Pour-Over at Home: A Calm Five-Minute Ritual
A dripper, a kettle and a scale. Here is the simple method for a clean, sweet cup every morning.
Pour-over looks fussy from the outside. In practice it is five quiet minutes with a kettle, and the result is a cup that tastes clearer and sweeter than anything a machine with a hot plate can make.
The ratio
Start with 1 gram of coffee for every 16 grams of water. For one large mug, that is 20 g of coffee and 320 g of water. Change the ratio only after the method is consistent.
What you need
- 20 g freshly ground coffee, medium-fine, like table salt
- 320 g water, just off the boil (about 94°C / 201°F)
- A dripper and paper filter
- A kettle and a scale
The method
- Rinse. Wet the paper filter with hot water and discard the water. This removes any papery taste and warms the dripper.
- Bloom. Add the coffee and pour 40 g of water to wet all the grounds. Wait 30–45 seconds while it bubbles.
- Pour. Add water in slow circles from the centre outwards, in two or three stages, until the scale reads 320 g.
- Wait. The water should finish draining at around 3 minutes in total.
Fixing a bad cup
Sour or thin? Grind finer. Bitter or harsh? Grind coarser. Change one thing at a time, and the grind is almost always the thing to change.
Fresh beans matter more than expensive equipment. Buy small bags and use them within a month.
A kitchen scale that reads in single grams and a reliable electric kettle are the two tools that make this repeatable.
