Pour-Over Coffee Brewing: The Japanese Favorite Brewing Method

Introduction

The development of coffee into today's third wave specialty coffee movement is represented by pour-over coffee. In 1978, Erna Knutsen first proposed the concept of specialty coffee—coffee beans cultivated with regional flavor characteristics unique to their growing area's specific microclimate and geographical conditions, which is what FrontStreet Coffee often refers to as the "taste of origin."

Pour-over coffee has become the representative of the third wave specialty coffee movement because its brewing method highlights the coffee's own flavor while the brewing process is highly visually appealing.

What is Pour-Over Coffee?

Pour-over coffee is actually a brewing method we can commonly see in daily coffee shops, using equipment such as drippers and pouring kettles. One characteristic of pour-over coffee is the use of drippers paired with filter paper or other filtering media to separate coffee grounds. This originated from German housewife Melitta Bentz's sudden inspiration—she loved drinking coffee but hated the texture with coffee grounds, so she combined her son's blotting paper with a perforated copper pot to create a filter. This might be the first coffee dripper in history, where she filtered brewed coffee to obtain a cup without coffee grounds.

With the development of specialty coffee, pour-over coffee is hardly anything new anymore. You can find pour-over coffee in various large and small coffee shops, but if you look closely, you'll find that although they're all called "手冲咖啡" (shǒu chōng kā fēi) in Chinese, they have different names in English: "pour over coffee," "hand drip coffee," and "filter coffee." This is a very interesting phenomenon—what do these different names mean?

First, FrontStreet Coffee believes that since coffee is an imported product, the term "手冲咖啡" might be more of a translation from "hand drip coffee." These different names are mostly due to cultural differences. "Hand drip coffee" is more commonly used in Japan and South Korea. As the name suggests, it emphasizes the image of "drip," which immediately makes FrontStreet Coffee think of Japan's very famous drop-by-drop pouring method.

Similarly, "pour over" seems to emphasize the action of water tumbling through coffee grounds, which might be more common in European and American countries. "Filter" refers to the filtering equipment, and in China, some coffee shops also use "filter coffee" to refer to pour-over coffee. However, in many countries like Melbourne, "filter coffee" might actually refer to coffee made with drip coffee machines.

What Do You Need to Prepare for Pour-Over Coffee?

Brewing a cup of pour-over coffee generally requires the following equipment: pour-over kettle, dripper, server, grinder, filter paper, digital scale, and thermometer.

Among these, the dripper and filter paper are responsible for filtering coffee grounds while absorbing oils from the coffee, resulting in a cleaner taste. FrontStreet Coffee's daily production uses two types of drippers: V60 and Kono. The V60 dripper is mainly responsible for brewing lighter roasted coffee beans, while the Kono dripper handles darker roasted coffee beans.

The remaining digital scale is used to weigh coffee beans and water weight. Data-driven parameters allow for replication while ensuring consistency in production. The thermometer serves the same purpose—before each pour, ensure the water temperature is within the appropriate range. When using a V60 dripper to brew lighter roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee chooses water temperatures between 90-92°C, while darker roasted coffee beans use 88-89°C water temperature.

The grinder is also very important. The grind size of coffee directly affects the taste of a cup of pour-over coffee. If the coffee grounds are too coarse, the taste will be weak; if too fine, the taste will be bitter. FrontStreet Coffee recommends a medium-fine grind for pour-over coffee, with an 80% pass rate through a 0.85mm standard sieve.

How to Brew Pour-Over Coffee?

Brewing pour-over coffee is actually quite simple. The key is to control several factors that affect coffee taste: coffee-to-water ratio, grind size, water temperature, and extraction time.

When brewing, FrontStreet Coffee first weighs 15 grams of coffee beans with a ratio of 1:15, meaning 225 grams of hot water will be poured.

Before brewing, rinse the filter paper with hot water to make the dripper and filter paper fit better. Then grind the coffee beans to the desired grind size—the medium-fine consistency we just mentioned.

Pour the ground coffee into the dripper and wait for the water temperature to reach the required level before beginning to brew. The entire brewing process divides the water pouring into three stages. The first stage pours 30 grams of water for blooming, ensuring all coffee grounds are wetted. The bloom time is 30 seconds, aiming to release carbon dioxide so that subsequent water can better extract the coffee. In the second stage, pour water to 125 grams, then wait for the coffee liquid level to drop to half. Finally, pour the last amount of water to 225 grams, again waiting for the coffee liquid to filter through. The total extraction time is 2 minutes.

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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

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