Is Drip Bag Coffee Specialty Coffee? Is There a Big Difference Between Drip Bag Coffee and Pour-Over Coffee?

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Do people who drink pour-over coffee not drink drip bag coffee? Do people who drink drip bag coffee not understand pour-over coffee? If you think this way, you're completely wrong. In reality, there's no essential difference between pour-over coffee and drip bag coffee. At FrontStreet Coffee, many regular customers both buy pour-over coffee beans to brew at home and sometimes purchase drip bag coffee packets. From another perspective, drip bag coffee is simply the convenient version of pour-over coffee.

What is Pour-Over Coffee?

Coffee enthusiasts who have visited FrontStreet Coffee and watched the pour-over coffee process know that single-origin pour-over coffee requires a dripper, filter paper, weighing beans for grinding to get precise coffee powder grams, as well as precise water temperature measured with temperature instruments and water quantity. Most importantly, there's the barista's skilled and steady pouring technique - all of these are indispensable because the grind size of coffee beans, water temperature, pouring method, and brewing time all affect the extraction of coffee flavor. This shows that pour-over coffee is a brewing method that requires great attention to technique and professional coffee knowledge.

To put it simply, when drinking pour-over coffee, people care about the atmosphere - that is, enjoying the process itself. Therefore, great attention is paid to equipment, setting, technique, and manner, and of course, the coffee itself is also very important.

What is Drip Bag Coffee?

And drip bag coffee was invented precisely because some people love the taste of pour-over coffee but don't have time or are too lazy to go through that elaborate process. Drip bag coffee packets help us solve many tedious problems associated with pour-over. For example, the grinding process - generally, when making pour-over coffee, at the very least you need a hand grinder. Anyone who has used one knows that for women, it's practically exercise equipment. Electric grinders can only be used in fixed locations. So drip bag coffee packets come directly filled with coffee powder, solving this tedious problem. But relatively, the flavor has to be sacrificed - there are no perfect things in this world.

The second simplification is that you no longer need to use electronic scales, pour-over kettles, drippers, filter papers, and other large equipment. According to international practice, drip bag coffee packets contain 10g of coffee powder, and brands that break this convention generally don't grow very large. So we just need our familiar cup and watch the water level reach the right place, then remove the drip bag, and we're done.

As for the pouring kettle, you can just use any kettle that can pour water. Of course, you can be very particular and use a gooseneck kettle for elegant pouring, but if you're here for the coffee, this isn't necessary. As long as the temperature and ratio are correct, how you pour doesn't make much difference. Even using a thermos can brew very good coffee.

Coffee Brewing Equipment Needed for Pour-Over Coffee

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, pour-over coffee requires quite a bit of equipment to prepare. So what exactly are they? FrontStreet Coffee is here to share with our coffee enthusiast friends.

1. Pour-Over Kettle

There are various sizes and materials of pour-over kettles on the market, and you can choose according to your needs. What most affects the brewing results is the size of the kettle spout, as it relates to the water flow rate. Beginners are generally advised to use narrow-spout kettles, which are easier to control. Additionally, each type of pour-over kettle is suitable for different heating methods (induction cooktop or gas stove), so pay special attention when purchasing.

2. Dripper

Drippers also come in different sizes and materials, mainly divided into three shapes: fan-shaped, conical, and wave drippers. The size of the filter holes at the bottom of the dripper will affect the flow rate of extracted coffee, thereby influencing the coffee's flavor. Fan-shaped drippers have small filter holes, slow flow rate, and richer body; conical drippers have large filter holes, fast flow rate, and lighter body; wave drippers have flat bottoms and special wave filter papers, producing the most uniform coffee texture. A special case is metal mesh filter drippers, which don't require filter paper and can retain more coffee oils for stronger flavor, but some very fine coffee powder may not be filtered out.

3. Filter Paper

Filter paper comes in bleached and unbleached varieties. Bleached filter paper looks whiter, while unbleached filter paper appears light brown. The function of filter paper is to use extremely dense fibers to retain ground coffee powder while filtering extracted coffee into the cup. When buying filter paper, choose the corresponding type that matches your dripper.

4. Coffee Grinder

Good pour-over coffee needs to be paired with a good grinder. There are three types of grinders on the market:

1. Ghost tooth grinder
2. Flat burr grinder
3. Conical burr grinder

5. Thermometer

Thermometers are used to measure coffee water temperature. Thermometers on the market include Tiamo, Hero, and Cafede Kona thermometers.

6. Electronic Scale

Electronic scales allow us to better control the coffee-to-water ratio when brewing coffee, reducing unstable factors and increasing error tolerance. Electronic scales range from several hundred yuan to as low as几十元. There are Yami electronic scales, Hero smart scales, and Timemore electronic scales. FrontStreet Coffee suggests buying electronic scales with physical buttons, which are easier to use, priced around 80-100 yuan. You can compare them on Taobao.

7. Flour Sieve

FrontStreet Coffee uses national standard No. 20 sieve pass rate as the benchmark for grind size calibration. Pour-over grind size has an 80% pass rate through No. 20 sieve, while cupping grind size has a 70-75% pass rate through No. 20 sieve.

8. Server Pot

If you're drinking alone, you can skip the server pot and brew directly into a mug. For brewing multiple cups, you'll need a server pot. With the server pot's built-in scale markings and transparent material, you can more easily understand and control the extraction process, making the server pot more than just for serving. FrontStreet Coffee recommends HARIO V60 cloud server pots and Kalita server pots.

Coffee Brewing Equipment Needed for Drip Bag Coffee

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, drip bag coffee is simply filter-bag coffee made from single-origin coffee beans ground into powder. Therefore, in terms of equipment preparation, considering convenience, you can use the following (equipment references the pour-over coffee brewing equipment mentioned above):

Drip bag, hot water kettle, your cup

Differences Between Pour-Over Coffee and Drip Bag Coffee

As stated by FrontStreet Coffee above, we can learn that drip bag coffee and pour-over coffee have the following differences:

1. Pour-over coffee requires more brewing equipment and needs skilled experience and rich coffee knowledge. Drip bag coffee eliminates many brewing steps.
2. Pour-over coffee has too much equipment, making it inconvenient to carry when going out. Drip bag coffee packets are lightweight, convenient, and easy to carry.
3. Different brewing times - drip bag coffee generally takes within 4 minutes to brew, while pour-over coffee takes within 2 minutes.
4. The flavor period of drip bag coffee is shorter than pour-over coffee beans because after grinding into powder, the surface area exposed to air increases, making it easy for coffee aroma to escape, affecting flavor.

The above is what FrontStreet Coffee has compiled about the differences between pour-over coffee and drip bag coffee. We hope that coffee enthusiast friends who read this article can gain relevant knowledge to better choose coffee beans that suit their taste. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share the correct method for brewing drip bag coffee.

Correct Method for Brewing Drip Bag Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee understands that many coffee enthusiast friends new to drip bag coffee don't know how to use it, leading to brewing mistakes that make the drip bag coffee's flavor very disappointing. So how can you brew a delicious cup of drip bag coffee? FrontStreet Coffee is here to share:

1. Warm the Cup

Prepare the cup for brewing drip bag coffee, first pour some hot water to warm the cup. The purpose is to prevent the brewed coffee from cooling too quickly, because as the temperature drops, coffee produces different flavors - that is, flavor layers. Therefore, if it cools too quickly, you'll miss many different taste experiences.

2. Water Temperature

The brewing water temperature is very important. It's recommended to keep the temperature between 85 to 90 degrees Celsius. If the brewed coffee is too bitter, you can try lowering the water temperature. Conversely, if it's too weak or too astringent, you can increase the water temperature, but still within the 85 to 90 degree range.

3. Hang the Ears

First gently shake the drip bag to let the coffee powder settle, avoiding scattering when tearing. Then pour out the hot water from the cup, tear open the seal on the drip bag, unfold the paper ears on both sides, shake to level the coffee powder, and finally hang it on the cup rim.

4. Pre-wet the Drip Bag

The first pour of water should be just enough to wet the coffee powder - too much or too little will affect the flavor. Then wait 20 seconds to let the coffee powder fully absorb the water. The coffee's strength can be adjusted by the pre-wetting time - extending to 40 seconds can yield stronger coffee.

5. Pour Water

The second pour can fill the filter paper to 80% full. It's best to use a thin, steady stream of water. Wait until the water level drops to the pre-wet height, then continue pouring to 80% full until you've extracted 150-180cc. Once extraction is complete, you don't need to wait for all the water in the filter paper to drain out - just discard it directly.

Important Notes for Drip Bag Coffee Brewing

1. Do not brew repeatedly.
2. After brewing, do not continue soaking the coffee powder in the cup, as this will cause over-extraction.
3. Do not directly drop the drip bag into the cup. Although convenient, before the hot water completely soaks the powder packet, the water temperature will start to drop, leading to under-extraction and affecting the drinking taste and flavor.

The above is what FrontStreet Coffee has compiled about drip bag coffee brewing and related precautions.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473