How does the three-stage pouring technique shape street coffee?

The three-stage pouring technique splits a pour-over brew into three timed water additions. The first pour blooms the grounds and releases carbon dioxide, the second builds most of the extraction and body, and the third tops up the total water volume and lifts the finish. Ratios and timing for each stage depend on the coffee-to-water ratio and the bean's roast level.

Brewing this way needs a pouring kettle, dripper and filter paper, server, grinder, digital scale, and thermometer. Water distribution at each stage has more influence on the cup than many people expect: the same street coffee beans can taste sharply different when the second pour is fast instead of slow, because extraction shifts between acidity and sweetness.

The charm of pour-over coffee lies in precisely controlling the extraction process through staged pouring, allowing each cup to present rich layers of flavor. This article will guide you through the basic principles of pour-over coffee, essential equipment, how to calculate the coffee-to-water ratio, and a detailed breakdown of the three-stage pouring method with specific operations and water distribution. We will also share Front Street Coffee's brewing experience, including how to adjust parameters based on coffee bean characteristics, as well as the calculation logic and practical tips for each stage of the three-stage pour. Whether you are a beginner just starting out or an enthusiast looking to refine your skills, you will find practical guidance here.

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Do you remember the first time you encountered pour-over coffee? Front Street's starting point was in a café, watching a barista draw circles in the dripper with a thin stream of water, and finally serving a cup of aromatic black coffee. That sense of wonder instantly drew us into the world of pour-over.

What exactly does pour-over coffee mean?

During high-temperature roasting, coffee beans undergo various chemical reactions that produce rich aromatic compounds, and brewing is the process of using water and equipment to release these flavors. The pour-over method involves first grinding coffee beans into powder, then pouring hot water to contact the coffee bed and "dissolve" the soluble substances in the coffee. Simply put, it uses a dripper with filter paper or other filtering tools to block the coffee grounds from falling into the server, ultimately yielding a clean and translucent cup of black coffee.

From selecting beans to extraction, every step has a greater or lesser impact on the final flavor of pour-over coffee. So, if you want to seriously brew a pour-over, based on Front Street's hands-on experience, besides quality coffee beans, you need at least these tools: a pouring kettle for water, a dripper and filter paper for filtration, a server to catch the coffee, a grinder for grinding beans, a digital scale that displays water volume and time, and a thermometer for measuring water temperature.

Good coffee naturally requires good raw materials—quality coffee beans. Front Street recommends using beans that are 4 to 30 days after roasting, within their optimal flavor period. During this stage, extraction is more stable and the pour-over flavor is more full-bodied. To ensure freshness, Front Street ships coffee beans that are freshly roasted within 5 days, and delivery typically takes 1 to 3 days, so by the time you receive them, they are right around their optimal flavor period and you can start practicing extraction immediately.

What is the pour-over coffee-to-water ratio? And how do you calculate it?

The coffee-to-water ratio refers to the ratio between coffee grounds and total water poured, and it directly determines the strength of the coffee. Regardless of the brewing method, Front Street always sets the coffee-to-water ratio before extraction. For example, for a single cup served at Front Street's shop, 15 grams of coffee grounds are typically used, and at a 1:15 ratio, a total of 225 milliliters of hot water is needed.

All else being equal, the more water poured, the lower the coffee concentration and the more spread out the flavors; the less water poured, the higher the concentration and the more concentrated and full-bodied the flavors. Moreover, increasing the amount of water raises the extraction yield, allowing more soluble substances to enter the cup (extraction yield is the proportion of dissolved soluble substances from the coffee relative to the weight of coffee grounds). However, with later pours, the extraction efficiency gradually decreases and undesirable bitter compounds are more easily brought out, affecting the final taste. Therefore, we need to find a suitable coffee-to-water ratio to achieve both ideal concentration and extraction yield.

Why do we pour in stages?

When watching baristas make pour-over coffee, you often see them pause midway, wait for the water level to drop, and then continue pouring. This is staged extraction.

The first stage involves pouring a small amount of hot water to wet the coffee grounds, with the purpose of releasing gases from the coffee bed to avoid interfering with subsequent extraction. This step is called "blooming." The most common blooming method is to pour water weighing twice the amount of coffee grounds and let it bloom for 30 seconds. For example, if Front Street uses 15 grams of coffee grounds, it pours 30 milliliters of water for blooming—this is also the easiest "blooming formula" for beginners to master. Staged pouring is counted from after the bloom, based on whether there are pauses in pouring. For example, if the pour after blooming is divided into two stages, plus the bloom, that makes a "three-stage pour," and so on; if there is no pause after blooming and all water is poured at once, it is called a "one-pour method."

The reason baristas use staged extraction is that different substances extract at different rates during pour-over, and the order in which high-temperature water releases flavors is roughly acidity, sweetness, then bitterness. In staged pouring, aside from the blooming stage, at the same coffee-to-water ratio, the more stages there are, the less water per stage, the more times the coffee bed is washed and agitated, and the higher the extraction yield.

Additionally, increasing the number of stages lengthens the total extraction time, releasing more substances at each stage and creating richer flavor layers. But Front Street wants to remind you: the more stages, the longer the operation time and the greater the risk of over-extraction. Large-molecule substances in the later stages of coffee are more easily released, which can instead mask the sweetness. So it is not simply a case of more stages being better. So how exactly should staged pouring be calculated?

The universal three-stage pour-over method

Based on past brewing experience, Front Street recommends that beginners use the three-stage pour. Three-stage extraction can more fully dissolve flavor substances, adding layers to the mouthfeel while avoiding over-extraction caused by prolonged immersion.

If using 15 grams of coffee grounds at a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, with a total water volume of 225 milliliters, the three stages can be divided as: 30 milliliters, 95 milliliters, and 100 milliliters. The weights shown on the digital scale would then be: 30 grams, 125 grams, and 225 grams.

Here, Front Street selects its own roasted washed Yirgacheffe Gedingding Cooperative coffee beans, paired with a Hario V60 dripper for brewing. The V60's spiral rib design allows coffee grounds to degas better, maximizing the volatilization and dissolution of acidic aromatic substances. Since Yirgacheffe is a light roast, the beans are relatively hard and require hot water at 92°C-93°C to bring out the floral and fruity notes in the coffee.

Regarding grind size, Front Street recommends a medium-fine grind (78% passing through a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve), with a coarseness similar to fine granulated sugar. If ground too coarse, it cannot extract full-bodied, rounded flavor substances, and the coffee will taste thin; if the particles are too fine, over-extraction easily occurs at high water temperatures, producing bitterness.

As for the brewing ratio, Front Street believes 1:15 to 1:16 both work. For a richer mouthfeel, use 1:15; to more clearly perceive the floral sweetness, use 1:16 to let the flavors open up more. First, place the folded filter paper into the dripper to fit snugly, pour 15 grams of ground coffee into the dripper, and tare the digital scale.

For the first stage, pour 30 grams of water to bloom for 30 seconds. Start timing as you begin pouring, using a thin stream throughout, starting from the center and spiraling outward, making sure to wet the entire coffee bed.

After 30 seconds, use a slightly stronger steady stream to pour the second stage of 95 grams of water, with the purpose of lifting the entire coffee bed. The water stream should be poured vertically and evenly. At this point, the timing scale shows 125 grams, and pouring is completed at around 55 seconds.

When the liquid level drops to the halfway point, begin pouring the third stage of 100 grams with a thin stream in small circles. Try to control the stream so it does not spiral too widely, otherwise it may disturb the coffee bed and cause under-extraction. The final total water volume is 225 grams, and the drip completes at around 2 minutes. After removing the dripper, swirl the coffee in the server to even it out and it is ready to taste.

The water volume for each stage is not fixed; we can adjust flexibly based on our own pour-over experience and understanding of the coffee beans. Front Street believes there are thousands of ways to brew a good cup of coffee. As long as you study and practice more, mastering the various pour-over parameters with ease is not difficult.

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