Is a Most Expensive Coffee Machine Needed for Pour-Over?
A pour-over setup costs far less to start than an espresso machine, though spending can rise as skills improve and gear gets upgraded. A basic kit covers a pour-over kettle, thermometer, dripper, filter paper and a server, and each piece can be bought at different price levels depending on how much control you want.
Prices vary widely by item. A plain kettle runs around 280 yuan while a temperature-controlled one reaches about 500 yuan, a thermometer from 20 to over 100 yuan, a resin V60 dripper about 40 yuan, filter paper 32 yuan for 100 sheets, and a glass server near 40 yuan. A most expensive coffee machine is not required to begin.
Friends who love coffee are certainly not satisfied with just drinking it; eventually, they will want to enjoy the experience of brewing it themselves. The simplest way to achieve this is to get a pour-over setup.
Compared to espresso machines, pour-over coffee has a much lower entry cost, but as your skills improve, you'll end up investing more and more money (better beans, better equipment). In theory, there's no upper limit.
This is actually not essential; you can buy a nice glass container from major glassware stores for about 40 yuan. If you're not fussy, you can just use any container at home. (Sometimes at home for convenience, I often use my own mug as a server.
) If you want a bit of ritual, then buy professional coffee equipment, priced at about 100-150 yuan.
Front Street believes this is the most important tool—only a good grind can produce good coffee. For beginners, choosing a manual grinder is cheaper, but Front Street does not recommend buying cheap manual grinders, as their grinding precision and quality are hard to guarantee. If you really want to brew delicious coffee, this tool, in Front Street's opinion, is worth a big investment. We'll use the mid-range Timemore manual grinder at 699 yuan as the calculation benchmark. Then, manual grinders need cleaning tools—brush + blower, with a budget of about 30 yuan.
When all the coffee equipment is ready, it's time for the protagonist to appear. If you're just learning pour-over coffee, Front Street does not recommend buying expensive coffee beans right away, as the cost is too high. We suggest choosing some entry-level single-origin beans for pour-over, such as Front Street's 7 origin daily beans, priced at 25 yuan/100g. The purpose of Front Street creating this series is to let more beginners understand the world of single-origin coffee at a lower cost. To start, calculate the coffee bean cost at 100 yuan/month.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
