Pour-over coffee. The term itself sounds pretty self-explanatory.
But there’s a whole wealth of information you need to be armed with to truly appreciate the process and prepare your coffee the right way.
For a long time in coffee history, pour-over coffee reigned due to its several benefits (which we cover later in the blog) and also the context in which the method was discovered.
Even today, a lot of coffee shops will serve you pour-over coffee as it produces fresher coffee than machine-brewed one.
History
The origin of pour-over coffee is credited to Amalie Auguste Melitta Bentz, a German woman.
Dissatisfied with the taste of coffee made from percolation as it resulted in a muddy-bitter brew, she began exploring different ways to brew coffee.
This was in the early 1900s. Melitta struck gold when an experiment with blotting paper and a brass pot brought about the results she’d been looking for.
Decades later, she launched Melitta Pour Overs, and pour-over coffee entered the commercial realm.
It is said that the invention of the french press had a drastic impact on pour-over coffee, making it less popular in society.
Now, with renewed interest in traditional forms of coffee brewing, more people are venturing onto this path.
Equipment
The few items needed for making pour-over coffee are not hard to come by.
It’s one of the most in-expensive forms of brewing coffee because of how simple the equipment is.
For starters, you need a mug or a carafe that will hold the brew. Best if it’s made of ceramic or glass as plastic can be harmful to health and could change the taste of your coffee.
On the mug or carafe, a cone-shaped dripper rests that creates a stable structure to hold the coffee grounds. You’re likely to find some pour-over coffee makers that already have all these separate sections.
The second to last element that is required is the filter. Paper filters are more commonly used. However, you could choose to go the eco-friendly way and find alternatives to be used for this.
Some drippers come with filters attached to them, so this minimizes the number of accessories you’d need to gather.
And lastly, you’d need a kettle. Ideally, a kettle with a gooseneck because this helps you meticulously pour water and not have the grounds drowning in it.
Process
While some myths may lead you to believe that pour-over coffee can be made with non-hot water, that’s not true. Hot water is essential to the extraction process.
When the water is being heated, add grounds to the filter. Lightly tamp it down to create an even level.
A 1:17 ratio of coffee grounds to water is considered good. You can, of course, alter this if you’d like. But that’s a step to be thought of at a later stage when you’ve consumed enough pour-over coffee to know what you’d want to change about its taste.
First, wet the coffee grounds a bit and wait for 30-45 seconds. This prepares the grounds for the extraction.
Then, gradually pour more water in a slow, circular motion. In doing so, you’d be ensuring that the decoction is evenly produced without some coffee grounds having not been utilised.
Wait for 3-4 minutes, and your decoction will be ready to be used!
Since pour-over coffee is such a hands-on method, it can feel like the brewing process is longer. But there isn’t a big difference.
Benefits
One of the biggest benefits of pour-over coffee is that you can save quite a bit of money since you wouldn’t need a coffee maker machine.
Secondly, you can control every step of the process, unlike in the case of store-bought coffee or instant coffee. By being involved in the process, you get to know just how saturated the grounds are, how much more water is required, and so on.
The result tends to be cleaner and offers a nuanced flavour. Moreover, with several other coffee brewing methods, you can’t prepare cold coffee unless you are willing to compromise the taste. But with pour-over coffee, you can definitely prepare a cold brew.
What has been your choice of coffee brewing so far?
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