coffee brewing methods

How to Make Coffee with a Manual Dripper – Pour Over Infographic

Manual Drip Infographic

If you love drip coffee, but the auto-dripper you are using can’t brew a single cup, pour over coffee is one of the best options. Many people get discouraged by the technical aspect of brewing with a manual dripper. The reality is that it’s not that complicated.

This infographic shows you step by step how to use a pour over device to make a delicious coffee at home. It will be better than the coffee shop coffee.

The most important things when making coffee at home are the grind size and the brewing temperature. These two coffee brewing parameters can dramatically change the taste of your drink. Make sure you adjust these correctly. More on the subject in our manual drip brewing guide.

infographic showing how to make pour over coffee

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Pour Over Coffee Recipe

  1. Heat up water to 205 °F in a kettle.
  2. Measure on a scale 30 grams of coffee for every 12 oz of water
  3. Grind the coffee to a medium grind size
  4. Line the dripper with a paper filter and pre-wet the filter.
  5. Add the ground coffee into the filter, and gently tap the dripper to level the grinds.
  6. Start pouring water over the grounds with a circular motion starting from the center to the edges.
  7. Pour just enough to cover all the coffee, and give it a stir with a wooden spoon.
  8. Allow the coffee to bloom and release the trapped gas, and then pour the rest of the water, allowing it to slowly drip. Total dripping time should be around 1 minute up to 80 seconds.

We would like to know what is your recipe for pour over. If you tried our recipe, how did you like it?

How To Make Coffee with A French Press [and Espresso]

French Press Brewing Guide Infographic

The French press is one of the most inexpensive coffee makers, and it is pretty versatile. People who like a stronger, and bolder cup, appreciate this coffee brewing method. Many times French press is compared to espresso, because of the ample body, and the strong aroma and flavor. Even if technically French pots cannot make real espresso, we can get a cup that resembles it. We just have to tweak the amount of water we use during brewing. We have a full French press brewing guide here, if you want to get into the fine details, and perfect your technique.

French Press Brewing Guide Infographic



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How to Make Coffee with A French Press

  1. Grind Coffee
    For every 7 oz of water, use 8 g of coffee. That’s about a heaping tablespoon. Grind coffee beans coarsely for a clear coffee, or medium for an espresso body. If you want to get an espresso-like coffee, use half of the water with the same amount of beans.
  2. Warm Up Pot
    Brewing temperature drops fast in a cold French pot.
    Warm up your pot by filling it with hot water. Do that gradually so you don’t break the glass.
    This not only prevents getting a tepid coffee in the end, but it helps a proper extraction.
  3. Add Coffee Grounds
    Remove the hot water, and add the measured coffee grounds.
    Only remove the hot water when you are ready to brew. An empty pot will cool down faster.
  4. Pour Water
    Heat up water to 200 °F. The temperature range is actually between 194 and 200 °F. Lower temperatures will result in a more rounded taste.
    Pour some water over the grinds, just enough to cover the grounds. Stir vigorously to make sure all grinds are wet.
    When you made sure all grounds are saturated, pour the rest of the water and stir a couple more times.
  5. Seal Pot
    Press the plunger down to the water level, and close the lid. Make sure you turn the lid shut, so you seal it. Let it steep 3 – 5 min, according to your preference.
  6. Filter It
    After the 5 minutes, push the plunger all the way down, with a slow move. Press slowly, and don’t rush it up. If you press to hard, you’ll end up with silt and grounds in your coffee.
  7. Pour in Cups
    Pour in cups and serve immediately. Coffee is best served hot.
  8. Clean It
    Clean the pot by rinsing with warm water.

How to Make Coffee with a Moka Pot – Infographic

Infographic - How to Make Coffee with a Moka Pot

We created this infographic for the time pressed coffee lover that needs a strong coffee and needs to stay on a low budget. Many people call it stove top espresso maker, because it brews a strong and bold coffee, and it uses pressure during extraction. And we agree with that, moka pot is in many ways very similar to an espresso. Moreover, we can use it to prepare a beautiful latte or a delicious cappuccino, or a flat white. Here is the infographic, and at the end of the graphic you also have a written version of it. 

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  1. Grind the coffee beans using a good burr grinder. The grind size is slightly coarser than espresso, but finer than drip.
  2. Fill the base of your moka pot with hot water up to the line, or slightly below. Never pass the sign.
  3. Place the funnel in the boiler chamber, (the base).
  4. Loosely fill the filter-funnel with coffee grounds. Do NOT pack the grounds as we do with espresso. If you pack them, there coffee will not rise in the collector chamber. Or it will rise too slow, and over-extract.
  5. Make sure rim is clean and screw on the top chamber onto the boiler. If the rim is not perfectly clean, the pot will lose pressure.
  6. Put the Moka pot on the burner on low, or medium heat. A gas stove is the best. The electric stove works too, but you need to use a heat diffuser.
  7. If you used hot water, after two minutes coffee will start to flow. If you used cold water, you’ll wait about 6-8 minutes until the top reservoir is full.
  8. Once coffee starts to flow in the top carafe, immediately take it off the heat. The residual heat will be enough to finish the brewing. Some people leave it on the stove until coffee is almost completely brewed, and then cool the base off with cold water to stop the brewing.
  9. Stir in the upper chamber with a spoon to mix the different coffee layers for uniform flavor.
  10. Pour it in cups right away.

For a complete how to, and more brewing tips, read our full tutorial about Brewing with a Moka Pot.

People call moka pot “stovetop espresso”. The term is not a complete misnomer, because the brewing method uses pressure in the preparation process, and the cup you get is bold, thick and flavorful, similar to espresso. This why we included this infographic in our home barista espresso guide. You can make great lattes and cappuccinos using stove-top espresso, and you can even drink it neat. However, real espresso is a distinctive coffee, that needs more pressure and a controlled brewing temperature.

How to Make Coffee with an AeroPress – Infographic

Here is a simple step-by-step guide on how to use an AeroPress. Coffee prepared this way is a bold, full bodied cup. At the same time, the cup is very smooth, without the harsh notes and the bitterness associated with French Press. It is an inexpensive way to make an espresso alternative. Here is the recipe as an infographic, or lower in the page as a text :

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  1. Heat water
    Heat your water to 175 to 180 °F. If you don’t have a variable temperature kettle, or a thermometer, boil the water and let it sit for about two minutes.
  2. Rinse the Filter
    Place the paper filter inside the cap and rinse it with hot water. This way, you eliminate the filter’s papery taste, and you seal it inside the cap.
  3. Weigh and grind beans
    Use a scale to measure about 16-17g of beans. Grind the coffee slightly coarser than filter.
  4. Mix Coffee and Water
    Place your cap on the AeroPress and dump the grounds in. Add half of the water.
  5. Bloom
    Give it a few stirs and let the grounds bloom for 30 seconds. This allows the trapped gas to be released from the coffee and it helps the extraction.
  6. One more Stir
    Give it one or two more gentle stirs, and fill the AeroPress almost to the top. Allow some room for the plunger.
  7. Steeping time
    Insert the plunger in the brewing chamber, (just enough to seal it), and place the AeroPress on a cup, with the cap down.
  8. Filter It
    Press down with steady pressure to the end. Enjoy.

If you need a more thorough brewing guide, with geeky facts, tips and tricks, check our in depth AeroPress tutorial.

This infographic is part of our guide on how to brew espresso at home. AeroPress coffee is not espresso, but it is a great alternative, for those on a low budget. The advanced AeroPress guide shows you some great tips on how to pull shots that can pass as espresso. If you just need the coffee for a latte, don’t worry too much about “semantics”, this is perfect for your needs.

The Best Manual Coffee Brewing Method – Pour Over vs French Press vs Aeropress

Pour over with Hario V60
Chemex BrewingManual brewing methods are the newest trend in the coffee world. All respectable coffee shops provide at least one type of manual brewing, be it French press, hand drip, or Aeropress. In some households the old reliable French pot has never been missing from the morning routine, no matter what the industry said. The trend with manual brewing in coffee shops is not simply for the show, or to attract customers. Coffee prepared this way is just better. Smells and tastes better than an automatic-drip coffee, or coffee made with a capsule based machine.… Read more

Quick Cold Brew Coffee – How to Make a Cold Brew Coffee in 3 Minutes

iced coffee in glasses

black iced coffeeCold pressed coffee, most commonly known as cold brew coffee, is the best way to brew coffee for people with sensitive stomachs. It is also the best coffee brewing method to make an iced coffee because the coffee is already cold. Many people enjoy more the cold pressed coffee than hot brewed methods because there are certain flavors that will be lost at higher temperatures. That’s valid the other way around too, high-temperature brewing will extract great flavors from coffee, but they are lost once the coffee has cooled, and in fact, cooling hot brewed coffee is not a great idea.

… Read more