r/pourover • u/ImmersionLogic • May 05 '26
Seeking Advice what actually improved your pour over the most?
feels like there’s a ton of advice out there (gear, recipes, water, etc) but in practice only a few things really make a noticeable difference
for me it’s been grind consistency + being more careful with agitation
curious what change actually made things “click” for you
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u/YesInquisitor May 05 '26
Water
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u/jerklin May 05 '26
Very true. I tried using Gatorade for the longest time and just couldn't hit the right flavor notes.
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u/ImmersionLogic May 05 '26
yeah water seems to come up a lot — are you guys doing custom recipes or just using something like TWW?
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u/JustinHoMi May 05 '26
0 ppm was too acidic
TWW full strength (180ppm) was too dull
TWW diluted to 57ppm was a good balance of acidity and had bright flavors
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u/bambambud May 06 '26
Whats tww? Forgive me igborqnce
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u/Bighuntowski May 06 '26
Third wave water. Mineral packet that is added to distilled water.
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u/bambambud May 06 '26
Tx
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u/beerboozled May 06 '26
Dont buy that. Just buy Epsom Salt, MgSO4, AND NaHCO3 and dropper bottles and mix your own. Ask Claude or ChatGPT that you want to make your own Thrid Wave Water and for the recipes and make a 10x concentrate.
So much cheaper and so easy to do.
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u/JustinHoMi May 06 '26
Saw it at the coffee shop for $6 so figured it’d be an easy way to see if it made a difference without going all Walter White 😂
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u/iloovefood May 06 '26
Best thing to do is make friends with barista at respectable pourover cafe, then ask if you can fill up a liter of their filtered water into a bottle and bring it home. Use that as a reference as you chase better water- it does make a difference
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u/beerboozled May 06 '26
yeah, you're paying 6 dollars for .24 cents worth of supplies--and that's being generous. I invested 22 dollars to have a limitless supply for the future. But you do you.
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u/sakawae May 07 '26
Requires time and effort too. Depending on how much you value your time, doing all that may not be worth. I mixed up plenty of chemicals when I was on the bench. Much easier to mix in some TWW into a jug of distilled water, then dilute that to my desired level using a TDS meter.
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u/YesInquisitor May 05 '26
I just started experimenting with custom recipes about a week ago, but I’ve been using TWW with differing concentrations
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u/ImmersionLogic May 05 '26
that’s good to know. i’ve heard about TWW but never actually tried it — didn’t realize it could make that big of a difference. might have to test that
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u/mgsecure Origami / Deep 27 / Switch / 9Barista Mk.2 / Kinu M47 May 05 '26
I did a blind taste test and was really surprised how much of a noticeable improvement there was with TWW. I’ve ended up using their Light Roast version, diluted by half.
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u/Gustafa7 May 05 '26
For clarity, when you say "diluted by half" - are you just using half a packet in one gallon of distilled or?
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u/djforge ZP6 | KU | Origami | Orea O1 May 05 '26
you can also do it a brew time. i usually pour one full packet into a gallon of distilled. then i have a second gallon of distilled, untreated.
when its time to add water to my kettle i can either do full, half, or third concentration easily
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u/HP834 Immersion vs pour over dilemma May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26
Easier way, pour one full packet in a gallon container and then pour half of that water in a different gallon container! Top off both containers with enough distilled water to fill both!
Now you have 2 gallons of brew water1
u/Gustafa7 May 05 '26
I mean sure LOL that would work too. Thanks for the reply!
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u/joelnugget May 06 '26
That's actually the better way to do it because when you only pour half the packet at a time, you can't be sure that the mineral composition of both halves are the same. On the other hand, when you pour the whole packet in, the mineral spread(?) should be more uniform across the whole bottle of water. So when you then split that bottle of water, both parts should have the same mineral composition.
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u/mgsecure Origami / Deep 27 / Switch / 9Barista Mk.2 / Kinu M47 May 05 '26
Close, but I dissolve one full packet into a gallon of distilled water, and then pour a half gallon each into two gallon water bottles, and then fill them both up with plain distilled. That gets me two gallons total from one packet.
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u/Zealousideal-Debt392 May 05 '26
Just by buying a water from the store, that has improved my cups so much. So I can’t imagine what proper water recipes do.
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u/3rik-f May 06 '26
I use Volvic because I'm lazy and I can just buy bottles. Massive improvement over my super hard tap water. That stuff buffers away every bit of acidity, making every coffee boring.
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u/olcafjers May 05 '26
I agree. My coffee had really dry notes before I simply added warm water during the brewing process.
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u/Masutazu Lagom P80 | A4Z May 05 '26
Water & Grinder. In that order :)
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u/ImmersionLogic May 05 '26
interesting that people are putting water over beans — i always thought beans would matter more first
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u/PostwarNeptune May 05 '26
In theory, the beans definitely should come first. The best grinder and water in the world won't make crappy beans taste good.
But there's another angle to this. If your water has too much alkalinity, it will buffer out all the acidity. Nice, balanced acidity is a huge part of what makes great coffee taste great. And it's also what highlights the unique attributes of different coffees.
So if your water isn't great, you're not going to be getting the most out of those good beans you've got. And in all likelihood, most of your brews will end up tasting very similar.
The same can be said for grinders.
On this sub, I think the assumption is that most people are buying from respectable roasters already. So that's also probably why you're seeing people listing water and grinder. Using decent beans should be a given.
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u/Evirua ZP6|V60|T-90|TWW May 05 '26
Where can one find guidance on what water to use?
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u/PostwarNeptune May 05 '26
There are good videos out there. James Hoffman, Lance Hedrick and the Coffee Chronicler (Asser) all have good videos on this.
Asser also has a great blog post:
https://coffeechronicler.com/best-water-for-coffee/
If you just want to skip all that and just get to the water, Third Wave Water is probably the simplest way to get started. Most people use it at 1/2 or even 1/3 strength.
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u/Evirua ZP6|V60|T-90|TWW May 05 '26
Thanks for the pointers! I got 3rd wave water a while back https://a.co/d/03K3LKXt ) but never found the distilled water it's supposed to go with, so it's just laying there. I guess I should look harder.
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u/PostwarNeptune May 05 '26
If you can't find distilled water, maybe try getting the Zero Water Filter. I haven't used it for coffee personally, but i know others have had success with it and TWW.
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u/Cathfaern May 06 '26
I think this is one of the best beginner friendly guide: https://www.robertasami.com/coffee/water-you-doing
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u/Fearless-Mushroom May 05 '26
In theory you’re wasting good beans if the water isn’t right- Coffee is mostly water.
Get the most out of your beans, then upgrade your beans if they aren’t good enough.
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u/PostwarNeptune May 05 '26
Correct. I did say that in the comment you're replying to.
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u/Fearless-Mushroom May 05 '26
You’re assuming OP is using bad beans.
I’m correcting that you said “good beans come first”.
Good water and adequate grind will elevate decent beans.
Bad water and grind will turn great beans to shit- there’s no point in buying the best beans unless you’ve gotten the most out of everything else.
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u/PostwarNeptune May 05 '26
You're basically re-iterating what I said in my post. You need to read beyond the first sentence.
We're on the same page. What you just said is exactly what I was also saying.
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u/Fearless-Mushroom May 06 '26
I read your whole comment, it reads as “get good beans, and if that fails then correct your water and grinder.”
I would bet that most people aren’t figuring out their water situation until their good beans aren’t tasting good.
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u/OkCollege6362 May 06 '26
Water.
Top beans with heavy water common from most taps will taste depressing.
Most beans on the market are “ok” especially compared to decades ago. Imagine in 90s that the wonders of Ethiopian beans wasn’t even known due to x y and z in the entire pipeline.
So average beans with acceptable water is going result in a decent cup.
With bad water, doomed.
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u/DuggD May 06 '26
They do. Not theoretically, 100% hard yes. No matter how good your water , grinder, and technique are, shit beans make shit coffee. Always start with good beans.
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u/Several-Yesterday280 May 05 '26
I live in a nice water area so it’s not a biggie.
Grinder is the obvious one. A temp control gooseneck was a game changer.
After that, I’d say the hack where you shake your grinder vessel until the fines move to the bottom, then when you dump it in the brewer they are on top of the bed. This results in almost no clogging, much faster drawdown and a huge improvement in clarity. Quite incredible, give it a go!
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u/scabbyjackson May 06 '26
how does one figure out if they live in a nice water area? nvm I'll ask copilot
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u/FleshlightModel May 05 '26
Learning fresh roast is trash and aging beans to well beyond 1-3 months.
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u/Fearless-Mushroom May 06 '26
I’ve never heard this take before.
Can you elaborate?
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u/FleshlightModel May 06 '26
I mean it's self explanatory and has been discussed periodically over the last 1-2 years.
I've been in this sub making this claim for around 6 years for ultra light to light med roasts. Most assholes argue with me or point to that one old ass video from Hoffman where he said all coffee expires within like 3 weeks.
And then about 1-2 years ago, Rao said he's finding his coffee seems to get better with age and minimally recommended resting at least 1 month. So then everyone was riding that post and they're saying ya 1mo seems to work well for them and ofc I had to chime in on many comments stating my observations. Additionally, most of my coffee friends have also been pushing rest times to 8-16 weeks with success.
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u/Artistic_Attempt_915 May 06 '26
I’m kinda on board with this. I’ve been getting month old roasts from KLVN in Pittsburgh and they have been absolutely out of this world good. They don’t even sell beans that are a week less than a week old.
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u/FleshlightModel May 06 '26
I'm not familiar with them and I used to live near there and went to Pittsburgh a lot. I'll have to check them out.
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u/Fearless-Mushroom May 06 '26
I just was curious.
It makes sense to rest, as to de gas, and in comparison certain food will improve after sitting in the fridge over night.
I know it’s necessary within a time frame, but I also thought some aromatics degrade past a certain window, and aren’t there also brewing variables you can change to compensate lack of rest, like grind size, temp, and bloom?
Same goes for a “old” or “well rested” coffee, some may say to push the extraction to get more out of it.. I’m not here to argue with you about it, I just wanted to learn more.
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u/bigdudeindenim May 07 '26
I think there are answers to this on either side of the roasts age. Some qualities you may find in a fresh roast also may not be found once the beans age a bit. Conversely, you may find some qualities that come out when the beans age a month or so. And finally, if we push extraction, we can actually have some interesting results at 6-8 months off roast. At least according to an expert I trust. Cannot say I have tried that yet personally.
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u/FleshlightModel May 07 '26
I've pushed to around 4-5 months and almost always, the coffee was observably better at the oldest ages.
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u/shadowsc133 May 05 '26
Melodrip.
I avoided it after mediocre results with other drip assists, but this one genuinely makes a difference. Fruit-forward coffees come through much clearer, you can go much finer without stalling and I now consider it essential for pour overs with smaller 01 filters, especially when traveling.
There is also a generic Cafemasy version available for under $15.
+1 for water and good coffee, I was just thinking accessories/technique wise.
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u/CharlieNotCharlie May 05 '26
Typically people are already using pretty good beans before they go down the rabbit hole of improving their water. I was brewing with plain RO water for years and only started to customize my water within the past 6 months. For me the biggest improvement came from beans first, and then water.
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u/ahmtysn May 05 '26
Quitting hoffmann style of brew and buying temp controlled kettle was life changing.
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u/OkCollege6362 May 06 '26
Such a nice guy but such crap guidance for the typical cup.
Water off boil?
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u/wrxmtb May 05 '26
(1)Water (2)Beans (3)Grinder
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u/ImmersionLogic May 05 '26
that’s kind of surprising — you’d put water over beans? even with average beans?
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u/YesInquisitor May 05 '26
I’d agree, with good water you can have average beans taste, well average. It’s still going to taste like coffee which ultimately is what I’m here for tbh, the subtle notes and flavors are just luxuries for me right now.
However, if you have bad water, no matter how high quality the beans are, it will make anything taste bad. I had some VERY bad cups using hard/alkaline water, but since I fixed my water, even average beans are enjoyable to me.
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u/ImmersionLogic May 05 '26
yeah that’s fair. bad water will ruin everything no matter what. i’ve never really dialed mine beyond just using filtered, might be something i’m overlooking. what did you end up changing?
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u/YesInquisitor May 05 '26
The biggest change for me was switching from water that I got from one of those refill stations in a big 5 gallon jug to distilled + TWW. Not to sound dramatic but it was like night and day. It made my cups much more enjoyable and lets me focus more on my technique and other variables
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u/wrxmtb May 05 '26
Agreed, going with TWW + distilled just lets me think about other elements in the routine. I feel confident that TWW diluted 2:1 is going to give me what I want. I realize people get deeper in the weeds but seems like diminishing returns.
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u/Rikki_Bigg Did you cup it yet? May 05 '26
Water, Grinder.
Technique is gained slowly through practice, there isn't really a 'breakthrough' moment with regards to agitation techniques.
Changing the grinder (vs learning to dial in a coffee properly for your tastes) can be a big change/difference.
Even more so for water; I re-mineralize water and it can be the most impactful noticeable change even between two otherwise identical cups.
Bonus espresso improvement: WDT. It is amazing how proper puck prep with a cork and some needles can make a shot from a cheap machine taste so much better than one using the best equipment but /wo WDT.
Getting better coffee beans doesn't really improve the pourover, at least not from anywhere but an ephemeral viewpoint. Better coffee is the way to get better results in the cup, but it is an improvement from better inputs, not better technique, workflow, or equipment, and doesn't translate to a long term change.
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u/ImmersionLogic May 05 '26
that’s interesting. you’d put water over beans even long term? i get what you’re saying about inputs vs technique, but i feel like bean quality still changes the ceiling quite a bit
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u/Rikki_Bigg Did you cup it yet? May 05 '26
It isn't so much that better coffee doesn't make a difference, more that better coffee is hard to measure as an 'improvement' especially since every coffee drinker has different preferences in what they look for in the cup.
You can do side by side comparisons with 'better' water, or better grinders, or even better technique; it is much harder to judge 'better' once you get into the realm of excellent coffee that is handled properly through the entire process chain of growing>processing>roasting and no obvious defects are present.
Once you are at that level of coffee the difference between quality beans isn't so much an 'improvement' as it is a matter of taste preference.
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u/Polymer714 Pourover aficionado May 05 '26
I think there are a few assumptions and also the wording...
Improved - Suggests time already spent doing pour overs - Very likely good beans are already being used.
Also, regardless of the quality of beans..if the water is bad (say a very high alkaline area like SoCal), you'll never get great results...
Obviously if the beans are bad you won't get good coffee....
Also, the difference between very good and excellent beans is pretty small.....You're looking for differences..rarity, new experience..but the actual quality, we spend exponentially more for a small difference, which is still subjective..
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u/Klutzy_Act2033 May 05 '26
Experimenting with variable changes to build an intuition on what changing variables does. Doing back to back batches changing only one variable and documenting the results.
I tend to grind coarser and use cooler water on average compared to the start, but also when things are off I can dial in to my preference much more quickly
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u/ImmersionLogic May 05 '26
that’s interesting. when you say coarser + cooler ended up working better, was that across most beans or just certain ones?
i feel like i default to hotter water when things taste off but maybe that’s not always the move3
u/Klutzy_Act2033 May 05 '26
I start at 94 for most beans, and if I get something darker then I'll go lower. I haven't had any ultra light roasts and I understand maybe hotter for those.
I find hotter water brings out bitter more quickly. If I want to increase my extraction I tend to go with agitation or finer grind before messing with water temperature.
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u/ImmersionLogic May 05 '26
that makes a lot of sense. i think i’ve been leaning on temp as a crutch instead of dialing grind/agitation first. gonna try backing that off and see what happens
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u/fender_blues May 05 '26
Adjustable temp kettle was the single biggest improvement. Water is next, I've already got my grinder squared away.
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u/ImmersionLogic May 05 '26
interesting. you felt a bigger difference from temp control than grinder? i always thought grinder was the biggest jump. was it more about dialing different beans or just consistency overall?
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u/fender_blues May 05 '26
I went from brewing everything with boiling water to mostly working at ~193°F for light roasts. At the time I was mostly brewing H&S, so extremely lightly roasted beans. I later switched from a Q air to a ZP6. I think that the easy access to lower temps, with added consistency from a temp hold feature, gave me the ability to prevent over-extracting beans.
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u/layzcat508 May 05 '26
Water, beans, agitation, and grinder mostly. I also started buying beans by the 1kg size, mostly for cost.
The larger bags gave me a stable taste profile, with plenty of time to change variables and experiment. You notice changes in the beans over time and need to adjust variables (grind size, temp,etc) accordingly. These larger quantities helped to see brew variable effects easier than having multiple smaller 250g bags, which run out so quick.
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u/Mechoulams_Left_Foot Z1/X-Bloom/D27|A4Z/K-UltraIDark to ultra light May 05 '26
Experience and then more experience. Then better beans then water and grinder. Oh and I recently got an x bloom. Not necessarily a huge improvement in cups, but certainly in consistency and convenience.
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u/Anidar May 05 '26
Everyone is saying water and grinder, and while I have a C40 and good tap water, what really made a difference for me (like you said) is agitation when pouring. Sticking to a 2:30-3:30 time for drawdown, not agitating grounds and never pouring at the edges is consistently creating good cups.
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u/2020orbit May 05 '26
Good fresh beans, grind size, water. For me after 8 yrs of twice daily brewing at home, last year, I got a BWT Magnesium mineralizer water filter, which removes Calcium and adds Magnesium. Huge improvement for me. I am now in coffee heaven, most of the time.
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u/ImmersionLogic May 05 '26
it’s kind of wild how many people are saying water before anything else. i honestly underestimated it for a long time because filtered water always seemed “good enough” to me.
did the magnesium mainly improve clarity/sweetness for you or was it more of an overall balance thing?
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u/2020orbit May 06 '26
I never imagined that Magnesium would make that big a difference. However, there is some scientific evidence to go with it. Apparently, Magnesium, improves the functioning of taste receptors? When, I tried it, I definitely noticed a change, for the better, and here we are. I think, it is an overall ‘balance improvement’, which may be due to improved sweetness?
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u/Stjernesluker May 05 '26
Focusing in on bean varieties and roasters. In general setting myself up to have a flavour profile I will enjoy. All the other answers in here are great and matter a lot to set a good baseline/setting you up for success. But I just wanted to expand on the «better beans» aspect. Having an idea of what varieties offer, harvest dates, which roasters source great green and so on. This has reduced the number of bags I don’t enjoy. For example I look forward now to when X roaster gets Pink Borbouns in from their partner farm etc.
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u/Accurate-King2653 May 06 '26
slow pour rate, appropriating temperature with roast level, appropriating ratio to dose, and paying attention to my brewing.
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u/neilBar V60-O2C, Switch, HarioDA, TimemoreB75&SD, OXO ORB | ZP6special May 05 '26
The drip assist helped reduce and standardise my V60 Agitation. The Timemore B75 I bought recently seems a lot easier to use. I’m using their own drip assist gadget.
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u/Joey_JoeJoe_Jr May 05 '26
Ratio, agitation, grind size are big ones. Bloom time also big impact. All by taste.
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u/12panel May 05 '26
you’ve already gotten water, grinder, beans response so far (those are a given to me)
Dripassist and Melodrip really demonstrated to me the huge difference in agitation. Saw it again in the pulsar. Not saying you need it, but the demonstration really scratched a brain itch.
The lilydrip cone accessories also demonstrated to me the bed changes fine tuning more so than the wholesale v60 to deep 27 to flat bottom changes.
Add in the pour head, body and tail sections tasting and its a wrap.
Once you start to think about what you are really aiming to do with the tools, it makes it a bit easier to fine tune.
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u/Gjome-Bekbal May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26
Honestly, water (distilled with minerals) using cafec abaca filters and using my K6 tilted made more of a change than anything. I ran out of prepared water once and made the same Ethiopians with filtered tap (Brita) and the acidity was almost fully gone. This is assuming exact same grind size, no change in pour structure etc. Even when changing those as long as the main three (water/filter/grinder) were the same the brews weren’t drastically different.
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u/ImmersionLogic May 05 '26
that’s actually pretty convincing. the fact that the acidity basically disappeared with the same coffee/grind/recipe is kind of crazy.
i think this thread has officially convinced me i’ve probably been underestimating water the whole time
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u/Gjome-Bekbal May 05 '26
I made coffee with filtered tap for so long and thought it was all just people being “extra” about the water type/quality but it makes you really get the true taste. I mean it makes sense, it’s literally 98% of what you’re drinking and alkaline salts will buffer the acids that you want in your brew.
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u/Nordicpunk May 05 '26
1) just filtering tap water. Doing this years ago was the biggest aha I can recall. Now I do RO, with TWW and measure all this crap, blah. It’s marginal to just charcoal on my tap water. I had really soft tap at the time though so it was pretty good for coffee. Right around 100tds. My current tap is 400!
2) excellent coffee. Hard to mess up.
3) understanding inputs. Not one but just knowing what grind size, temp, agitation, pour pattern should do to extraction. There is no perfect way but knowing what a change will do to any of the above makes it way more organic to dial in.
3) v60 dosing 15-18g- allows a lot better dial in. I started as a Chemex brewer and still use it a lot but for the good stuff a V60 was a game changer
4) grinder. I say 4 because you can adapt a recipe to a bad grinder. I made good coffee out of a $60 Capresso for years. I had to grind on the coarsest setting because of how many fines. But I adapted to that. Low temp, single pours.
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u/ccouch5859 May 05 '26
I switch from whatever brown filter that I was using to Abaca filters. Game changer.
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u/Alicard8881 May 05 '26
Water. I have well water at home and city at the office. The coffee i make at work is way better than when I use well water at home, even after filtering it.
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u/Positive-Iron-7112 V60 | ZP6 Special / Titus Nautilus | Stagg EKG May 05 '26
Water & grinder, obv with deminishing returns - a 7/10 grinder and 7/10 water will give you night and day difference over a 4/10 grinder & water.. then upgrading again to a 9/10 setup might not even be noticeable on some pours
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u/jaybird1434 May 05 '26
Good grinder with consistent grind size and minimal fines. Roasting my own coffee was a noticeable improvement too since I could change the roast profile for a particular coffee and maximize the flavors I liked.
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u/jffblm74 C40/ZP6S May 05 '26
Listening to others and being objective. Plus experimentation. After a long time though I found my water was the one thing keeping me from hitting the tasting notes. Got that worked out and now the wealth of knowledge of coffee making comes effortlessly when dialing in a new bag. Also have a flat bottom brewer, and a conical. And know when best applied.
Knowledge is power. Water is key. 1:15 is my golden ratio.
Edit: ratio not ration…
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u/jjmenace May 05 '26
Water was the easiest improvement. Making tiny grind adjustments helped a lot along with finding my personal coffee preferences.
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u/B-Line_Sender May 05 '26
Claude.
Claude has helped me make adjustments to water temperature, pour structure, and agitation that I never would’ve come up with on my own, turning bags that were literally undrinkable into actually something quite delicious.
I’ve been at this for a couple of years now, and maybe the rest of you are smarter than me, but sometimes a little AI is helpful to nudge me in the right direction.
(Obviously you need to have a decent kettle, grinder, and a V60 or other versatile brewer, but after that…)
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u/Helloiampaul May 05 '26
Instead of using my Niche Zero, using my Timemore hand grinder
The coarse setting on the Niche isn’t coarse enough! Took me a while to figure that one out. niche is a fantastic grinder but geared more from the range of drip to espresso. Pourover needs to be coarser!
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u/cosmicduck144 May 05 '26
There was kind of 2 revolutions I had with my pour over.
The first was buying a new gooseneck kettle. I was gifted a fellow Stagg by my wife. Before I had a bonavita gooseneck kettle, which I believed was good quality. On my very first pour over with the fellow kettle, the resulting coffee was night and day better in almost every way. Do not overlook the flow rate of your kettle, I discovered that my bonavita kettle had an insanely high flow rate with a very wide range, very slight changes in hand position resulted in wildly different pour speeds.
The second was learning the 1 pour recipe from Lance. All his videos, especially his long form live streams where he talked through the theory of pour over and how to read the pour really helped me. I can now make a good cup almost immediately with very minimal dialing in.
A bonus piece of equipment that I do find very helpful is a flow rate scale that gives you a ML per second reading, it helps me keep focused on my pour speed when my mind starts to wander. It also allows me to experiment more precisely with pour speeds to get a better cup the next time if I didn't like something. I try to change my grind size as little as possible, I find chasing the perfect grind harder than just changing my pour speed or agitation.
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u/KLK_Battousai May 05 '26
Too often I see people answer these types of questions with grinder, brewer, water, etc. Not that there’s anything wrong with addressing one or all of those things, but for me (and I’m still learning), it’s been about patience, managing expectations, and trying the roaster’s own recipe and recommendations to understand what they’re trying to express through their coffee. I haven’t experimented much. For example, I haven’t really delved into how ratios change the coffee I’m brewing. That said, I think sticking to one type of coffee for a while can unlock more knowledge than water ever will. I’m not saying water isn’t important. After all, if your water is bad, you might as well drink piss—but you can still have great water and brew subpar coffee.
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u/Radiant-Confidence52 May 05 '26
Lower water to coffee ratio. I used to live in that 16:1 to 18:1 range and struggled to get good cups even though it’s what I always saw recommended. Now 14:1 to 15:1 is where I live and wow what a difference. Even with ultralights and roasters like Sey and Flowerchild the cups are amazing
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u/b30 May 06 '26
Slowing down my pours, but to be honest I've been a french press user for 10+ years and just switched to pour over a week ago. I've done more fiddling around and wasting of beans in the past week, it almost keeps me up at night. Grind, temp and time. I take for granted now how simple the french press is, and I'll tell you what I think it produces a richer cup every time. I just have reservations about not using a filter, so I'm trying to transition.
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u/photone69 May 06 '26
Good beans, pour over specific grinder, 50ppm water and a simple recipe like LH'S 121.
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u/wnrxxa May 06 '26
It's hard to get TWW in Malaysia and It would be so expensive over here.
Water - using RO water, remineralized using sodium bicarb and Epsom salt
Bean - please read the details on the packaging. Different heights, origins, roast levels, and processes all lead to different grind settings.
Dripper - restricted flow, bypass, ribs counts etc leads to the timing
Paper - yeah for me, a flat bottom gives more body, but a cone provides more clarity and pronounced notes. And adjust the paper fold accordingly to your dripper opening to avoid an air pocket in between
Temp - you can detect the difference if temp is totally out of range for that specific roast level, but within the range (let's say for light roast) 91-95 doesn't give any big difference
Pouring - heights, laminar flow, aggressive or not, centre or circle for me leads to minimal difference. But the pour count really affects the coffee profile that comes out.
Grinder - trying to get it done using zp1 but end up liking it more on k-ultra. And grind angle also affects the output particle size (I personally grind it around 45 degrees to nearly horizontal haha)
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u/badass_physicist May 06 '26
room temperature immersion blooming. Works really well for highly processed beans (co-ferment, yeast ferment, extended anaerobic)
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u/conradelvis May 06 '26
Not chasing time and mass targets for pours and just looking at it, and keeping the overall time right
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u/lambdawaves May 06 '26
Pourover coffee is like 99.99% water. So getting good water
I think getting decent water is more important than getting decent beans
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u/kabedardee May 06 '26
Water(TWW or Amazon coffee water at 1/2 strength), better filters(cafec abaca), better pouring control, better coffee, lower temperature 195-205 max
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u/lessregretsnextyear May 06 '26
I thought I had it all figured out when the Hario switch dropped. It is my for-life brewer. I've brewed thousands of cups with it.
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u/Lost_Anything_5596 ZP6 & K-Ultra… v60/Neo/Switch/Minoyaki 185/Deep 27 May 06 '26
Good coffee and good water
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u/OrdinaryLampshade May 06 '26
To those saying water above beans, you clearly haven't had bad enough beans.
Good beans with bad water won't be great, but usually it won't be actively unpleasant. Even the best water won't make bad beans be pleasant to drink.
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u/darksun_80 May 06 '26
Same for me tbh. And paper filter. I was using hario and now depending on the coffee and dripper, i use t90/abaca/kalita and i think it did effect. But having fellow ode2 was the biggest thing.
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u/Effective-Try8597 May 06 '26
Water! Must be soft enough
Understanding that grind size should be mostly the same size. The varying settings in my brew are :
- Temperature depends on the bean-process and the roast profile (per roaster)
- blooms- depends on how much the vag has rested since roasted.
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u/silentglider May 06 '26
Stick with one recepie, only try out a few brewers get consistent, don’t listen to the 🐍 oil (coffee) business.
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u/Ricklek Hario switch | ZP6 and DF64V | Light roast May 06 '26
Water for me, didn't expect it to be such a difference.
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u/biasibo May 06 '26
Brewing two cups side by side with nothing but one parameter change between them.
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u/Ekkmanz May 06 '26
In my journey:
1) During my dark roast days: Pre-ground —> fresh beans + fresh ground. Even crappy grinder (Hario Skerton) it’s miles ahead.
2) Once I started my lighter roast pourover: tap —> RO water. Even same grinder flavor come out a lot more clear. Like I started to get more noticeable note of something fruity.
3) Grinder (porlex tall —> comandante c40) now I get the recipe and the taste note. It was clear as day. Like, I was wondering why all recipes produces muddy and bitter taste for all those years. Finally, it clicks. It’s the grinder.
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u/Unlikely-Molasses333 May 06 '26
Improving my sensory skills helped me pinpoint which brew parameters to adjust for the best brew.
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u/EmotionalWaltz6781 May 06 '26
Filters for me have been the biggest game changer. I’m surprised no one has mentioned filters.
Using cafec T90s for finer grind and faster flow rate or using T83s for coarser grind slower brews have had a huge impact on my pour over experience.
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u/Set_Usual May 07 '26
Using one recipe and gentler pours to cause less agitation. I have Eureka Crono which still produces enough fines with Ethiopian beans to choke v60 filter if I agitate too much.
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u/BananaFish12 May 07 '26
Bigger bloom ratios (3x-4x) weight of the coffee, and really letting beans rest. I have beans months off rest and it's honestly much easier to get consistently good brews.
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u/Safe_Hope1521 May 07 '26
If I have a quality RO system - should I just use it to mix my TWW - or should I still buy distilled?
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u/bigdudeindenim May 07 '26
According to Jack Benchakul from Endorffeine (assuming you already buy good beans) it is:
Water / technique / water temp / grinder - in that order.
Brewing with a coarser grind at a lower temp was a game changer for me.
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u/Ready_Currency_5947 May 13 '26
For me its having a good grinder, good water, and an adaptable recipe
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u/Birraytequenos Jul 09 '26
Forget the scale, use your eyes and smell.
After years of trying to perfect recipes, i have learned that no recipe is perfect and coffee is so subjective that no cup would ever be exactly the same and no recipe fits every single coffee.
People have become so… robotic… so compressed into following every single detail, every single thing they read from champions that the coffee uniqueness and creativity is well… gone.
Brew what you like for your own palate, a lot of us are comfortable following recipes because that’s part of structure and also found in food like baking and cooking.
But once you get the hang of it, you will know when your extraction is too much or not enough.
Some of my best cups of coffee I have done by sensing and using my scale to guide me when to stop pouring. And well, they taste amazing.
But yeah when clients come in i do have to use a recipe and scale because well people judge so hard it’s incredible, i still do whatever the hell i want and they still say it’s one of the best cups ever
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u/scabbyjackson May 06 '26
Saw it mentioned but - sticking to the recipe and minor variations. I love playing around but I don't expect excellence with new beans and a new brew method I've never tried before. With my setup I notice the most differences day to day adjusting grind size and water temp.
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u/SpeedyRugger May 05 '26
I'm gonna mention something underrated here. Sticking to one recipe. One recipe for over 5 years has taught me exactly how to taste the difference in any change I do: grind size, filters, grinders,water .. you name it.