What is pour-over coffee and how to make it at home
For anyone who tries pour-over coffee for the first time, the experience is an eye-opener. The coffee created is drastically better as the best flavours of a coffee bean are extracted with this method. Pour-over brewing involves pouring hot water over ground coffee to extract nuanced flavours. Ground coffee, a filter, and a filter holder are the principal elements involved in the process.
For Specialty coffee, pour-over is a popular choice as it allows intricate flavours and aromas of the beans to shine. Moreover, since it is an infusion method and not an immersion technique, the extraction of coffee solubles is efficient. The infusion method ensures that the coffee-brewing process has a constant supply of fresh water which creates a sophisticated, consistent, and delicate cup.
For beginners, the pour-over technique is an excellent starting point for expert brewing. It creates a light body with high clarity of flavour that makes it easy to balance and tweak the taste each time.
For some important pour-over coffee tips and suggestions, continue reading our next section!
DIVE INTO THE POUR-OVER WORLD
When making pour-over coffee, every step is important. A consistent coffee grind, correct measurements and the right water temperature are some of the things that affect the final taste. But two of the biggest factors are: quality of the coffee beans and saturation of coffee grounds.
Coffee beans
The raw ingredient, especially with premium food and drinks, always has the biggest hand at elevating the final outcome. No amount of excellent coffee grinding, pouring or measuring techniques can make up for a subpar coffee bean. Pour-over relies heavily on the coffee’s natural oils; the right coffee beans can make a world of difference to your final cup. Thus, it is always suggested to buy whole beans and grind them in small batches to ensure maximum freshness.
Araku has introduced Coffeeology in the Indian Speciality coffee scene. With organically grown 100% Arabica, each bean is of an unblended single origin quality. And every harvest is processed in-house to ensure optimal selection and quality. After being roasted in Araku’s facilities, the bean’s natural oils, flavours, and freshness are preserved.
When Araku coffee beans are brewed with the pour-over method, they express the unique taste profile of our terroir-based farms. Could there be a more divine combination of beans and method?
Pouring
Pour-over coffee is clean, clear, and consistent because the water is allowed to gradually extract the coffee oils and fragrances. Whichever pour-over equipment you use, the saturation of the grounds is mostly controlled by you.
But with great power comes great responsibility (yes, even in coffee-making) especially since the process requires such precision and patience. All infusion methods have the risk of ‘channelling’ wherein the stream of water instead of going through the coffee, goes around it. And when this happens, the coffee doesn't get fully extracted.
Don’t worry too much, in our next section, we will take you step by step to ensure that you have the perfect first pour-over brewing experience!
THE MAKING OF THE PERFECT CUP
Starting out
Coffee-brewing equipment needed for a pour-over is simply a device that holds the coffee filter and grounds. For pour-over first-timers, two of the most popular choices are Chemex and V60. Both of these have specific design features that create a consistent flow of water and extraction of coffee.
For a slow-brewing method that creates coffee as good as the equipment looks, head over to our Chemex blog. For coffee-brewing with our Hario V60, continue to read on!
Araku’s Hario V60 has been loved by coffee connoisseurs for its swirling edges and refined looks. The ceramic cone of the V60 has flavour-enhancing ribbing that are meant to extract even the most subtle hint of flavours. If you don't want to go around looking for different accessories to make that perfect pour-over, Araku has an all-in-one kit with the Hario V60, a container and filters.
Not that we have our equipment sorted, let’s get down to the coffee-making!
Directions
With a Hario V60, the coffee extracted maintains the right balance between roundness and aromatic clarity. Follow the directions and you will be on your way to achieving a pour-over perfection!
First of all, let’s get the pour-over coffee ratio right. For 60g of coffee, you will need 1L of water or 250ml of water for 15g of coffee.
Start by molding 15g of coffee to obtain a fine grind. Then heat a little more than 300 ml of water until simmering (92°c - 94°c). Place your V60 on a cup or a carafe, insert your filter and rinse it with hot water. This will remove the taste of paper so that it is not transmitted to the coffee. It will also warm up your container.
Empty the hot water from the cup and put the container, dripper, and ground coffee on the scale. Then reset the scale.
Make a pre-infusion of 30 seconds while pouring 30g of water. Make sure to wet all the coffee. If bubbles are visible on the surface of the coffee, it means that your coffee is degassing and it is a sign of its freshness. With a spatula, rotate the blend to submerge all the coffee.
Until the weight reaches 250g on the scale, pour the rest of the water gradually in a swirling motion, starting from the centre and going outwards without touching the filter paper. This allows the coffee to be sufficiently infused without the stream flowing directly into the cup. The extraction should last approximately 3 minutes.
If the extraction takes too long, it means that the coffee grind is too fine. And if it’s too quick, the grind is too coarse. The temperature and water quality affect the overall time of extraction as well. The warmer and cleaner the water, the faster the extraction occurs.
Rest assured, you will eventually get the hang of it.
Now remove the filter and stir the coffee to homogenize it.
And that’s about it.
Now’s the time to finally serve and sip the beautiful flavours and fragrances of your perfect Araku coffee!
