Pour-over coffee is a great way to enjoy coffee, and if done properly, it can bring out the flavours of a coffee nearly as well as cupping the coffee traditionally, so it’s about time I put together a bit of a how-to. I don’t do a lot of these, as more often than not, I don’t have that much to pass on. However, over the last couple of weeks, I introduced filter coffee into the coffee bar where I work, The Angel Coffee House. It’s been a real journey of discovery for me within the world of filter, as I had to learn the pour-over method from scratch. However, over the two weeks, I really feel that I have a handle on the method, and a good grasp of how to get the most, and also the taste profile I prefer, from the coffee.

To start with, we were just using the swiss gold filter, and the melitta filter cone to pour the coffee. But there were a couple of things I wasn’t happy with. There seems to be a lot of grinds in the cupping, giving quite a muddy taste, and really sacrificing the clarity in the cup. On top of this, the fruit and finer flavours of the coffees were being totally muted. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to loosen up on the grind at all to give better clarity, as the pour speed became too fast, giving a weak cup.

Today, I tried something different. I still used the Swiss Gold, but with a paper filter sat inside it. This had a number of advantages over the previous method. It was filtering out all of the mud in the cup, giving a much cleaner and more transparent flavour, and on top of this the reduced pour speed allowed me to loosen up on the grind, removing even more solids from the cup. The result was a much cleaner, transparent cup, with the fruit flavours shining through. I poured both an Ethiopian Harar, and a Nicaraguan Limoncilo using this method. And was amazed at how ‘juicy’ and refreshing the coffees were.

So.. here is the method I used. This is per approx 750ml of water, but will try and do some maths for you guys. I am using 20g of beans per 750ml water. This equates to about 10g of coffee for a 12oz/350ml cup, though I might nudge that up to the 12-15g region if its a little weak. If you haven’t got scales, 20g is approx a demitasse of beans.

Place the paper filter into the swiss gold filter, and pour 750ml hot water through. This is to soak the filter, and also to help the paper filter cling to the Swiss Gold to make the process easier.

Grind the beans into a cup, or any receptacle, not straight into the paper filter, as a mess will occur. You are looking for a reasonably course grind, maybe that of coarse sand. You are looking for a 3-4 minute pourtime for the 750ml, so adjust the grind to achieve this.

Spoon all the grinds into the paper filter, put the whole lot into a melitta filter cone, and get 750ml water into the jug, just off boil. Start slowly pouring over the grinds, making sure to wet them all. Leave these for 10-20 seconds to bloom out, and then slowly continue pouring in the water. I stir the top of the brewing mass with a little whisk just to keep it moving and stop it sticking to the sides.

Once out of water, let the rest drain through, bin the grinds (or put them on your rose/compost heap), rinse the whisk, use it to stir the cup, and then enjoy.

If the cup tastes weak or watery, I find it best to tighten the grind up a little, if the brew is slightly bitter, or muddy tasting, loosen up the grind a little more. I find it easiest to try and keep the bean/water ratio the same, and adjust the grind, the same as you would with espresso.

My discovery and use of the pour-over method was due to a favour and recommendation from Steve at Hasbean He sent me a Melitta Filter Holder and Swiss Gold filter, so to repay the favor, I thoroughly recommend getting these from Steve, and if you want a treat, make the first coffee you try an Ethiopian Harar, this method seems to make this coffee even more magical.

Thanks guys!

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