What is your pour over coffee journey?

[mjcmt]

I started with a plastic Melita one cup dripper and used for many years until I became aware of the hazards of plastic and hot water. It made a tasty cup of coffee though. (I still use it on vacation)

Next I used a Chantal ceramic dripper instead of plastic, which also used Melita #2 paper cone filters. It made a less robust, crisper cup of coffee that wasn't ideal for lighter roasts. I dropped it many times in the sink and it was glued together, but I didn't want to part with it and used for many years. I did eventually tire of the heavy weight and glued-together looks.

Now, I just purchased a Brod & Taylor stainless-steel pour over dripper. It's light, has a rubber non-slip base when sitting on carafe/mugs. My first impression is a clean, refreshing, full bodied cup of coffee. Still too new and haven't much experience dialing it in yet, but I like it a lot. I've read it also will accept the Kalita Wave 185 flat bottom filters to try a different flavor of extraction. I will have to try this too.

The rest of my elementary pour over system is a cheap gooseneck kettle and Fellow Opus grinder.

 

[froze]

My first pour over was a Clever Dripper, while it made good coffee, it was cheaply made and the plastic cracked, which was ok because hot water in plastic had me a tiny bit concerned.

Then I had Hario V60 but dropped it accidently, being made of glass...well, you know. It did make great coffee though but to much babysitting for my liking.

I replaced that Hario with a V60 Switch, a combination of a pour over and immersion maker all in one, the coffee comes out superior to the a Hario V60. This is similar to the Clever Dripper but the Hario is made far better and it retains heat better, the only fault with it is that it doesn't come with a lid, but I was able to repurpose a plastic lid off of something else, so now the heat retention is much more consistent. Some professional coffee snobs say this maker is only good for light to medium roast, I use it dark roast and it's just fine.

Then I bought the Kalita Wave Stainless just to try it out, due to the small holes in the bottom there is no need to babysit it. Again professional coffee snobs say this is best for medium to dark, again I use only dark roast, and can't really discern a huge difference, but the Kalita seems a bit mellower; I prefer the more robust coffee from the Hario V60 Switch, but I like robust coffee, others may not.

Then for bicycle camping I take a real simple GSI Ultralight Java Drip, this thing requires no paper filters thus nothing extra to carry or throw away. It makes decent enough coffee for camping.

For home use, of the ones that I tried, I like the Kalita Wave Stainless with a preference towards the Hario V60 Switch. Both of those two are idiot proof making it almost impossible to screw up a cup of coffee, as does the Clever Dripper but the cheapness of it turned me off. I can't recall any taste difference between the Clever Dripper or the Hario Switch, and there shouldn't be since they both work the same way, it comes more down to the build quality against those two, and the Hario is far better than the Clever Dripper.

 

[ejmiller]

Until recently I thought coffee was horrible - not knowing that my only reference was horribly over-extracted, low quality dark roasts. That is until I was finally convinced to give a quality light roast pour over a try. The difference is staggering, and I absolutely loved it, so I jumped in the deep end right away =D

I was given a hand-me-down Baratza Encore to start with a Melita style dripper. The cups were ok but I knew I could get much better results. I very quickly upgraded to a Pietro grinder with pro-brew burrs and a V60 dripper. Call me crazy, but I love the cups I'm getting out of this! And it didn't take long for me to invest in quality water either haha!

 

[mjcmt]

One big game-changer for me wasn’t the dripper though — it was water. Once I switched to Third Wave Water minerals and started filtering properly, all my brews just... opened up. Highly underrated part of the equation IMO.
Pour-over is such a rabbit hole — and I love it.

I like the idea of better water, but another purchase. At least I fill the kettle the night before to de-chlorinate the water (like you would do before water change of a fresh water aquarium), that way I'm preserving the minerals in our very good filtered city water. I'm sure it's not the best scenario.

 

[Blue Cliff Roaster]

I got into drip coffee as a way to evaluate my roasting in a slightly less evolved way than say a cupping. So I had no real expectations just hoped to reduce the chew in the brew and not have to grunt through all those sink shots on my espresso machine. I made some horrible brews until I got the knack. About a month in I had a revelatory God Shot as they say on a Yirga Chefe which was more bergamot than an earl grey tea. Then a month later I sadly and distractedly...had to run out and help a neighbour... I poured the best cup of coffee I have ever had off of Brazilian Anahi but I have no way to know what made it so. However as any good coffee lover might do I ran head long into that rabbit hole and have been enjoying myself ever since.

I use a regular kettle and SS drip kettle or a Fellow and pour mainly into a small collection of Kalita's and a V60. I tend to go with what I feel at the moment tho my main ones are Kalita 101-2 and a V60 all ceramic and a Nel drip which is a different sort of beast. I range from medium to dark but I have purchased the odd light roasts for a tussle.

I have messed around with using different papers, tones available for the V60, but I haven't found a great amount of difference except price. I did find the V60 with Dark roast 83 deg. filters makes a decent approximation of a nel drip but with a slightly lighter mouth feel. There is a PITA factor with the nel so it is sometimes a nice option.

I will try out some of the mineralized waters like those mentioned above because... well come on... I want more of those cups that make you weak in the knees.
Thanks for that suggestion.