All this making coffee at home have you wondering how to do a perfect pour over? I’ve chatted about my love of gourmet coffee at home before and I have more than a few favorite ways to brew a cup depending on what I’m in the mood for that day.
Sometimes I want the rich flavor bordering on espresso that’s possible with the Bialetti Moka Pot. In the summer, I love the light flavors possible with the Hario V60 Fretta Iced Coffee Maker, which I first discovered at a gourmet coffee shop in Cartagena. When I have a bit more time on the weekend, I might pull out the fancy espresso maker.
But, my go-to standard is always a pour over.
How to do a Perfect Pour Over: The Set Up
If you’re still weaning yourself off of Keurig or a Mr. Coffee, a pour over seems like this intimidating mystery. But, once you’ve got it down, it’s as quick as filling up a water tank and waiting for a cup to brew in a traditional coffee maker.
- Choose your pour over preference. From Hario to Bodum to a whole slew of ceramic pour over options, the coffee world is your oyster and I’ll get into the options in the last section of this post.
- Grind your own beans: This was something I didn’t do until my dad shamed us for buying ground coffee and immediately send a Krups Grinder our way. He says he’s had this exact grinder for maybe 20 years and it’s still going strong.
- But, there’s an art to grinding beans: Too fine and you’ll end up with bitter coffee. Too big and you’ll have a weak pour. Experiment with what works for you, but keep in mind that it shouldn’t be as fine as espresso.
- Use a gooseneck kettle: A gooseneck kettle will allow you to control your pour and perfect your bloom. If it has a thermometer on the top, that’s a bonus! You can watch to make sure your water doesn’t get too hot.
- If you want to get really scientific, get a scale. I don’t do this, but most coffee aficionados will recommend you get your measurements down to the gram.
Time To Get Brewing: Steps for a Perfect Pour Over
Okay, now that you’ve got the pour over setup under control, here are the steps:
- Don’t pre-wet your filter. This is something I used to do, but I recently did some research and it’s actually better not to wet your filter. Each time you wet it breaks it down a bit, so you don’t want to wet it unnecessarily.
- Surprise, you don’t want to use boiling water! This was SHOCKING to me. But, in fact, you want your water to be 205 degrees.
- Let the grounds bloom. Pour roughly twice the amount of water than coffee grounds carefully in a spiral motion. Then, wait. For 30 seconds, let the grounds bloom.
- Pour the rest of your water carefully, wetting all grounds. If your grounds are the right size, then it should drip consistently, but not quickly.
- Enjoy! Now that you have your perfect pour over, take a big whiff of that delicious freshly brewed coffee aroma, take a sip, and realize that this is now going to be an integral part of your morning routine.
Where Can I Get A Pour Over or a Pour Over Stand?
So, every time I post this pour over on Instagram, I get a bunch of questions asking about it. I picked this glass and copper beauty (with a turquoise inlay!) up at Eastern Market after lusting over it for months.
If you’re in the market for a simple pour over, there are tons of ceramic, steel, glass, even plastic options. Plus, these are such a great solution for a small kitchen where you don’t have room for larger appliances.
Of course, if you want to make it all a bit more of a production, then a pour over coffee stand is definitely the way to go. While I don’t believe the particular vendor that made mine sells online, you can find similar styles all across Etsy.
Okay, this all brings me to the end of this post…but I’ve now got a few more posts brewing (no pun intended), so stay tuned for all the #coffeecontent.
