Changed my mind about pour-over after visiting that tiny shop in Portland

I always thought pour-over was fussy nonsense until I watched the barista at Heart Roasters do it with a $5 plastic Melitta cone and a regular kettle, and it beat my $80 machine's brew, so has anyone else had a simple setup outperform their fancy gear?

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1 Comment

zara_hunt6d ago

Honestly, I think you got lucky with the beans or the water, not the gear. That $5 cone is just a plastic funnel, it can't control temperature or flow rate like a real brewer. A machine with a proper shower head and a pre-soak cycle gives you repeatable results every single time, which matters way more than one lucky cup. Watching someone who does this all day make a single good pour with a cheap cone is like watching a pro chef use a dull knife, it's skill, not the tool. Most of us at home don't have that skill, so the machine is doing the heavy lifting for us. I'd bet if you did that same pour-over ten times at home, eight of them would come out bitter or weak, and that's the real difference.