Choosing beans at a coffee store for the Origami dripper

The Origami dripper, designed by Yasuo Suzuki, has 20 inner and 20 outer creases and no integrated base or handle. It takes either conical or cake filter paper, giving two different brewing styles, and gained attention partly through use by 2019 WBrC champion Du Jialing. Front Street Coffee compared it with Costa Rica Giant Stone Estate Blueberry beans.

Its limits matter when choosing coffee. Without a base it needs a stand or server, and the small powder capacity restricts larger doses, so routine drawbacks of coffee brewing such as uneven flow can appear if the dose is too high. Lighter, brighter lots tend to show well; darker roasts may need a coarser grind.

The Origami dripper, with its angular shape and Nordic minimalist style, has become a familiar sight in cafes and equipment stores. Designed by Yasuo Suzuki, it can be paired with either conical filter paper or cake filter paper, offering two completely different brewing experiences. Its use by Du Jialing, the 2019 WBrC champion, made it even more famous. However, this dripper also has shortcomings such as the lack of a base and limited coffee powder capacity. Front Street Coffee once used Blueberry beans from Costa Rica's Giant Stone Estate for comparative brewing. This article will comprehensively analyze what coffee beans this dripper is suitable for brewing, from aspects such as appearance, celebrity effect, versatile brewing methods, and drawbacks.

There is a dripper with a highly recognizable shape and sharp, angular lines, as if a piece of paper had been folded into a dripper. This is the Origami dripper designed by Mr. Yasuo Suzuki. Origami (折り紙) means paper folding in Japanese, so this device is also called the Origami dripper.

When you walk into a coffee equipment store and scan the dripper display area, the Origami dripper often catches your eye first and makes you look a few more times. It also appears quite frequently in cafes. So why exactly is the Origami dripper both praised and popular?

- Starting with appearance

Who can resist a dripper with such a high aesthetic appeal? The Origami dripper looks like a ring-shaped piece of paper folded 40 times into a conical dripper, with 20 creases on the inside and 20 on the outside to guide the flow.

This dripper has no integrated base or handle. It has a symmetrical, minimalist conical structure with sharp edges and a strong Nordic minimalist feel. The ceramic material gives it a greater sense of quality, and with its bright, vivid colors, it looks like a blooming flower when viewed from above. With multiple colors available, it is hard to find a reason to refuse. Many friends around Front Street Coffee bought it because of its appearance.

- Celebrity effect

Front Street Coffee believes that the popularity of this dripper is closely related to celebrity promotion, though the celebrities here refer to stars in the coffee world. The World Brewers Cup (WBrC) is an important competition in the coffee industry, attracting a large number of coffee people every year.

The champion of the 2019 World Brewers Cup was Du Jialing from China, and the dripper she used in the competition was exactly the Origami dripper. A Chinese competitor winning the championship drew more attention to the competition, and the drippers and other equipment used in the competition were also noticed and imitated by everyone. Also becoming popular in this competition was the aroma cup, also from Origami.

- Versatile brewing methods

Of course, a product cannot stay popular for long relying only on appearance and promotion. The most essential thing for a dripper is still practicality.

Compared with other drippers, this one has a major advantage: it is compatible with both conical filter paper and cake filter paper. In other words, one dripper can bring two different brewing experiences, double the joy for one price.

Front Street Coffee used Blueberry from Costa Rica's Giant Stone Estate for a comparative brewing test with conical filter paper and cake filter paper, keeping the parameters consistent.

Dose: 15 grams

Ratio: 1/15

Grind size: 80% passing through a No. 20 sieve

Water temperature: 91°C

Pouring method: three-stage

Conical filter paper: The blueberry fruit aroma is very rich, with a slight fermented wine aroma. On the palate, there are notes of blueberry and mint candy, with clear layers and high cleanliness.

Cake filter paper: The blueberry fruit aroma is rich, accompanied by rose floral notes. On the palate, there are blueberry gummies and fermented fruit wine, with very prominent sweetness and a full body.

When the Origami dripper is paired with conical filter paper, the 20 ribs inside the dripper provide support and flow guidance. Compared with the V60 dripper, the Origami dripper drains faster and can better highlight a cup's aroma, acidity, and cleanliness.

When the Origami dripper is paired with cake filter paper, the folds of the cake filter paper fit well against the Origami dripper, enhancing immersion. In addition, because cake filter paper has a flat-bottom structure, the coffee bed thickness is distributed more evenly than with a conical shape, better highlighting a cup's body and enhancing sweetness and aftertaste. Moreover, both extraction yield and fault tolerance are higher than with conical filter paper.

Therefore, the Origami dripper has great playability and can be paired with many different brewing approaches to create new variations.

- Shortcomings

Of course, the Origami dripper also has weaknesses. For the sake of appearance, the dripper has no base or handle, so a separate base must be purchased. For the sake of looks, people tend to prefer buying a wooden base, but the original wooden base has no serrations to secure the dripper, making it difficult to keep the dripper level during brewing. If you want to improve the brewing experience, it is still better to buy a resin base.

The second point is that the size specification of the Origami dripper, when placed on the V60 scale, is equivalent to between 01 and 02, so it is relatively difficult to pour with less than 15 grams of coffee powder. The ideal dose is 18-20 grams.

Although Front Street Coffee stores also have Origami drippers, they are rarely used for serving because, considering factors such as dripper precision, heat absorption and insulation performance, cost-effectiveness, and durability, Front Street Coffee prefers to use resin drippers when serving.

However, this year Origami launched a resin version of the Origami dripper, so it seems all dripper collectors can add it to their collection again.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.