Photo by Kelly Getzelman/Coffee or Die Magazine.
Earlier this year, we paid a visit to Cafe Virtuoso in San Diego, California, for a midafternoon coffee lesson on the art of the Japanese-style iced pour over.
Once our class was complete, we set out to find a manual pour over brewing set to practice our technique with at home.
After a bit of online research, we decided on the budget-friendly Hario V60 pour over coffee starter set, which has everything necessary to brew hot and cold beverages. The package includes a V60 plastic coffee dripper, a coffee server, a convenient plastic coffee scoop, and 40 V60 paper filters.
The V60 dripper has a set of raised grooves spiraling down the inside of the cone. The purpose of the grooves is to hold the bed of grounds away from the walls, allowing for airflow along the sides. This helps increase water flow along the edges, leading to a fast drawdown and a more balanced extraction.
We tested the device’s effectiveness for brewing both hot and cold coffee drinks. Because the dripper is made of plastic rather than ceramic, we were initially concerned with how well the dripper would regulate heat. But after a slight adjustment to our water temperature, the plastic dripper produced consistently clear flavors and aromas from each specialty coffee we sampled.
Our coffee for this brew session was Black Rifle Coffee Company’s Five Alarm roast. This medium, full-bodied roast features smoky aromas and notes of dark chocolate, molasses, and cherry. The newly designed bag also pays tribute to wildland firefighters.
We started with a 1-to-15 coffee-to-water ratio. We ended up with 25 grams of coffee to 375 grams of water.
We enjoy using this single-serve V60 brew technique because it’s easy to make micro-adjustments to find your ideal grind size for proper extraction. The only change we made when using the plastic V60 dripper instead of the ceramic was adding a few degrees to our hot water temperature.
After one brew cycle, we also ditched the supplied coffee server and placed the V60 directly onto our favorite coffee mug during the brewing process. The 375 grams of water was enough for a full cup of coffee. Of course, if we were making multiple cups of coffee in one sitting, the coffee server would be a convenient addition to the set.
As a single-serve option, the Hario V60 is quickly becoming one of our favorite specialty coffee brewing methods.
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Kelly Getzelman is a former staff writer for Coffee or Die Magazine. A retired Navy SEAL chief petty officer, Getzelman has nearly two decades of special operations experience and is always ready to ship out on his next epic coffee adventure.
