10 Mouth-Watering Benefits of the Pour Over Coffee Method

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benefits of pour over coffee

This is a guest post by Peter. If you’d like to guest post on this blog, click here.

For a long time no one really cared about pour over coffee. Sure, a few baristas were talking about it, and maybe if you were really lucky you knew of an obscure espresso bar that actually served it to order.

Since that time, pour over coffee benefits have certainly been touted and savored in this day and age of sophisticated coffee drinkers.

And on top of everything, you don’t even need to leave your house to be drinking this fresh, perfectly extracted nirvana.

But why bother?  You ask.

pour over coffee benefits

Benefits of Pour Over Coffee

1. Pour over coffee results in a cleaner cup of coffee

The pour over coffee method is arguably the cleanest and purest way to make and drink coffee.  There is no residue left in the cup because the water is not dripped and is not fully immersed. 

205 degree Fahrenheit water is poured into the cone, stirred briefly, and moments later the finished product has entirely drained into the mug.  The first time you try pour over coffee you may be taken aback as it is bold yet without even a hint of residue.

2. More efficient if you only want to drink one cup

Oftentimes I want a single cup of coffee at home.  I didn’t want to leave to buy a cup but I didn’t want to make a whole pot. 

Whether I used a drip pot or a French press I would be left with either significant waste or too little caffeine.  The pour over resolves this issue.  Just place the cone on top of your mug, pour a single serving, and you’re done.

3. Better extraction than drip, without the mess of French press

The pour over coffee method allows for a very robust extraction because the water is preheated and because the slurry is stirred before all the water soaks through.

This creates a very bold, well extracted mug of coffee in your hands without the long, tedious cleanup required with a press pot. Utilizing the many features of a Cosori gooseneck kettle will make your pouring experience that much easier and much more accurate.

4. Minimal investment to get started

Hario Pour Over Coffee White Ceramic Funnel

This might be the very best thing about the pour over apparatus.  Most of the ones you’ll find for sale, like the Hario v6, as shown on the left, are a single ceramic drip cone that fits on top of a coffee mug.

These are my personal favorites, and the ones I recommend above the others. You can order one for right around $25 setting it apart from drip coffee makers and most French presses.

Chemex Glass Pour Over Coffee Maker

  It’s a simpler version of the one cup coffee maker without the electricity and the ongoing maintenance of cleaning the unit. You can also look into the Chemex glass pour over coffee maker, seen in the image on the left. The Chemex will run you just a little over $30 but makes up to 3 cups.

These resemble an hourglass with the top cut off (without the sand). The filter with the coffee is placed in the top half and the hot water is poured in the top while the coffee nectar flows into the bottom. It is a great option if you are looking to make many cups at one time. 

5. Pour over coffee travels

If you’re on vacation or travelling for work, all you have to pack is a pour over coffee dripper, ground coffee, and a filter, and you’ll be drinking great coffee wherever you are. As long as you have access to a way to heat water to 205°F, you’ll be in business.

Most hotel rooms have microwaves so you can heat your water. Bring along a small glass measuring cup (1 – 2 cup size) and you’ll easily be able to pour the hot water over the grounds. (Pour over coffee method is shown further down in the article).

Even if you are camping out in the wild you can take advantage of the simplicity of pour over coffee. With access to a campfire or a Coleman stove to heat up water, you can enjoy a great cup of coffee even in the wilderness!

6. Controllable to your taste

How often have you gone into a coffee house or fast food restaurant and the coffee you purchased doesn’t match what you’re used to at home?

Well, with pour over coffee you can control the strength and taste that you prefer. If you’re dragging and need a bit more strength you have that ability.

7. It’s repeatable

As long as you use the same ingredients each time using the same water temperature, the repeatability of a great cup of pour over coffee is constant. You’ll never have to worry about how your coffee is going to turn out with the pour over coffee method.

8. No coffee maker maintenance

With any type of coffee maker, in time, the taste of the coffee degrades unless you are constantly cleaning it. You have to worry about flushing the unit with a mixture of vinegar and hot water on a regular basis.

This is a maintenance step you can forget about with using the pour over coffee method.

9. Exceptional flavor in every cup

You simply cannot beat the flavor of a pour over cup of coffee. As long as the process is repeated, the flavor will always be outstanding.

10. It’s extremely practical

In today’s minimalist world, pour over coffee is one of the most practical ways of brewing coffee. No need to purchase a fancy and expensive coffee machine to get great coffee any longer. It’s a simple and easy way to consistently brew great coffee!

The Pour Over Coffee Method

(click on any image for a larger view)

Pour over coffee ceramic cone
Pour over coffee ceramic cone with coffee
Pour over coffee brewing method 1
Pour over coffee brewing method 2
Pour over coffee brewing method 3
Pour over coffee brewing method 4
Pour over coffee brewing method 5
Pour over coffee brewing method 6
Hario Pour Over Coffee White Ceramic Funnel
Click on image

But most coffee shops just didn’t care about it – probably because it wasn’t as feasible a way of selling mass quantities of coffee inexpensively.  Fair enough.

Now things are different. More and more cafés are jumping on the bandwagon setting up a full-scale pour over coffee bar. Well-trained barista happily pour water into little ceramic cones like the Hario white ceramic funnel all day long.  Most of the shops don’t even charge extra for it because it’s becoming such a staple of the routine coffee drinker’s life.

Here are a couple of other articles on this site dealing with pour-over coffee drippers.
OXO Good Grips Pour Over Coffee Dripper is a Cut Above the Rest
Pour Over Coffee Dripper Review – Plastic vs Ceramic

You, in essence, become the pour over coffee maker when you embark on this innovative and simple method for making coffee.  You just might be joining a whole new legion of pour over coffee makers.

Three Highly-Rated Electric Kettles

Perfect for Pour Over Coffee

Cosori Gooseneck Electric Kettle – 5 preset temperatures, gooseneck pourability, stainless steel construction.

The Benefits of Pour Over Coffee are Numerous

Pour over coffee almost seems too simple and inexpensive to make such a great tasting cup of java.  There’s got to be something wrong with it, doesn’t there?

Nope.  Pour over coffee benefits are many. It is less expensive than other coffee brewing methods and it will save you time and the waste of excess coffee that you didn’t drink.  If you become a pour over coffee brewer, you just might never go back to traditional methods of brewing your favorite cup of java.

Since I ditched the automatic coffee dripper for my pour over coffee dripper I’ve never turned back!


Peter John McLean loves nothing more than brewing up perfectly extracted madness in the deep recesses of his coffee lab..

21 thoughts on “10 Mouth-Watering Benefits of the Pour Over Coffee Method”

  1. For the best pour over coffee, I would suggest a pour over with a stainless steel fliter that wont sap the oils from the coffee like a paper filter. Something like the Portland Pour over form Grosche, or the Able Kone filter. The Ultramesh by Grosche sems like the best filter out there today – perhaps you could review it for us as well?
    thanks!
    Sam K

    Reply
  2. I have been reading a lot about “pour over” coffee and now realize I have been doing this for years! I live in Japan and the one cup method has been a staple here– you can buy a pack of 100 single serving filters for 100 yen (about $1) and a ceramic dripper will also cost 100 yen if you buy them at the 100 yen shop (like the US dollar store). We also have convenient pre packed filters that sit on top of your cup. Carefully open it up and pour your coffee through the grounds filled filter for an instantly deliciious cup of coffee. I first experienced this type of coffee on a ski trip in Japan in 2001 — our thoughtful host had brought a box of these ingenious little things with him and we all sat around dripping our individual coffees at our common room at the ski lodge. I much prefer the ceramic — keep one at the office as well as one at home. Like you say, no pot to scrub and very little waste. Totally opposite of the K-Cup with the plastic aftertaste!

    Reply
  3. The Mazzer Mini fantastically meets espresso, Turkish
    and French Push specifications. The original capture cup of the mill
    is explained as flawless. Following the fashionable art deco pattern the mills have been typically
    developed.

    Reply
    • Hi Bob,

      That’s entirely your preference as you will be using a filter during the process. If I were you I would experiment. I like my coffee finely ground.

      Best,
      Bob

      Reply
  4. Wow, you people are really amazing. I’ve had one of these plastic funnels I bought at Walmart 15 years ago. Who knew I was trendy!

    My husband uses a camp stove with a metal basket, lined with a paper towel. He boils water and pours it over the coffee grounds. He’s been doing this for 35 years. Apparently he’s trendy too.

    Reply
    • Hi Cathy,
      It sounds like you and your husband were ahead of your time! Yup, my wife and I use pour over for making our coffee every day. It gives us a lot more room on our countertops without that big coffee maker! And the coffee is that much better. 🙂

      Best,
      Bob

      Reply
  5. What do you think of those new pour over coffee brands where they come pre packed with a little filter full of coffee that you place on your cup and well, pour over?

    Reply
    • Hi Barbara,

      I haven’t seen them but if the coffee is good, I’m sure it will work fine! It’s really all about the coffee anyway, isn’t it? Please send along a link to the exact product to which you are referring. I’d love to check it out.

      Thanks!
      Bob

      Reply
  6. Wondering if Folgers was ahead of the game….. it has been offering single cup servings of coffee wrapped in a filter with a string attached…… much like a tea bag. Been around for a few years.

    Reply
  7. In Costa Rica, we always had pour over coffee, we called ir “chorreado” but we use a cloth filter. There are two ways of doing it, pouring the water over the coffee that sits in the filter or mixing the coffee and the hot water, letting it rest and then filtering it (my great-grandma sometimes did it this way). Does this change the taste? Is one better than the other?

    Reply
    • Hi Laura,
      I’ve never heard of the 2nd method that your great-Grandma used to make so I can’t really speak to which is better. It almost sounds like instant coffee but then filtering out the grounds afterwards. I do feel that the process of pour-over is closest to drip coffee but doesn’t require any type of coffee maker which could harbor germs which could lead to an off taste. Greeks make a Greek coffee that sounds similar to what your great-grandma made but they don’t filter out the grounds and just allow them to stay at the bottom of the cup. It yields a much stronger coffee. I can’t tell you if one is better than the other. I can only say, try it for yourself and you be the judge. It is my guess that the coffee where you are mixing the grounds with the water and then filtering it out could be much harsher than a pour over method.

      Thanks,
      Bob

      Reply
  8. I have been using my Bonavita ceramic cone for a few years now, I find that my coffee is smoother and less bitter than a French Press. I have gotten a few people hooked on this method, definitley less waste and a fresher cup of coffee. When I travel I take a package of MiniMinit one cup filters with me, sooo convenient and perfect for one cup at a time.!

    Reply
    • Hey Donna,
      Thanks so much for that info. If anyone is interested the MiniMinit one cup filters can be seen here. By the way this is an affiliate link.

      I love that idea Donna! I’ve actually never seen these. Appreciate it.

      Best,
      Bob

      Reply

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