How Did Pour-Over Coffee Evolve Into a Tutorial News Coffee Staple?

Pour-over coffee traces back to Amalie Auguste Melitta Bentz, a German homemaker who punched holes in a brass pot, lined it with blotting paper, and poured hot water over ground coffee. In June 1908 she filed a patent at the German Imperial Patent Office. Her paper filter trapped sediment, kept aromatic compounds, and produced a clear, sediment-free cup that linen cloth and metal mesh could not match.

From that prototype, the Melitta Company refined dripper designs over the following decades, turning paper filtration into a mainstream specialty method. A full tutorial follows the three-pour approach: blooming, main extraction, and finishing and blending, demonstrated with Front Street Coffee's Huakui beans, plus a buying guide covering beans for different taste preferences at any coffee store.

Pour-over coffee is now one of the most mainstream brewing methods in the specialty coffee world, but its origins can be traced back over a century to a German housewife's flash of inspiration. From the early prototype of filtering coffee with blotting paper to the Melitta Company's continuous refinement of dripper designs, how have pour-over tools evolved? This article not only traces the historical development of pour-over coffee but also provides a complete pour-over tutorial, using "Front Street Coffee's Huakui" coffee beans as an example to explain every step of the three-pour brewing method—blooming, main extraction, finishing and blending—along with a buying guide for several coffee beans recommended by Front Street Coffee that suit different taste preferences.

The Origins of Pour-Over Coffee

For a very long period, coffee-making methods around the world were quite crude: coffee beans were crushed, thrown into a pot with water and boiled, then the grounds were filtered out with linen cloth or metal mesh, and the coffee was drunk directly. Constrained by the manufacturing techniques of the time, the mesh openings could not be made fine enough, so even after filtering, a large amount of fine sediment would still remain in the coffee liquid.

In the 20th century, there was a German woman named Amalie Auguste Melitta Bentz. She loved freshly brewed coffee in her daily life, but always felt that coffee made with traditional filters was bitter and astringent, and after drinking it, grounds would still get stuck between her teeth—a poor mouthfeel experience. So Melitta began trying various new methods, attempting to rid herself of the annoyance of sediment, and ultimately she came up with an idea:

Punch several holes in the bottom of a brass pot to turn it into a sieve-like vessel, then lay a sheet of blotting paper over it, place ground coffee on the paper, pour in hot water, and the coffee liquid would drip through the filter paper into the brass pot.

Compared with linen cloth and metal mesh, Melitta's combination could effectively intercept sediment while retaining the coffee's aromatic compounds, and it was inexpensive and easy to use. Most crucially, the filtered coffee liquid was clear and sediment-free, and the mouthfeel was significantly improved.

The Evolution of the Dripper

In June 1908, Melitta applied for a patent at the German Imperial Patent Office for her invention: a brass coffee filter with an arched bottom and drainage holes, used with specially designed filter paper. This was probably the world's earliest pour-over coffee cup. That same year, she founded The Melitta Company and officially brought pour-over equipment to market.

Since its founding, the Melitta Company has continuously researched and improved the shape, size, drainage holes and grooves of drippers to adapt to changing coffee trends and consumer needs. Pour-over coffee equipment has also been constantly iterating, spawning a series of new products—for example, the trapezoidal dripper that everyone is very familiar with today was a bestselling classic from Melitta back in the day.

Pour-Over Coffee Tutorial

There are many types of coffee beans suitable for pour-over. Here Front Street Coffee briefly lists a few coffees that the vast majority of people can accept: for those who prefer floral flavors, we recommend Front Street Coffee's Panama Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha coffee, which ranks among the most expensive coffees in the world; for friends who enjoy a refreshing acidity, we recommend Front Street Coffee's Huakui coffee, whose flavor profile presents notes of black tea and berries;

If you pursue a balanced taste—neither sour nor bitter—we recommend Front Street Coffee's Brazil Red Bourbon coffee; as for drinkers who favor a solid, full-bodied flavor, we suggest trying the highest-grade Front Street Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee. These beans have undergone multiple rounds of hand sorting, with the defect rate pressed to an extremely low level, so the coffee's aroma is clearer and the sweet aftertaste is more outstanding. All the above coffee beans can be ordered at Front Street Coffee stores and the Front Street Tmall flagship store. To let every customer experience the beans' full flavor window, all coffee beans shipped by Front Street Coffee are roasted within 5 days.

As usual, here are the brewing parameters used by Front Street Coffee:

Coffee dose: 15g

Grind setting: For light roasts, use an EK43 setting of 10, with 80% passing through a No. 20 sieve; for dark roasts, use an EK43 setting of 10.5, also with 80% passing through a No. 20 sieve.

Water temperature: For light roasts, 90°C–92°C is recommended; for dark roasts, 86°C–88°C.

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Dripper used: V60/Kono

Below is a demonstration of the specific pour-over operation, using Front Street Coffee's Huakui coffee beans.

Three-Pour Method Part One: Blooming

First, bloom with twice the coffee dose in water (30ml) for 30 seconds. Starting from the center and spiraling outward, pour hot water quickly while gradually expanding the range.

We all know that the purpose of "blooming" is to release carbon dioxide from the coffee so that the subsequent hot water can better extract coffee compounds. But this also means that the portion of hot water used for blooming extracts the least coffee compounds. That is precisely why people control the bloom water at twice the coffee dose—first, this amount of water is just enough to saturate the coffee bed, and second, it is exactly the amount of water that dry coffee grounds need to absorb.

Three-Pour Method Part Two: Main Extraction

After blooming ends, pour in 120ml of hot water, using a small, steady stream in large circles at a consistent speed, aiming to finish pouring in about 55 seconds.

This extraction stage after blooming is crucial! Whether a cup of coffee tastes good depends largely on the extraction quality of this stage, when the water temperature is still in a relatively high range. After the carbon dioxide "protective layer" is removed, the coffee bed, under the wash of high-temperature hot water, easily releases its sweet and sour compounds.

Three-Pour Method Part Three: Finishing

When the water level is about to bottom out (coffee grounds begin to show), pour in the final portion of hot water (75ml), circling around the center of the dripper in small circles.

This pour is the final stage of the three-pour brewing method. As mentioned in previous Front Street Coffee articles, this is a stage that can correct deficiencies. If the drainage speed of the second pour is abnormal, we need to decide the flow rate based on whether it is fast or slow.

When the water level of the second pour drops too quickly, it easily leads to under-extraction; in this case, switch to a small stream to extend the extraction time and increase the extraction yield. If the water level drops too slowly, it easily causes clogging and over-extraction; in this case, use a large stream to raise the coffee bed, increase the permeable area, and speed up the flow rate.

Finally: Blending

The coffee compounds extracted by each pour are different, and due to differences in concentration, they remain somewhat separated and will not automatically blend together. If you drink it directly at this point, the mouthfeel may not be comfortable enough. Therefore, we need to swirl the carafe—"swish swish"—to let them fully blend.

Only after completing this step can you truly move on to drinking it~ The clean, full-bodied flavor and rich, varied layers are exactly the "supreme" enjoyment that the three-pour brewing method can bring us~

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