The Important Differences Between Clever Dripper Coffee And Pour-Over
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The coffee brewer you prefer is a function of convenience but also flavor. While some coffee drinkers want the push-button satisfaction of a single-serve pod brewer like a Keurig, others delight in trying new methods, varying the settings of their burr grinder, and fiddling with water temperature for different roasts of beans. While it's a bit time-consuming, one of the simplest methods for making coffee manually — as opposed to an automatic drip or espresso maker that relies on electricity — is the pour-over.
A pour-over is a drip brew method that involves pouring hot water over ground coffee, usually through a filter held in a cone-shaped plastic basket. A proper pour-over takes several minutes because you have to carefully regulate the flow of water through the ground coffee. By design, the method can't be rushed, as the basket that holds the ground coffee only has a small hole in the bottom, ensuring a slow and steady drip. If you've spotted what's known as a clever dripper in the wild, you likely assumed it was just another type of pour-over device, but in terms of method, it's totally different; it's actually an immersion-style brewer.
What's a clever dripper?
A clever dripper is sealed at the bottom with a gasket that keeps the water inside until you release the brewed coffee. That means that ground coffee is immersed in hot water, allowing for more extraction and stronger coffee — assuming you used the same amount and grind you would've for a pour-over. When you've allowed the coffee in your clever dripper to steep for several minutes, simply place it on your coffee mug. While the clever dripper doesn't fit perfectly over every coffee mug, if the mug is the right size, it will press up on the seal at the bottom of the dripper and quickly release the coffee into the cup.
The dripper, like the Aeropress and French Press, relies on the immersion of ground coffee in water, which typically delivers fuller extraction and flavor when compared to a pour-over. The clever dripper is a bit easier to brew than a pour-over; you simply pour the water into the brewer and wait a few minutes, rather than slowly pouring the water over the entire course of the brew, but most drippers brew a single cup at a time, while a pour-over can deliver several cups, depending on your setup. Like any brewing method, decisions about which brewers to purchase depend on how you like your coffee, how much effort you want to spend on each cup, and — for coffee nerds — space limitations that restrict how many brewers you can accumulate.