Talk Coffee are all about the greatest prosumer espresso machines, we wont lie to you.
But behind every shiny machine and their godshots are the days when you yearn for a nice, old school manual hipster method. There is something so very cool about the pour over. It’s almost a little too simple. You get a cone made of anything from ceramic to plastic to stainless pinhole mesh, you get a filter paper or a filter fabric, a kettle with a skinny love spout for precision, a cup and water just off the boil. And coffee of course single origin, or a blend, but make sure it is roasted fresh. We know where you can get some, right?
The thing about non espresso extraction of coffee is it is all about shifting the flavour profile. With different combinations of pressure and grind size for the bean, as well as the roasting profile of the bean of course, a more delicate end of the flavour spectrum can be accessed. This doesn’t mean a ristresso sporting a lavish coat of crema is bad. Au contraire. It means that there are many ways to brew a bean, and the delicious rich profiles you pull out of a perfectly calibrated machine are a function of pressure + heat. The floral/acid/citrus profiles that come with a pour over are about a more gentle kind of brewing.
The water for a pour over needs to be just off boiling point to not sizzle the freshly ground beans. Grind size is larger than you would use for espresso, like coarse beach sand. A hand grinder is perfect for this, and also gets you involved in the manual process. A water kettle with a long thin spout is used to gently pour water over the grounds that are sitting in the moistened filter in your cone. The precise pouring of water back and forth across the face of the grinds allows the water to seep into the grind pack and slowly flow through, extracting your coffee deliciousness with it.
Many aficionados like a pour over coffee in basic black, to get a full appreciation of the layering of palate – like drinking a wine, tasting the front to back flavours as they stretch out in your mouth. It is also a lovely vehicle for a swirl of milk or even cream if you boldly want to experience the lush interplay of fat molecules with that floral citrus spice symphony.
If you stopped reading after the first 140 characters, then all you really need to know about the pour over is fresh coffee + 89-96 degree water as required + gentle precision pouring into a heated cup = swoon