What Is Different About Pour Over Coffee?

QUESTION: What’s different about pour over coffee? I don’t get it. Doesn’t a coffee machine do the same thing? — Eddy H

ANSWER: If you are a coffee drinker, you are most likely familiar with the common electric drip coffee machine that brews coffee quickly and easily. Most electric drip coffee machines are super affordable and especially easy to use. Just plug it in, put in a filter, add ground coffee beans, fill the reservoir with water, and turn the machine on, and in just a few minutes, your coffee is ready. Inside the machine, a heating element heats up your water to the correct temperature. The water travels through the tubing and drips into the filter basket where it flows through the coffee grounds, absorbing their flavor and caffeine, as it travels through the grounds and into your coffee pot.

Electric drip coffee machines make coffee quickly and easily. Most models are super affordable as well. If you are a casual coffee drinker, an electric drip machine is all you really need. However, if you are looking to dive deeper into the world of coffee brewing, and want more control over the taste, temperature, texture, and strength of your home brewed coffee, you will want to look into upgrading to a pour over coffee system.

What Is Pour Over Coffee?

Pour over coffee follows the same basic concept of drip coffee machines, wherein you make coffee by saturating the coffee grounds with hot water, straining it through a filter and collecting the liquid after it passes through. With an electric drip machine, you have no control over how your coffee is brewed other than the ratio of water to grounds, but with a pour over setup, you control the temperature of the water, the speed at which the water is poured into the grounds, the amount of time it brews, and how much it makes, which allows you a more customizable cup of joe where you control the temperature, texture, taste, and strength of your java.

There are several different types of pour over setups, but the process is the same for each. Just heat up your water, position your filter and add the amount of grounds you want to use. Then, pour in at least enough water to saturate all the grounds then pause, allowing the water to settle in. After the water settles down a bit, continue to pour the water over the grounds at a slow and steady pace, stopping when you have the desired amount of coffee in your cup or container.

Pour over coffee, when done correctly, produces a fantastic cup of coffee, but there is also a much greater chance of making a mistake. Even minor differences in the amount of coffee or water used, can lead to a completely different strength and taste, and it’s easy to make your pour over coffee too strong or too weak. Once you get used to using the pour over method, however, you can master making what you consider the perfect cup of coffee, and mistakes become very rare.

Why Do People Prefer Pour Over Coffee More Than Drip Coffee?

Many seasoned coffee enthusiasts, especially those that prefer black coffee, prefer pour over coffee because they believe the pour over method creates a more flavorful brew due to the longer brewing process. Pour over lovers believe the longer brewing leads to a more intricate and complex flavor profile, as the longer extraction leads to deeper flavor. The flavor of drip coffee is indeed more vibrant because the water has more time and opportunity to draw more flavor from the oils and grounds.

Pour Over Coffee Versus Drip Coffee

Once you have gotten used to pour over coffee, drip coffee does not hold up, falling short of the vivid flavor produced by pour over coffee. Pour over coffee is championed as being stronger, more bold, and savory, but simultaneously simple, well-bodied, and smooth. Can these same words be used to describe drip coffee? Sure, especially if it’s drip coffee that is made with some of the more modern, expensive electric systems. However, pour over lovers would say that even the best drip coffee is weaker, and less full-bodied than a simple cup of pour over coffee.

Aside from preferring the flavor, many coffee drinkers prefer pour over coffee because of the control that it gives them over the way their coffee is produced. Once you get the hang of the pour over method, you can also achieve a good consistency in your brews by measuring out the amount of grounds and water that you use and repeating a similar timing on your pouring technique. You can certainly achieve consistency using the drip method as well, but with pour over, the consistency is also paired with control, and the results can be much more complex and varied based on the recipe you use. With pour over coffee systems, you are also in control of the temperature that your coffee is brewed at, and the temperature that your coffee comes out as.

Pour over systems are very simply designed, but with that simplicity comes durability. Most pour over systems are made with only two pieces which are made out of glass, metal, or plastic. These systems are really easy to keep clean and polished, and with the proper care, they can last a lifetime. Many drip systems are so cheaply made, that they have to be replaced every other year, or even less, depending on the quality of the machine. Of course, glass pour over systems can break with one clumsy drop, but the metal models and the heavy duty plastic models are practically indestructible.

The greatest advantage to pour over systems, however, is the coffee you are able to make with them. The depth and complexity of flavor that comes from a well brewed cup of coffee made with a pour over system speaks for itself. The quality of the final product is miles ahead of what you can get out of simplistic drip systems. There are some high end models of electric drip systems that can make an incredible cup of coffee, but these machines are upwards of $200 or more. Most pour over systems are incredibly cheap in comparison.