Drip slowdown
At the world’s greatest coffee shop last year, I noticed the barista was using a different brand of filter than the bog-standard Hario V60 ones. I asked, and he said they were better. He does stuff like this. So I did what a normal person would do and bought 500 of them.
This week marked an auspicious moment in the history of coffee, for I finally used up my last Hario filter and moved on to these ones. They are called CAFEC, because god is dead and nobody has a real brand name anymore.
The filters are recognizable because they lack a tab for you to quickly take one and fold it apart. Their paper is softer, a little harder to crease, and quite a bit thicker. This significantly affects both extraction rate and density, and it further de-sedimentizes the final product.
V60 is interesting because, unlike other pour mechanisms, the flow grooves on the side of the cone combine with the 60º slope (yes, that’s why it’s called V60) to speed up extraction rate. One compensates for this with a finer grind, slower pour, more careful form (no edges, spiral or figure 8), and higher agitation than they would for e.g. Chemex or a Clever dripper. I already agitate to settle the cone, but I don’t do discrete pours unless I’m making coffee for a group.
So I have always struggled to slow the pour in a way that makes clear sense for the format of V60. Coarse technique goes punished by the V60, which is partly why I like it. I am forced to show up to the act of making coffee every single day. I am forced to practice coffee in the same way as I practice yoga, design, or right relationship. I have a scale that telegraphs flow rate in real time, so that helps, but really I just need to know when I’m botching flow or form, and I need to remember that it takes only a couple of extra seconds to get both right, and I’ll be rewarded for it in turn.
The new filter sort of takes the whole process and stuffs a trombone muffler on what you know of it all. It becomes less of a debate and more of a conversation. The cone is now on the same side of the table as you. Everything slows down and becomes less panicked.
In practice, this means several things. First, you must adjust your grind to accommodate a longer extraction. I have been used to my grinder’s burrs slowly wearing out over the course of three years, and in response I’ve gone somewhat towards espresso levels on the dial: fine sand, barely not powder. We are firmly back to coarse sand territory now. Given the quality of my burrs, I’m probably seeing an inconsistent grind and will now need to replace them to accommodate the switch of filters.
Second, you need to slow down your pour, because more is being caught in the cone and waiting to extract out the coffee. Ideally you’d speed it up or go more aggressive, but ultimately you want more control over how much water is in the cone, and a slower pour out of the cone means you need to slow your pour into the cone.
Third, agitation. This sort of filter clearly rewards a multi-step pour technique with multiple periods of agitation before completion. In fact, this is precisely what the world’s greatest coffee shop recommends. When I first read this almost a year ago, I raised an eyebrow, thinking it was too fiddly and fast-paced. Now I get it.
I’m tremendously excited about these filters. They are affordable yet clearly built at higher quality. They are opinionated in a way that meaningfully moves the craft forward. And they are a pleasure to work with every morning.