Hi, this idea for a post came about after reading the other post asking people to describe their daily brew method.
I’ve been into coffee ever since I started chasing the ability to get decent coffee at home that’s strong enough so that most of the cup can be hot milk.
Cafetiere was always disappointing, the flavour always seemed to be a bit… “woody” if that makes sense? Almost like you’d expect ground coffee beans to taste like, and not the “actual extracted coffee flavour” that you’d expect.
I never bothered with any of the pourover methods because I couldn’t see how they were any good for “milk drinks”, they just seemed like different ways of making caferiere strength coffee but with more control over the brew.
I was never aware of aeropress really early on, and when I did hear about it it just looked like another way of making filter strength coffee so I steered clear of that.
Then I discovered the Moka pot which I used for years by cramming it with as much coffee as I could get into it which used to get pretty close to espresso strength but obviously not proper espresso.
Eventually we bought a Bambino Plus in lockdown and have been knocking out at least decent 2 lattes per day ever since (usually more if my wife is home)
The confusing thing for me has always been that the guys I have worked with over the years who have been really into their coffee have always used pourover or aeropress, and I’ve always been a little bit puzzled as to why they haven’t upgraded to an espresso machine yet (these people are all well paid and could definitely afford one if they wanted one, looking at the grinders they used to buy)
With all of this context in mind, what is the attraction to pourover or aeropress style coffee vs. espresso? E.g. espresso can = americano if it’s just a case of liking watered down coffee without a lot of milk, just add hot water. Please sell me on the idea of pourover or similar methods 🙂
Espresso is so much goddamn work. I don’t have the time or energy in the morning to “get the perfect pull” and perfectly froth the milk and all that bullshit.
Instead, I turn on my electric kettle, run my burr grinder, put the coffee in the thing and then put water in the thing and presto - perfectly smooth delicious coffee that I can drink black or toss some milk if I want. I even have a stick frother I can use if I really want fancy frothed milk.
Also, best part is that my pour over kit, the french press I use when I’m reall pressed for time, and the stick frother, all cost 1/4 of the cost of a good espresso machine.
I can pull a really good espresso swon’t. minutes after waking up on my flair 58. The hot water from the kettle is the “long pole in the tent”.
I do agree that a pourover setup is cheaper though.
And I’m happy you were able to figure out the perfect method and it works for you. But OP asked for the opinion of a pour over user and that’s what I’m giving.
For me, it’s less about how long its going to take to make and more about how long its going to take before I make it good. I’m not willing to spend weeks suffering through bad coffee while I learn how to make espresso. I also don’t want a particularly fuzzy morning to result in bad coffee. Espresso has a steep learning curve and is error prone. And yes, I bought an espresso machine, tried it, discovered this fact, and returned it.Pouro over is way easier for me and tastes great.
I understand that this is all a me problem. And that’s fine. Everyone likes their coffee differently and there’s nothing wrong with that. I experimented with lots of options and pour over is where I landed.
And I would encourage everyone here to do the same. Try a bunch of methods. Return the ones you don’t like. Do your coffee your way.