How to Make Pour-Over Coffee At Home

Brew fresh, coffee shop-quality coffee at home, with no fancy equipment needed. Enter: The pour-over method.

Are you a strict Taster’s Choice girl? Does your favorite coffee shop know your order and start brewing while you’re still parking? Do you Keurig? Nespresso? Savor your coffee at home or grab one on your way out the door in the morning? 

No matter how you coffee (I promise, I don’t discriminate*), if you take it even half as seriously as I do, you need a seamless coffee solution that makes you happy every morning. And if you don’t have one, or you think that the only coffee worth drinking has to come from a coffee shop or involve an expensive machine, then keep reading.

You’ll need:

1. Ground coffee beans
2. Filters
3. A coffee cone 

Let’s take it from the top. You can buy ground coffee from just about anywhere. The fresher your coffee beans/grinds are, the better your coffee will taste. It’s as simple as that. I either check on the bag to see when it was ground or when it expires (higher-end brands will have it printed on the bag), or I try to buy from stores that have a lot of turnaround. 

Trader Joe’s has a great selection of coffee beans. If your family goes through lots of coffee, Costco is your best bet. They sell whole-bean and ground, but keep in mind the bags are big! So make sure you have a lot of coffee drinkers if you’re going to buy ground, as the grinds lose freshness over time. (Do I anyway kind of want you to buy whole-bean coffee and a coffee grinder? I do, but I’m trying to keep this simple! No fancy equipment needed!)

As for what kind of coffee is best, you have to get to know your own taste! Light roast beans have a more traditional coffee-shop taste. Medium roast is, you guessed it, maybe a little stronger than the light. And dark roast is what you’re used to from Starbucks; it has more of a burnt taste. If you’re new to this, starting with medium roast is your best bet.

Next, coffee filters. Ladies, any filter will do. Grab at Amazon, Target, or on your next grocery run: I’ve found that they’re actually cheapest at Trader Joe’s.

Next, a coffee cone. For years, I used a classic Melitta coffee cone shown above. It’s inexpensive, durable, and takes up minimal space. Recently, my niece convinced me to give her upgraded OXO cone a try (the eggs are telling the chickens what to do), and I converted! Their function is the same, but with the OXO, you pour the water into a small container above the cone and it drips at the perfect speed on its own, taking effortless to a new level.

That’s really all you need. The cone goes on top of your mug. The filter goes into the cone. Coffee grinds go into the filter (I use two tablespoons for about 10 ounces, but you can start lower if you like your coffee less strong). If you’re using the OXO cone, just pour however many ounces you want of hot water in, walk away, and walk back when it’s done dripping. If you’re using the Melitta cone, I like to pour just a little bit of hot water in to get the grinds wet, then slowly swirl the rest of the hot water in small circles, until it’s done dripping.

There’s no mess, barely anything to wash, and your perfect coffee cost pennies! Add your milk of choice,  and enjoy it while it’s hot!

*Unless you really only drink instant coffee. Then I’m judging. Just a little.

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