Pour Over
- Place a fresh filter into the cone of your equipment.
- Bring your water to 200 degrees.
- Pour some water through the filter and then pour over dripper. The water will pass through the filter and the cone into your mug underneath. This step has several functions. Firstly it serves to rinse the filter. Paper filters need to be rinsed before they are used. Otherwise, some qualities of the filter find their way into the cup and your delicious coffee ends up tasting like paper! The other function of this process is to preheat all of the equipment. If coffee is prepared with cold apparatus the coffee will be cooled down by the equipment and it won’t be nice to drink.
- Throw out the water you used for preheating.
- Grind your coffee beans with your coffee grinder set to medium.
- Place the ground coffee into the filter and level it. Now we are ready to start pouring.
- Start your timer and at the same time start pouring 30 ml of water. Firstly we need to pre-infuse our coffee to let it bloom. Pour evenly and gradually over the coffee bed for an even extraction. For pre-infusion, it is best to use twice the amount of water as coffee.
- Pour 30g of water onto your coffee bed and leave the grounds to bloom for 30 seconds.
- After thirty seconds continue your pour. At this time you can pour in phases or continuously. I personally like to pour in phases. At 30 seconds I continue pouring another 100 ml of water. I then finish pouring my water at the one minute mark. Whichever way you choose, the process should be completed in two minutes. If it takes more or less time than this your grind needs to be adjusted.
Checklist for Manual Pour Over
- Freshly roasted coffee beans
- Drip Cone brewing device
- Coffee filters – cone-shaped
- Timer to avoid under or over extraction
- Scale or a scoop to measure your quantity
- Grinder – a good grinder is mandatory
- Kettle – a pour over kettle helps a lot
Pour Over Coffee Ratio
The best ratio of coffee to water is 60g of coffee to 1 quart, (liter), of water or roughly speaking 1 tablespoon of coffee beans to 1 cup of water. Pour over coffee makers are generally single serving devices so this ratio is divided by four to achieve the quantities for a single serving of coffee.