There are so many different methods of brewing coffee that this is pretty obviously a difficult question to answer. I have my opinions, Cicero has his, and you, faithful reader, probably have your own.
As I write this I begin to realize that this is probably going to turn into quite a few posts, because as we discover and collect more and more home coffee barista madness related toys, this could very quickly become a complicated matter.
So, first off, let’s break this down into the major players.
- The Drip Pot
- The Siphon
- The Press Pot
- The Pour Over
We are only going to cover these basic four. Why? Because we don’t want to cover espresso here, we don’t think it qualifies as a standard Home Coffee Maker. It is a Home Espresso Maker. Semantics? Maybe.
We also want to save the relatively complex process of cold brewing coffee for another article (or thirty).
So suffice to say we’re covering The Big Four in home brewing methods.
Four methods will enter…
…but only one will walk away.
The Drip Pot
Cicero and myself both give this a thumb down (do cats have thumbs?). We’ve both been making drip coffee our entire lives, we’re used to it, and we still drink it occasionally.
But of all four methods, this is by far our least favorite. Partly it is just the lack of creativity in this method, it’s boring, everyone does it.
But that alone would be no reason to write something off, if drip coffee actually made the best coffee it would make sense why it is such a popular method.
And yet it really doesn’t. It actually makes really bad coffee. Even if you’ve ground your beans perfectly, even if they’re freshly roasted and the exact blend or single origin that you like, even if you use fresh, pure, filtered water to brew. It won’t matter; the drip pot will make the coffee bitter and completely fail to extract the subtle nuances of the bean.
But, Peter, mine has a timer – it makes coffee while I’m still in bed.
That’s great, really it is. You can’t find siphons or press pots that automatically start while you’re still sleeping. But you can’t get a drip pot to fully immerse your beans and soak out all of its natural flavors, can you?
You can’t.
Drip pot doesn’t get our vote.
The Siphon
These are not always called coffee siphons; a lot of people call them vacpots.
Why do they call them vacpots?
For one of three reasons:
- They want to sound pretentious.
- They want to confuse the non-barista, non-coffee nerd.
- Because it creates a vacuum that sucks the coffee through the grounds, leaving the grounds on the top level whilst all the delicious coffee is in the bottom compartment waiting to be imbibed.
I have met a lot of people that swear by coffee siphons for all their brewing needs, at home, in the office, or in the cafes and roasters that they own or run. It seems, at least from my personal experience, that siphons are especially popular with roasters. Who knows why, maybe it’s a conspiracy.
The argument in favor of the siphon is that it creates a massively effective full immersion of the bean by means of simple chemistry – the expansion of gas literally forces the water in the bottom compartment up into the top compartment where it immerses the grounds sitting there. It looks like magic to anyone but a chemist, and as far as Cicero and I are concerned, it really is magic. I mean, if you look at this thing, it has to be magic.
We are really tempted just to end the competition early and claim the siphon as the obvious choice winner. It makes a clean enough cup to argue that it’s all you need, but it’s definitely more complicated than either the French press or the pour over method.
So, even though it makes amazing coffee, we think it isn’t the best brewing method to get started on. It can be intimidating for newbies and takes more practice and skill than the two latter methods.
But we still think in the future everyone should own a coffee siphon.
And we have been told that it makes the best coffee in the world.
The Press Pot
Cicero and I love the French press – we have a Bodum Chambord that we ramble about constantly, it just makes really fabulous coffee and we think that it’s the best coffee press there is.
If you have never used a press pot you need to own one. You won’t regret it, even if you buy one of the cheaper, less awesome one’s like the Bodum Brazil.
The press pot is an incredibly simple way to make the best coffee ever. We just pulled ours out of the box and went straight to using it. It’s that easy.
Basically press pots use a wire mesh that you plunge down to separate coffee from water after a few minutes of them happily being together. The coffee grounds get soaked through thanks to the full immersion method of brewing, and then once the wire mesh is plunged all the grounds are trapped. (Here at Project Vvlgar we sometimes wonder if Admiral Ackbar was a coffee bean in a past life).
Press pots allow much more flavor than pour over methods, which is why we actually rate our Bodum French Press as being a slightly higher quality method of brewing than pour over, which you can get the best price on here: Bodum 8-c. Chambord Coffee Press
But we love our pour over.
Yeah, let’s talk about that.
The Pour Over
Here at Project Vvlgar our pour over device of choice is our trusty Hario v60, but a lot of people are very strong proponents of the Chemex.
As we discovered not too long ago, one huge advantage the Chemex has over the Hario is that it is a singular device with a transparent lower compartment, so you definitely know how much water is in the bottom.
The second time we brewed using our Hario v60 we poured too much, it overflowed, and it was tragic. So tragic we wrote an entire article about it called How We Over Poured the Pour Over.
Still, the Hario v60 and other pour over devices have a distinct advantage over all other methods, including the press pot.
The pour over is simpler and easier.
It is just a cone that we place on top of our coffee mug, we grind the beans, pour them into a filter that we place inside the Hario v60, and that’s it. Pour hot water over the cone and you’re drinking fabulous coffee.
We do however have detailed instructions so that you can learn from our mistakes.
Closing Thoughts
Brewing coffee doesn’t have to be complicated; in fact, brewing excellent coffee can actually be really simple.
- Don’t waste time on a drip pot. If you’re interested in making good coffee when you use a drip pot you are shooting yourself in the foot (proverbially speaking, drip pots don’t carry guns in real life).
- Siphons are probably the coolest looking and most fun way to brew coffee. They work phenomenally, and they provide a great extraction of the bean. So especially if you’re using really good, properly roasted, and fresh beans this is a great way to make sure that you are getting all the flavors out. But they’re a little complicated and take some practice. We still think you should try them though.
- Press pots are the standard. They really are, and for damn good reason. Since French presses are a full immersion method of brewing, you’re getting all the same benefits that you might reap from the siphon, without the extra complications. They work right out of the box and take very little to time to brew fantastic coffee. Another distinct advantage over the pour over is that it serves a handful of people.
- Pour over devices like the Hario v60 and Chemex are a great and very simple way to make excellent coffee. It makes a clean cup, which is what everyone is looking for, and it takes zero skill whatsoever. I mean, my cat and I didn’t even mess it up, and we mess EVERYTHING up. So don’t listen to all the hipsters telling you that pour over coffee is really complicated – they just say that because they need to feel validated.
STEAL THAT VALIDATION, MAKE POUR OVER COFFEE!
If you’re interested in learning more about press pots, check out Peter and Cicero Find the Best French Press…it explains our Socratic method of deciding on the Bodum Chambord…or what that Aristotelian?
If you haven’t purchased a french press yet, you should do that. Click here to get the best price: Bodum 8-c. Chambord Coffee Press, then come back here and read up on the instructions and other mayhem.
If you’d like to see just how simple making pour over coffee is then you need to read Method to the Madness. It’s as awesome as it sounds.
If you have any questions regarding any of this equipment, we might have the answers in our All Your Questions Answered section, and if not – shoot me and my cat an email at projectvvlgar@gmail.com
