POUR OVER
What you’ll need:
Quality, fresh coffee beans (we prefer light roasts)
Water kettle (one with a gooseneck spout is best for pouring)
Paper filters
Coffee grinder (go for the burr and grind to the size of sea salt)
Scale (ensures accuracy)
Pour over vessel (chemex, v60, etc)
Coffee to water ratio: 1:17 (1g of coffee to 17g of water). This is a starting point. Feel free to play around to match your tastes.
Step 1: The Bloom
The bloom is the quick bubbling up of water that happens when you first pour. It is caused by the degassing of carbon dioxide that is built up in the roasting process. Light roasts and fresh coffee are likely to produce a big bloom because they usually contain more gases. (All depending on the freshness of your beans. Old beans will not bloom as much as fresh ones)
Carbon dioxide can prevent even extraction because it repels water, and the disturbed grounds can sit at different heights. So let the gases escape and improve your chances of a consistent extraction.
Gently pour twice the measure of coffee in water over the grounds. So, if you have a 20 g dose of coffee, pour 40 ml of water. Then wait 30 to 45 seconds until the bloom has ended and the grounds have settled.
Use slow concentric circles, which will help you maintain a consistent flow of water.
Pulse or Continuous Pouring
Pulse pouring means using multiple pours of specific amounts of water. You can experiment with the volume of water and number of pours. This technique help prevent channelling or grounds rising up the side of the filter. It also gently disrupts the grinds, causing them to move about and creating more even contact with the water.
On the flip side, you can use continuous pouring. This technique pours the water at as constant rate as possible without stopping. Continuous pouring aims to keep the flow and saturation as even as possible, whereas pulse pouring is intentionally varied.
Boom! Pour over coffee. We kept it simple, but there are a thousand things you can tweak to try and bring out a perfect cup.