V60 basics without the ritual
Pour-over has a reputation for being fussy. Some of that is earned, but most of the fuss is optional. This is the version I can make at 7 a.m. with one eye open.
- Coffee
- 15 g, medium (like coarse sand)
- Water
- 250 g, just off the boil (~94 °C)
- Ratio
- 1 : 16.7
- Target time
- 2:45 – 3:15
Steps
- Rinse the paper filter with hot water and pour that water away. It warms the cone and removes the paper taste.
- Add the coffee and shake the cone so the bed is flat.
- Bloom: pour 40 g of water, swirl once, wait 40 seconds.
- Pour to 150 g in slow circles, avoiding the very edge of the filter.
- At 1:30, pour to 250 g. Give the cone a gentle swirl to flatten the bed.
- Let it drain. Done somewhere around three minutes.
Things that matter more than they seem
A flat bed at the end. If the grounds finish in a lopsided crater, the water found a shortcut. A small swirl after the last pour fixes most of it.
Water. Very soft or very hard tap water both make coffee taste flat. A cheap jug filter is the best upgrade I have made this year.
Things that matter less
Gooseneck kettles help, but a regular kettle poured slowly works fine. Fancy filters, specific spiral patterns and exact bloom times are fun to play with, but they come after grind size and ratio.