We tested 11 ratios, 4 grind sizes, and 6 brewers. Here's the recipe and the data behind it.
A great pour-over is mostly about consistency, not flair. After a few weeks of testing in the brew lab — 11 ratios, 4 grind sizes, 6 different drippers — we landed on a recipe that's forgiving enough for a weekday morning and good enough to show off a Geisha. Here it is, then the why.
The recipe
- 22 g coffee, ground medium (like coarse table salt), to 360 g water — a 1:16 ratio.
- Water at 96°C, just off the boil. Cooler for very light roasts.
- Bloom with 60 g water, stir gently, wait 40 seconds.
- Pour in three even additions to 360 g total, finishing your last pour by about 2:15.
- Total brew time: 3:45–4:15. Drawdown should finish around four minutes.
Why a 1:16 ratio
We tested ratios from 1:14 to 1:18. Stronger than 1:15 and the cup got heavy and started to mask acidity; weaker than 1:17 and our brighter coffees thinned out and tasted watery. 1:16 sat in the sweet spot across every coffee on the menu, which is exactly what you want from a default — one recipe you don't have to rethink per bag.
Grind is the real variable
If your brew runs fast and tastes sour, go finer. If it runs slow, stalls, and tastes bitter or hollow, go coarser. Grind size moves extraction more than almost anything else, and it's the first thing to adjust before you start fiddling with temperature or ratio. A four-minute total time is your tell: much faster and you're under-extracting, much slower and you're over-extracting.
“Dial the grind to hit four minutes, keep the ratio fixed, and 90% of your pour-over problems solve themselves.”
Brew lab notes
Try it with a washed coffee first — the Aricha Lot 47 is a perfect candidate. Once the recipe is muscle memory, the only thing left to change between bags is the grind, and you'll be tasting the farm instead of fighting the brewer.
