Best Pour-Over Coffee Makers for Home: How to Choose

Pour-over coffee is one of the simplest ways to make a clean, flavourful cup at home. You pour hot water over ground coffee in a filter cone, and the coffee drips through into your cup or a jug. Because you control the water, the speed and the timing, it's a great way to taste the difference between coffees from different origins.

There are lots of pour-over coffee makers to choose from. Here are the ones we think are best for brewing at home, and how to pick the right one for you.

The best pour-over coffee makers

Hario V60

The V60 is the classic pour-over dripper, and the one you'll see on most coffee shop brew bars. It's a cone with spiral ridges and one large hole, so the speed of your pour has a big effect on the taste. That makes it brilliant once you get the hang of it, but less forgiving for beginners. It comes in plastic, ceramic, glass and metal, and in sizes for one or two cups.

Kalita Wave

The Kalita Wave has a flat bottom with three small holes, and uses wavy paper filters. The coffee bed sits more evenly, so it's easier to get a consistent, well-balanced cup. A good choice if you want great results without perfecting your technique.

Chemex

The Chemex is an hourglass-shaped glass jug with a wooden collar, and it doubles as a serving jug. Its thick paper filters make a very clean, light-bodied coffee, and the larger sizes are ideal when you're brewing for several people. Read our guide to brewing with a Chemex.

Melitta-style drippers

These simple wedge-shaped drippers have one or a few small holes, so the water drains slowly and steadily. They're inexpensive, easy to use, and the filters are easy to find in supermarkets.

Clever Dripper

The Clever Dripper is a cross between a pour-over and a cafetière. The coffee steeps in the cone, and when you put it on your cup a valve opens and it drains through the filter. It's very forgiving, so it's a great first pour-over.

How to choose

• One cup or more? Drippers like the V60 and Kalita sit on a mug, and come in sizes for one or two cups. A Chemex is better for brewing several cups at once.
• How hands-on do you want to be? If you enjoy perfecting your technique, try a V60. If you want an easy, consistent cup, a Kalita Wave, Melitta-style dripper or Clever Dripper is more forgiving.
• Which material? Plastic drippers are cheap, light and hold heat well. Ceramic and glass look great but need warming first. Metal is hard-wearing.
• Paper or metal filter? Paper gives a cleaner, brighter cup. Reusable metal filters let through more oils, for a fuller body with a little sediment.

What else you need

• A kettle: a gooseneck kettle gives you a slow, steady pour, but any kettle will do to start.
• Scales: a good starting point is 15g of coffee to 250ml of water, which is about 60g per litre.
• Freshly ground coffee: a medium grind, like coarse sand. If you buy ground coffee from us, choose the "Filter or pour-over" grind.

How to brew a pour-over

1. Put a filter in the dripper, rinse it with hot water and pour that water away.
2. Add your ground coffee and give it a shake to level it.
3. Using water just off the boil, pour about twice the weight of the coffee over the grounds, enough to wet them all, and wait 30–45 seconds while the coffee "blooms".
4. Pour the rest of the water slowly, in circles, over 2–3 minutes.
5. Let it drain, then enjoy. If it tastes bitter, grind a little coarser; if it tastes sour or weak, grind finer.

For more brewing tips, see our guide to brewing better coffee at home and how much ground coffee to use.