One Cup Pour Over

Posted by Erin Plett on

How to Brew with a One Cup Pour Over

The beauty about this brewing method is that you can get these single cup pour over devices in a variety of materials and costs.  The cheapest is probably the Melita single cup coffee maker which is made of plastic to the Bee House coffee dripper made of porcelain.  The actual brew method is very similar to the Chemex

The two most important things about brewing coffee with a one cup pour over are:

  1. The 1:16 ratio - for every gram of coffee you use you add 16 grams of hot water.  In our example below we are using 20 grams of coffee so we need to add 20x16=320 grams of water.
  2. Water levels - when brewing make sure you keep the coffee fully submerged in water but don't add excessive water 

What will you need to brew with a one cup pour over device?

  1. A pour over device with filters
  2. A kettle
  3. 20 grams of coffee freshly ground to a medium grind
  4. A scale that is capable of 1 gram increments and at a minimum can do 1000 grams

Steps to brewing a great cup of coffee with a one cup pour over

  1. Place the paper filter inside the one cup pour over device
  2. Boil your water.
  3. Wet your paper filter with some hot water to get rid of the paper taste
  4. Add 20 grams of coffee to the filter
  5. Put the pour over device with the filter and the coffee on the scale and tare it so the weight shows zero
  6. Slowly add enough water to wet all the coffee.  Wait 20 seconds
  7. Keep adding water slowly and pour the water in a circular motion around the bed of coffee.  The idea here is to keep the coffee floating in the water but not add too much water.  Stop when the scale reads 320 grams.
  8. Enjoy!