Pour Over vs Drip coffee TL;DR: quality vs convenience.
Coffee is America’s favorite drink. According to the National Coffee Trends Data from 2020, 62% of adults in the US drink some sort of coffee (hot, cold, blended) every day. This reflects a growing population of coffee lovers – up 5% since 2015. And, despite what memes might tell you, most people drink coffee because they enjoy the taste and not just for a morning buzz.
Therefore, my goal is to help you get the most out of your coffee as we discuss the difference between pour over vs drip coffee.
Pour Over vs Drip: What’s the Difference
One last stat: 41% of US coffee drinkers use a drip coffee maker for their daily cup of java, making it the most common brewing method.
For many of us, our coffee adventures started with this humble kitchen appliance. What is not to love? Instead of breaking the bank at a local coffee shop, you can buy the beans (or get a subscription and have them delivered) and program your maker to have a fresh cup ready for you when you wake up.
As much as I love the simplicity of this system, the average drip coffee maker under-performs in a few key areas that mute the unique flavors in your favorite coffee beans (we’ll get to what they are).
Pour over coffee makers, on the other hand, give you more control over each part of the coffee process, allowing you to extract the full range of flavors in your coffee.
Note: using a pour over will probably cost you about 5 minutes of time, so if convenience is essential, you might attempt using a pour over when you are not rushing out the door. Once you have mastered the technique, though, the end result is worth the wait. You can easily make cafe level coffee, or even better with your new home barista skills.
Let’s take a look at the basics of making coffee and the differences between pour over vs drip coffee in each step.
Pour Over vs Drip Coffee: Step by Step Comparison
Grind Size
Having properly ground coffee is paramount for having a great cup no matter your brewing method. The real key here is: consistency. If you have a wide range of grind size you will end up over-extracting the fine grounds and under-extracting the large grounds giving you bitter, dry, hollow, or astringent coffee instead of the perfectly balanced cup that highlights the flavors locked in your beans.
I realize this has little to do with the brewer (unless you have a brewer that includes a grinder), but a good burr grinder (conical or flat) will go far in making a better cup of coffee. I started with an inexpensive manual Hario Slim Mill and eventually moved up to a Baratza Encore. Both are great machines for bringing consistency to your grind game on a budget.
For a pour over you should grind your coffee a little finer than you would your drip. With both you will need to tune your grinder with your brew method to get the flavors you are looking for.
Filters
Filters play a key role in coffee making. They separate spent grounds from final product, absorb some of the oils (metal filters don’t), and help control the speed of output.
As important as filters are to this process, paper filters do have a drawback – fine paper particles. Paper filters, especially brown natural filters, are notorious for leaking paper/cardboard flavors into your morning cuppa Joe.
This is easy enough to remedy, just wet the filter down before using and discard the used water. It is possible to do this with an automatic coffee maker, but most do not, especially if they are preparing the machine the night before.
Manual brewing does not necessarily have an easier/better answer to this problem, but washing the filter fits more easily and naturally in the manual brewing work flow. You already have hot water on hand, you just give the filter a quick rinse before adding grounds, then brew. If you are using a ceramic or metal pour over, you want to warm it up anyway so the pour over coffee maker doesn’t steal heat from your brew.
Water Temperature
Water temperature makes the biggest difference between pour over coffee most and most homeowner drip coffee makers. For peak flavor extraction you want your water temperature to be between 195 and 205 degrees.
Homeowner drip coffee pots simply don’t have the power to get the water hot enough for the most part. There are a few exceptions on the market (see the discussion below), but most machines don’t cut mustard unless you go up to a commercial grade.
Pour over systems solve this issue with the use of a good kettle. When you use a kettle for hot water you can either stove top unit with a thermometer or a fancy electric unit that lets you set your exact target temperature. Either way, using a kettle rather than relying on under-powered burners that are inconsistent on their best days allows you to deliver precisely heated water for ideal brewing conditions.
Even Extraction
In addition to control over water temperature, using a pour over coffee maker gives you more control over the consistent extraction of your coffee grounds.
Most electric coffee makers have some sort of stationary shower-head. The purpose is to evenly wet the coffee grounds, but the distribution is not perfect.
Have you ever looked at the coffee grounds after the coffee has been brewed and seen little divots or designs in the bed of spent coffee? This is because the shower-head is only spraying water in these specific places. Some machines do a better job of evenly wetting the coffee than others, but they are all limited in their ability to ensure the grounds all get equal attention.
This is one of the main benefits of pour over coffee makers, or to be more specific, using a kettle to brew your coffee.
Manual brewing allows you to spot any pockets of grounds that need additional work and make sure they get an even amount of water at the right rate. Equal extraction helps you pull out every last bit of unique flavor from your beans.
Maintenance
Let’s be honest, when was the last time you cleaned your coffee pot, the basket, or metal filter if you use one? It’s probably be a while. Brown stains inside and outside on the pot – nice and burnt.
Aside from looking gross, these stain leave residual taste in your coffee (speaking from experience, you don’t want to be the one to brew flavored coffee in the office pot; lots of angry people).
How about the inside of your machine? Maybe you have washed the basket sometime this decade, but probably not the inside of the machine itself.
Over time mineral deposits start collecting on the inside of your brewer, and the heater coils in particular. The effect is that the coils cannot get hot enough to get your coffee to the right temperature, negatively affecting your brew. The fix for this is pretty simple – using descaler or white vinegar. Just be sure to run water through your machine a few times afterwards 🙂
With a pour over you still need to wash your coffee maker regularly, and your server too if you use one. This sort of maintenance is a lot simpler with a pour over though – can be as simple as putting in the dish washer (although hand cleaning is preferable so you don’t leave detergent residue on the maker). You want to keep your kettle dry and clean as well as it can develop mineral deposits over time.
Pour Over vs Drip Coffee Makers
Hopefully I have convinced you that pour over coffee makers are great and worth the extra effort. With that said, I also have a drip machine that I use regularly – it is convenient, especially when you have more than one person in the house drinking coffee. So, let’s talk hardware.
Drip Machines
- Bonavita 1900 – I personally love this machine. I have an older model (1800), and it does a great job. It is one of the few homeowner machines that can get the coffee to 195-205 degrees thanks to its powerful 1500 watt heater. This machine is designed to mimic a pour over with a v-shaped basket and a bloom feature that pauses after initially wetting the beans. If you don’t have the time for a pour over but want similar quality, this is a great machine for you.
- Technivorm Moccamaster – this hand-made brewer is the top of the line when it comes to getting a quality cup of drip coffee. Other machines may have more bells and whistles, but this 10-cup machine is the name brand for performance. It’s powerful copper burner element are able to heat the coffee properly and the sprayer design for wetting the beans do an excellent job. Like the Bonavita it is pre-immerses the grounds for a proper bloom and has a cone-shaped basket for peak extraction. It is over 2x the cost of the Bonavita (although lots of people have found great deals at second-hand stores), but it is the machine to beat.
Pour Over Brewers
- Hario V60 – This is currently my favorite brewer. With this inexpensive tool you have full control to extract all the delicate, unique flavors from your coffee. The 60 degree angle of the sides allows optimal flow rates through your coffee beans and the ribs allow the grounds to expand while brewing. At the bottom of the brew chamber is a singular large hole which allows for a fast flow rate that you can manipulate by dialing in your grind size.
- Chemex – Chemex coffee makers have a huge following in the artisan coffee crowd. The main advantage the Chemex has is the unique filter which is about 30% thicker than a regular filter. The unique filters remove extra oils and fats giving you a very clean cup of coffee. Pro tip: get a pair of chopsticks and put them between the filter and carafe to speed up brew time and give you more control over the flavor profile.
- Kalita Wave – This is another great brewer that is slightly different in concept from the V60 and Chemex in that it uses a standard filter and has a flat bottom. With a good spiral pouring pattern with your kettle you can evenly extract your grounds for a wonderfully flavorful experience.
Pour Over Accessories
Gooseneck kettle – I personally use and love my 1.2 Liter Hario Buono stove top kettle. It easily holds enough water for a V60, Chemex, Aeropress, French press, or most other manual brewing methods. You will want to pick up a cap with a built in thermometer to help you dial in your water temperature. You can also look at electric kettle options that allow you to set the exact temperature such as a Bonavita 1 Liter Variable Electric Kettle.
Scale and Timer – The final tool in your coffee tool belt is a good scale with a built in timer, such as the Hario V60 Drip Scale. A good scale will allow you to measure the output of your work and bring consistency to your coffee routine. You will be able to demonstrably put in the same amount of water at each step of your brew and see the effect grind size has on your brew duration. Equipping yourself with this information will allow you to consistently brew the best coffee you have ever had.
Pour Over vs Drip Coffee: Control vs Convenience
Both the pour over and drip coffee makers have their own strengths and weaknesses and can be deployed at different times to meet different purposes. At the grand scale, the pour over vs drip coffee debate comes down to control vs convenience.
Drip coffee makers have lots of great features – delay brew timers, grinders, water filters, and heaters. Drip coffee machines make it easy to have a fresh cup of coffee even when you don’t have time for manual brewing. Drip coffee makers, however, are typically lacking in even water distribution and temperature settings, leading to inconsistent extraction and poor flavor profiles. Even the best home drip brewers are no match for the quality that comes from a pour over coffee maker.
Pour over coffee makers have a lot of great features as well – complete control over water temperature and extraction as well as the ability to measure and dial in each part of your brewing process. Pour overs give you complete control over your coffee’s flavor. The downside is time and money. Drip brewers can turn themselves on and have a hot cup of coffee ready for you as you run out the door to work. An inexpensive drip machine can be had for $30 or less, while a pour over with all the accessories will cost over $100. For the price conscious, you can get a top of the line pour over for around $20 to use with kettles and scales you already own.
My advice, keep your drip machine and add a pour over to your gear collection. Having a pour over will open up a new world of coffee for you.