Credit:
Reviewed.com/Lindsay D. Mattison
Products are chosen independently by our editors. Purchases made through our links may earn us a commission.
Credit:
Reviewed.com/Lindsay D. Mattison
Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.
Learn more about our product testing
Hario's coffee maker is fast brewing and easy to clean. It uses a standard filter. Read More
Chemex's coffee maker delivers on taste and design. It's hard to clean and doesn't use standard filters. Read More
OXO's coffee maker is easy to clean and budget friendly. It takes longer to brew, but it does make a good cup of coffee. Read More
Kalita's glass dripper fits over regular and to-go coffee mugs. It uses proprietary wavy filters. Read More
Yitelle's coffee cone dripper is stainless steel. Taste of coffee is better with a filter. Read More
Ask 100 regular people about the best way to make a cup of coffee, and you’re likely to receive 100 different answers, but when you start asking the baristas who work in specialty coffee, you’ll hear one method come up again and again—the pour-over dripper. While most coffee drinkers are familiar with automatic drip coffee machines, you might prefer manual brewing methods like French Press or pour-over coffee makers (sometimes called coffee drippers) which can give you drastically more control over flavor.
A few years ago, I would have told you that I don’t have time for those types of coffee making, even if it improves the quality of my morning cup of joe. As it turns out, using a pour-over coffee brewer—like our top pick, the Hario V60 Coffee Dripper 02 Ceramic (available at Amazon for $26.52) —is surprisingly easy. So easy, in fact, we wrote a step-by-step guide to making pour-over coffee.
It’s not just about ease of use, either. Many coffee aficionados prefer pour-over coffee because it allows you to control every aspect of the brewing process, from the temperature of the water to the specific amount of chosen coffee grounds used per cup. Depending on how much time and attention you want to put into it, it’s possible to achieve brighter, bolder flavors by slowing down or speeding up the steeping time.
The only problem with pour-over drippers is that they can be confusing. Do you want glass, ceramic, plastic, or stainless steel? Should it fit over a coffee mug or is it better to spend more on a carafe-style, multi-cup pour over? What kind of gear do you need to make it all happen, and, in the end, does any of that actually affect the flavor? To help you decide, we found some of the best pour-over coffee makers for your daily cup.
Highest pour-over coffee quality
Fantastic design
Hard to clean
The use of proprietary filters
Lightweight, great for coffee on-the-go
Slow brewing for complex coffee taste
Easy-to-clean
Low heat retention
It takes longer time to brew
Small and lightweight
Good heat retention
Brews fantastically robust coffee
Requires special filters
Filters need to improve the flavor
Stainless steel material
Takes time to brew
Pour-over coffee makers, automatic drip, French presses, and espresso machines; with so many options on the market today, how do you know which coffee maker is right for you? Ultimately, it comes down to a few factors: time, patience, and quality of the brew. While using an automatic drip coffee maker might seem like the quickest, easiest, and the most hands-off way to brew a cup of coffee, it will also never make the world's greatest product. The water gets way too hot, and there are too many factors you can't control. Once you get your gear in order, using the pour-over will seem just as easy as using the machine, and it tastes a thousand times better!
You’ll need a kettle, a coffee grinder with adjustable grind size, and a tiny bit of patience to bring it all together.
Once you’ve selected the best pour-over coffee dripper for you, you’ll also need some filters. Most of them work with the standard paper cone fare, although a few have proprietary filters. I’d recommend using a paper filter over the reusable filters. It might not be green, but the paper prevents the coffee from becoming murky and oily.
After filling the pour-over with ground coffee (we like 24 grams, or about 3 tablespoons, per cup), bring the water to the point just before it boils–200 to 205°F degrees. If you accidentally boil it, no worries; you can let it cool for a few minutes before pouring. Then, using your gooseneck kettle, slowly pour the hot water over the grounds, allowing most of the liquid to drain before adding additional water.
Depending on the flavors you want to bring out, your brew time could run anywhere from two to four minutes.
By regulating the water temperature and steeping time, the pour over method will give you ultimate control over the quality of the brew, creating a filter coffee that’s as robust or complex as you like. You can also experiment with the fineness of the grind, but that’s a whole other conversation.
Lindsay is a professional chef, recipe developer, writer, and developmental editor. After years of working in restaurant kitchens, she turned to writing to share her passion for local, organic, and seasonal ingredients with home cooks and food enthusiasts.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.
Shoot us an email
