Classic Pour-Over Coffee

Pour-over is the cheapest brew method on this site to start, and the one with the least gear standing between you and a genuinely good cup. No espresso machine, no steamed milk, no seasonal syrup — just coffee, water, and a bit of attention. This is the quick recipe card: exact ratios and steps. If you want the “why” behind each step, the troubleshooting, and the gear breakdown, that’s a separate how-to guide — this page is just what to actually do.

The Recipe

Ratio: 1:16, coffee to water. For one 12oz cup, that’s 22g of coffee to 350g (about 12oz) of water.

1. Rinse a paper filter in the dripper with hot water, then discard the rinse water — this clears the papery taste and preheats the dripper and mug.
2. Add 22g of medium-coarse coffee to the filter and level the bed with a gentle shake.
3. Bloom: pour about 40g of ~200°F water evenly over the grounds. Let it sit 30-45 seconds — you’ll see it puff and bubble as trapped CO2 escapes.
4. Pour the rest of the water in 2-4 slow, staged pours, spiraling from the center out and back, pausing to let the bed drain partway between pours, until you hit 350g total.
5. Total brew time: about 2.5-4 minutes from the start of the bloom. Pull the dripper as soon as the last of it drains through.
6. Drink it black, or add milk and sweetener if that’s your preference — this recipe is written black-first, but nothing about the method changes if you add either.

Basic plastic dripper (one-time)$9

Paper filter (per cup)$0.05

Coffee, 22g of $16/lb beans$0.78

Café drip coffee, one cup (plain, not a latte)$3.25

Cost per home cup after the dripper: about $0.83, versus roughly $3.25 for a plain drip coffee at a café — a savings of about $2.42 per cup. The $9 dripper pays for itself in under 3 cups.

A note on the comparison: this site’s standard café baseline elsewhere is $5.75, but that figure is for a latte — an espresso drink with steamed milk. A plain drip coffee is cheaper than a latte at cafés too, typically $3-3.50 depending on city and roaster, so that’s the honest number to compare black coffee against, not the espresso-drink figure.

Assumptions: 12oz cup, 1:16 ratio (22g coffee), $16/lb specialty beans, $3.25 café plain-drip baseline (national-average range is roughly $3.00-$3.50).

Getting It Right

• Medium-coarse grind — think coarse sea salt. Too fine clogs the filter and over-extracts (bitter, sometimes overflowing); too coarse drains too fast and under-extracts (sour, watery).
• Don’t skip the bloom. A dry, unsaturated bed is the single most common reason pour-over tastes flat or uneven.
• Pour slowly, in stages, not all at once. Dumping the full amount in one go floods the bed and extracts unevenly.
• A kitchen scale helps but isn’t required — a marked mug or a rough tablespoon count works while you’re learning.

Recipe Card Summary

Classic Pour-Over, 12oz Cup

• 22g coffee (medium-coarse grind), 350g water (~200°F)
• Ratio: 1:16, coffee to water
• Bloom: ~40g water, 30-45 seconds
• Main pour: remaining water in 2-4 slow, staged pours
• Total time: 2.5-4 minutes
• Cost: ~$0.83/cup (plus a one-time ~$9 dripper), vs. ~$3.25 café drip coffee

FAQ

Do I need a gooseneck kettle for this?

No. A gooseneck kettle makes controlling your pour easier, especially early on, but a regular kettle poured slowly and deliberately makes genuinely good pour-over.

Can I use pre-ground coffee?

Yes — pre-ground medium-coarse coffee from the store works fine for this recipe. Freshly ground just off a burr grinder tastes better, but it’s not required to make a good cup.

Is this recipe the same as a drip coffee maker?

Close, but not identical — both are filtered, non-pressurized coffee, and pour-over just trades a drip machine’s automated pour for direct, hands-on control over pour rate and bloom timing. See How Much You’ll Save Making Coffee at Home for the full annual math once you’re brewing regularly.