball and a transparent toggle piece with a lever structure design. By default, the valve is closed, with the small steel ball blocking the only liquid outlet to create a seal. But when we press down on the toggle switch, the small steel ball is pushed open by the toggle piece, and then coffee liquid flows out due to the valve opening. When we lift the toggle piece up (which, admittedly, is somewhat counterintuitive), the steel ball returns to its original position, closing the valve.

Advantages and Versatility

Because this design allows switching coffee extraction modes without moving the dripper, various experts have tried it since its launch and developed different extraction methods based on its characteristics. For example, Tetsu Kasuya's "Devil's Brewing Method" was developed according to the features of the Switch "Clever Dripper." Speaking of which, FrontStreet Coffee must mention another major advantage of the Switch "Clever Dripper" – its detachability. The dripper and base are not integrated; you only need to hold each end and pull firmly, and the dripper can separate from the base.

This design has two benefits: one is easy cleaning. Because the dripper can be detached, those dead corners originally blocked by the dripper can also be thoroughly cleaned. The other benefit is the ability to change the dripper! This is a point that FrontStreet Coffee particularly appreciates. As long as the bottom size of other drippers is similar to the original, they can be directly installed on this base, creating your own DIY version of a Clever Dripper. For example, the Infinity Dripper can be directly installed on the Switch base after removal, creating a version with slower flow rate, which can be said to have very high playability.

The Reverse Pour Method

That's roughly it! Other aspects are actually no different from the Mr. Clever Clever Dripper (such as coffee extraction), so those interested can check out the article "Why is the Clever Dripper Called a 'Coffee Miracle'?" for more details, which introduces three different Clever Dripper extraction methods. FrontStreet Coffee won't elaborate too much here. But obviously, the article isn't finished yet. Here, FrontStreet Coffee wants to share an extraction method that many experts have recently enjoyed using: the Reverse Pour Method.

The Reverse Pour Method is a classic technique often used in siphon/AeroPress coffee making (both belong to the immersion extraction category). So what is the Reverse Pour Method? Typically, our coffee-making steps are to add coffee grounds first, then wet and brew the coffee grounds with hot water to perform extraction. The Reverse Pour Method, however, means adding hot water to the filter first, then pouring in the coffee grounds for stirring. The benefit of this approach is that it allows for more even coffee extraction, thereby obtaining higher sweetness. Words are insufficient; next, FrontStreet Coffee will demonstrate how to operate the Reverse Pour Method!

Demonstration

For this demonstration, FrontStreet Coffee will use light to medium roast Ethiopian ALO coffee beans, with the following extraction parameters:

• Coffee amount: 17g
• Grind level: 8 on Ek43, with 90% pass-through rate on a #20 sieve
• Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
• Water temperature: 95°C
• Extraction time: 4 minutes

First, we use a small amount of hot water to preheat the dripper. After preheating, release the preheating water and discard it, then close the valve and pour the target amount of water into the dripper. FrontStreet Coffee is using 17g of coffee, so pour 255ml of hot water. (No more, or it might overflow)

After pouring the hot water, we directly pour all the coffee grounds in and start timing.

Then take out the stirrer, press all the coffee grounds floating on the surface into the water, and stir. About 10 stirs are sufficient. The purpose of stirring at this point is to ensure full contact between water and coffee grounds.

When the time reaches 1 minute and 3 minutes, we stir once respectively. The number of stirs remains about 10, but the purpose of these two stirs is to accelerate the dissolution of flavor compounds in the coffee.

When the time reaches 4 minutes, we can open the water valve to release the coffee liquid.

When the coffee drip is finished, we can remove the dripper to end extraction and start enjoying the coffee!

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned, the ALO extracted this way has excellent sweetness performance, with a rich texture and very distinct flavor characteristics of mango, citrus, and pineapple – quite good~ But compared to making coffee, FrontStreet Coffee actually prefers to use this "Clever Dripper" for another activity: brewing tea!

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Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473