The Wall Street Journal
By: Daniel Varghese
March 7, 2024 5:30 am ET
The best days begin with a great cup of coffee; this much is indisputable. But how are the best cups of coffee made?
You might believe it requires special-order German-made equipment, expensive single-origin beans and a 11-step technique. But quality joe requires less work than you might imagine. “There’s nothing wrong with nerding out on small details or making a hobby out of coffee-making, but it’s not necessary to take it that far to get a great cup,” said Tony Konecny, co-founder of coffee subscription service Yes Plz.
Here, five myths about your morning brew and why they’re baloney.
1. Pour-over brewing is too fussy for me to do at home.
Many associate the often-delicious pour-over—the result of streaming hot water into a conical-shaped brewer that’s been filled with ground coffee and placed atop a cup—with specialty coffee shops, barista competitions and handlebar mustaches. But coffee pros say pour-over brewers require little beyond some trial and error.
“Some of my partners are really into the science of coffee and getting the right ratio of coffee to water,” said Jamin Butler, CEO of the Black Coffee Company in Atlanta. But he’s far more casual when making coffee at home, where he just eyeballs measurements. “Ultimately, I’m brewing for my taste buds, not what some mathematician wrote out.” (Start with one to two tablespoons of ground coffee per cup of water.)
That said, you’ll get more from pour-over brewers like the Chemex Six-Cup Classic ($50) if you use a scale to keep things consistent once you find a ratio you like. “You can’t bake (or reproduce) a tasty cake without measuring your ingredients,” said Wendelien Van Bunnik, an independent coffee consultant based in Utrecht, Netherlands.
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