I had one of the best cups of coffee of my life the other day at Four Barrel Coffee in San Francisco, California. Smooth, robustly flavored, hardly any acidity - you can bet I savored it to the very last drop! This terrific coffee was brewed following "the pour over method," and it's not hard to duplicate at home. Here's how!
I'm a pretty simplistic (some might say lazy) when it comes to brewing coffee. I don't like to crowd my counter with a drip coffee maker and anything that would require special ordered filters turns me off. I also only typically drink one cup of coffee per day. This pour over method is perfect for people like me.
A trained barista might disagree with me on this next point, but I think you can take these instructions with a grain of salt. I do measure out my beans and grind them thoroughly, and I also measure out my water. But then I tend to guess-timate the times by just watching the clock and I don't generally adhere to the advised circular pouring motions.
My cup of coffee might not be as absolutely perfect as the cup you'll get at Four Barrel or any other fine coffee establishment, but at 7am, I think I'm doing pretty well for myself!
What You Need
Ingredients
28 grams (1 ounce) whole roasted coffee beans
Cold water, preferably filtered
Equipment
An electric scale
Coffee grinder
A single-cup drip coffee cone (see product link below)
A single-cup paper coffee filter
A measuring cup
A coffee cup
Instructions
1. Boil the Water and Set Up Equipment - Fill a kettle with cold water and set it to boil.Meanwhile, put the paper coffee filter inside the cone and rinse it with hot water (I use hot tap water). This helps get rid of any paper tastes and also helps the coffee filter more easily.
Set the cone with the moistened filter on top of a measuring cup, and place both on top of an electric scale. Also fill your coffee mug with hot water so the ceramic warms, and set it to the side.
2. Grind the Coffee - Measure out your coffee beans and coarsely grind them. The grounds should resemble sand, not powder, when you're done. Pour the grounds into the filter and tare the scale to zero.
3. Bloom the Coffee - Pour 60 grams of hot water over the grounds, using a circular motion to be sure the grounds become evenly saturated. Let this sit for one minute. This step allows the coffee to degas, ensuring better flavor in the resulting cup of coffee
4. Continue Brewing the Coffee - After the one-minute bloom, start adding more water until the scale measures 415 grams total (or 355 grams if your scale shut off while the grounds were blooming, as mine does, and you have to re-tare). Pour in a slow and steady stream, concentrating on the middle of the grounds.
5. Wait for the Coffee to Filter - The coffee should filter in about 2 - 2 1/2 minutes. Once the stream of coffee slows to a drip, your lovely cup of coffee is finished brewing. Dump the hot water out of your awaiting coffee cup and pour in the brewed coffee.
Additional Notes:
• Find Single Cup Coffee Cones - My favorite is the Frieling ceramic filter, but you can find plastic ones at any grocery store. Both are available on Amazon: $15.70 for the Frieling and $5.99 for the plastic.
• As always, you need great coffee beans to brew great coffee, no matter which method you use. It's worth seeking out the best.
• If you're ever in San Francisco, check out Four Barrel: Four Barrel Coffee, 375 Valencia St (at 15TH) San Francisco, CA 94103 / (415) 252-0800
More Coffee Brewing Methods:
• How to Brew Coffee with a Chemex Coffee Maker
• How To Make Perfectly Robust French-Press Coffee
• Coffee Methods: The Drip Pot
• Coffee Methods: The Vacuum Brewer
• How to Brew Coffee Without a Coffee Maker
• Iced Coffee: Recipes, Tips, and Advice
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(Images: Emma Christensen)
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Sounds like a lot of trouble for 7am. I can brew a full pot of 8 O'Clock coffee in 3 minutes with my Bunn. I know, maybe not the fanciest brand, but it's my favorite right now, until I switch back to whole beans.
I've used the "pour-over" method, modified, for a decade. But I've never had the patience for the bloom and top-up pour. However, my coffee's excellent (to my mind, at any rate). Why not try the 30-second pour-over method too? What've you got to lose, but 1 cup of coffee, if you don't like it? Sometimes things could be simpler yet.
I do this too, and love it. I broke in and bought a cone that takes special filters though - the Hario V60. I also use the immersion type Clever Coffee thing sometimes too, which is slightly more hands off, more like making a cup of tea.
@DeborahMcP - you make an excellent point. I've tried tons of variations on grind size and speed of pour and temp of water, but I've always taken that "bloom period" as a necessity. There's no reason not to give it a shot with my next cup!
I suppose we've only had 103 years to try out the pour-over coffee method, so that warrants a new post here.
If anyone's digging on this post, here's a couple pics of the coffee roaster they have going at the back of Four Barrel and the pour over set up at Ritual (a few blocks away). Definitely neat looking. But, I'll be honest...pour over just seems like normal drip to me, minus the big plastic coffee machine. Any thoughts here?
I KNEW this was Four Barrel the moment I saw the first photo. Must say, they really do have good coffee. The pour-over method does really extract the essence of the beans. Four Barrel makes a mean latte, too.
Oh man. Four Barrel is so delicious. I've actually only ever had espresso drinks there; usually I head to Philz when I am in the mood for non-espresso coffee. I'll have to try their pour-over next time I'm up that way.
@eatlovedrink - Yeah, it's almost exactly the same as a drip maker. The biggest difference is that you can control the temperature of the water running through the beans. In most drip makers water is too cold at the beginning and too hot at the end. I actually do this method using my drip maker, I just pour the water onto the beans myself instead of letting the coffee maker do all the work.
I love not having to operate the coffee machine on a weekday when I know I just have time for AH cup so I've been doing this since my trip to the Doka estates with one of these puppies from Costa Rica:: http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/graphics12/rd-coffee.jpg
When our drip machine broke, I rigged up a coffee brewing method as a temporary fix which, it turns out, is basically exactly this...only for a full pot. I use the coffee pot that came with my machine, and the regular paper filters I used. Then I heat the water in a tea kettle and use a mesh strainer (not sure the size but it is big enough to hold the filter and grounds) nested on the coffee pot (from the machine) to brew the coffee. It only adds the extra step of heating with a tea kettle and pouring (I don't worry about weighing it all) and sure enough, the coffee tastes better than it did in the machine. I had never heard of pour over brewing when this happened - but I guess that is what I have been doing. The pot goes fast but to keep it hot longer I'm probably just gonna buy a thermos or something.
Hi Nate,
I use the Clever Coffee Dripper pourover method for my coffee everyday.
My question is this. Should the grounds always bloom when the hot water hits them or is this just with different types of roasts? I am always looking for places to buy my beans and purchased some in NYC that produced no bloom this morning.
Thanks!
Adam