Manual pour-over drip brewing is one of the cheapest, easiest ways to make great coffee. All you need is a pack of good quality paper (or hemp) filters, a filtercone holder, and a way to heat water. With a manual method, you can be assured the water is 200 degrees (unlike most auto-drip machines), and that the grounds are thoroughly wet.

Pour-over brewing has seen a lot of attention in recent years, and suddenly it seems there are a lot of filtercones to choose from. We carry thermoplastic dripper cones, two kinds of porcelain drip cones too, and now, the Clever Coffee Dripper. Which filtercone to choose? You can make good coffee with all of them; depending on the number of holes in the filter (or the drip stop mechanism with the Clever Coffee Dripper), you may need to use a slightly different method with each cone. The Clever Coffee Dripper requires the least amount of technique - it is sort of idiot proof. The more holes a filtercone has, the more you need to take care in how you add the water, essentially adding water slowly and carefully to maintain the thermal mass of the coffee and draw out the infusion time.

We have a revised page on Brewing Fundamentals that reflects some of the more recent thinking about coffee brewing. And I just wrote a Drip Brewing Tip Sheet.