How to brew perfect pour-over coffee at home

Pour-over is the most honest way to brew coffee: no capsules, no automation — just you, hot water and good beans. A single bag of Ethiopia Yirgacheffe can give you a cup with jasmine, bergamot and lemon zest — if you know three simple rules. In this guide we cover the gear, ratios and timing, so your first pour-over tastes great as early as tomorrow morning.

What pour-over is and how it differs from espresso

Pour-over is a filter method: hot water slowly passes through a bed of ground coffee in a paper filter and drips straight into a cup or server. Espresso is brewed under pressure in 25–30 seconds, so it comes out dense and concentrated. Pour-over is the opposite: light, clear, with a clean taste. Filter brewing is where the berry and floral notes of a light roast shine brightest.

Gear: V60 dripper, scale, gooseneck kettle, filters

You need very little to get started:

• V60 dripper — a cone with a wide opening; a plastic one is fine to begin with.
• Scale with a timer — your most important tool. Brewing by eye won't work: a 2 g difference in coffee shows in the cup.
• Gooseneck kettle — lets you pour a thin, controlled stream.
• Paper filters — rinse them with hot water before brewing to remove any papery taste.
• Coffee grinder — ideally a burr grinder, medium grind, like sea salt. No grinder? Leave us a note in the order comment and we'll grind it for free.

Base recipe: 15 g coffee / 250 ml water / 93°C / 2:45 min

Remember four numbers: 15 g of coffee, 250 ml of water, a temperature of 93°C, a total time of 2:45. That's a ratio of about 1:16.5 — a universal starting point. If the cup tastes sour and thin, grind finer or raise the temperature. If it's bitter and dry, grind coarser and use slightly cooler water. Change one thing at a time.

Step-by-step brewing: 30-second bloom, three pours

1. Rinse the filter and discard the water from the server. Add 15 g of coffee and gently shake the dripper to level the bed.
2. Bloom (0:00–0:30). Pour 40–50 ml of water, wetting all the coffee evenly. Freshly roasted coffee will “puff up” as it releases carbon dioxide — that's a good sign.
3. First pour (0:30). Pour in a spiral until the scale reads 120 g.
4. Second pour (1:15). Bring it up to 190 g, pouring in the centre and towards the edge, but not onto the filter walls themselves.
5. Third pour (1:50). Top up to 250 g. Give the dripper a gentle swirl so the coffee bed settles evenly.
6. All the water should drain through by 2:45. Remove the dripper, stir the coffee and let it cool a little — the flavour opens up at 55–60°C.

Which coffees to choose: Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, Baltijas Saule

For your first pour-over, go for a light or medium roast. Ethiopia Yirgacheffe gives a floral cup with jasmine and citrus — a filter classic. If you'd like something rounder and more comforting, try our new blend Baltijas Saule: peach, jasmine and milk chocolate, and it forgives small grind mistakes. All our coffees are in the “Coffee beans” section.

One last tip: check the roast date. For filter, coffee is at its best between day 7 and day 30 after roasting — exactly what we ship from Riga.