Our Guide for Choosing the Best Pour Over Set

So, you’re looking to change up your coffee routine a bit? Maybe you’ve seen those fancy pour over sets and wondered what the hype was all about? Coffee brewed by hand, without a machine dictating water temperature, distribution, flow rate, etc…, can be the true coffee lover’s haven. Afterall, with the push in recent years towards understanding where our food comes from, using a manual brewing method such as a pour over helps achieve that deeper connection to your morning brew. There’s a word I haven’t yet found in the english dictionary to describe the true feeling of putting your own hands on whatever food or drink you are preparing and enjoying. An ergonomic, aesthetically pleasing pour over set can add that extra ingredient to your morning routine that can positively influence the rest of your day.

Today there is a wide variety of pour over brewers to choose from that making a decision about which one to buy can be overwhelming. No need to scour over reviews or product pages. We have done that for you. Here are our top pour over sets we recommend.

The Crowd Pleaser - Chemex 6 or 8 cup

The Chemex is a fantastic looking brewer with its hourglass shape and snug wooden handle. It’s simple in that the carafe is attached to the cone-shaped brew chamber. Out of any of these products we review here, the Chemex is the go-to option for someone who is brewing coffee for more than two people. While we recommend the six or eight cup Chemex based on ergonomics and ease of brewing, they have a ten cup option that will yield as much coffee as most automatic brewers. The Chemex can brew delicious coffee, but it often requires a coarser grind, so make sure you have an adjustable burr grinder at home for best results. A blade grinder and pre-ground coffee might yield grounds too fine that can cause blockages, slowing the flow rate resulting in bitter and muddled flavors.

For this category we’re also a fan of the Hario V60 Coffee Decanter.

The Classic - Hario V60 & Kalita Wave

These two brewers were some of the first to storm the pour over scene, and if you do some research along websites like Reddit or various coffee blogs they will undoubtedly offer a comparison between these two. The main design difference is found in the bottom of the dripper. The Kalita Wave offers a flat bottom whereas the Hario V60 offers a hole at the bottom. These two differences affect usability and flavor. The V60’s narrower bottom lends to a faster brew time, but with the increased risk of channeling. Channeling is when water bypasses most of the coffee grounds quickly through a channel, extracting more from some grounds and less from others. The best tasting coffee is always a result from an even extraction (this happens when there is an equal saturation of water to the ground coffee). While the V60 has potential to offer a cleaner, and more vibrant flavor profile, it often requires some tinkering. 

The Kalita on the other hand, while often results in a longer brew time, will have less channeling than it’s Hario counterpart. It’s typical to expect a fuller bodied cup with a flavor profile famous with darker roasts. To boil it down, the Kalita Wave is more forgiving, but has a lower ceiling for flavor profile, whereas the Hario V60 takes some practice, but can eventually yield a fantastic, vibrant flavor in your cup, especially if you favor light to medium roasts.

The Looker - Origami Dripper

This brewer was widely introduced to the scene when Du Jianing of China won the World Brewer’s Cup while using the Origami Dripper. This pour over brewer comes in a variety of colors, and its quality design doesn’t just stop at aesthetic. This dripper is very well crafted from ceramic, and it yields a tasty cup as well. Afterall, you can’t win a world brewer championship with sub par coffee flavor. The unique value of this brewer goes beyond it’s beautiful design in that it also is suited for a flat bottom or pointed bottom filter. Furthermore, it’s possible to experiment with the two types of bottoms discussed in the paragraph above by simply switching out the filters. Overall this is a fantastic option because, yes it’s nice to look at, but many coffee gurus also place this dripper alongside the famed V60, Chemex and Wave in terms of coffee flavor.

We hope our review of these pour over sets helps you in your journey to better coffee at home. If you have any other pour over sets you have particularly enjoyed, feel free to let us know by leaving a comment below.

READ MORE: Is Pour-Over Coffee Really That Special?

About The Author

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.