A necessary question of any coffee enthusiast in the twenty-first century is: what is the best way to make a slow drip pour-over? Any amount of scientific knowledge can make arguments towards hundreds of specific methods, and why they are each the most effective. While there is no decisive answer to this question, we have recently expressed some of our opinions on effective extraction of flavour compounds within pour-overs (such as V60 and Chemex).
One very significant step in our preferred pour-over brew methods is the stirring process after the first and last pour. Specifically, the stir after the first pour serves to bring any dry grounds away from the walls of the brewer, and even out the surface of the brew. After the last pour, its purpose is to make the drawdown homogeneous, which is possibly the most crucial stage in the coffee extraction process. When stirring is applied, we have noticed that the bed of grounds makes up a very desirable dome shape (the reason that this is desirable will be verified in future articles, but we refer to Scott Rao's Everything But Espresso for this opinion). This serves to ensure that the initial extraction and drawdown are uniform and consistent, evenly extracting the proper compounds from the grounds. Not that these things cannot be accomplished without stirring, but we've found that the uniformity from brew to brew is much greater when stirring is applied.
While this action can be, technically, done with any ordinary kitchen spoon, we have found greater constancy and specificity (not to mention aesthetic appeal, as seen above) with the pour-over stirs crafted by Burntwood Makery, a local Saskatoon wooden utensil carving business. The owner, Joel Kroeker, started carving utensils for his friends and relatives about two years ago, and has started selling his creations in the past year at places such as Tamarak, a general store in Saskatoon, Plant, a shop in Calgary focusing on gardening and handcrafted goods, and the Flock and Gather Craft Collective, a biannual craft market also in Saskatoon (he also sells online to specific request). Joel's most common product includes a variety of shapes and sizes of spoons, however he has recently branched out into the land of pour-over stir sticks, of which he has made 20-30 to date. Since they are specifically designed to help along the brew process of any pour-over, they are extremely functional and precise. Regarding the actual interaction between the wood and coffee flavour, Joel comments that, "the fact that one is only using the paddle to stir or coax grounds, thus using it only for shorter bursts of activity, works in it's favour in terms of it being “neutral” flavour-wise." Us writers of Paragraph can affirm this claim; we have never noticed any kind of imparted flavour from using this specific stir paddles in comparison to any regular metal spoon. However we have certainly noticed the difference in the amount of control we have when participating in the stirring step. It is our recommendation that anyone searching for ways to improve their V60 or Chemex extraction experiment with stirring, and look for local unique materials such as Burntwood paddles to do this. Additional photographs of Joel's large variety of works can be seen here.
One very significant step in our preferred pour-over brew methods is the stirring process after the first and last pour. Specifically, the stir after the first pour serves to bring any dry grounds away from the walls of the brewer, and even out the surface of the brew. After the last pour, its purpose is to make the drawdown homogeneous, which is possibly the most crucial stage in the coffee extraction process. When stirring is applied, we have noticed that the bed of grounds makes up a very desirable dome shape (the reason that this is desirable will be verified in future articles, but we refer to Scott Rao's Everything But Espresso for this opinion). This serves to ensure that the initial extraction and drawdown are uniform and consistent, evenly extracting the proper compounds from the grounds. Not that these things cannot be accomplished without stirring, but we've found that the uniformity from brew to brew is much greater when stirring is applied.
While this action can be, technically, done with any ordinary kitchen spoon, we have found greater constancy and specificity (not to mention aesthetic appeal, as seen above) with the pour-over stirs crafted by Burntwood Makery, a local Saskatoon wooden utensil carving business. The owner, Joel Kroeker, started carving utensils for his friends and relatives about two years ago, and has started selling his creations in the past year at places such as Tamarak, a general store in Saskatoon, Plant, a shop in Calgary focusing on gardening and handcrafted goods, and the Flock and Gather Craft Collective, a biannual craft market also in Saskatoon (he also sells online to specific request). Joel's most common product includes a variety of shapes and sizes of spoons, however he has recently branched out into the land of pour-over stir sticks, of which he has made 20-30 to date. Since they are specifically designed to help along the brew process of any pour-over, they are extremely functional and precise. Regarding the actual interaction between the wood and coffee flavour, Joel comments that, "the fact that one is only using the paddle to stir or coax grounds, thus using it only for shorter bursts of activity, works in it's favour in terms of it being “neutral” flavour-wise." Us writers of Paragraph can affirm this claim; we have never noticed any kind of imparted flavour from using this specific stir paddles in comparison to any regular metal spoon. However we have certainly noticed the difference in the amount of control we have when participating in the stirring step. It is our recommendation that anyone searching for ways to improve their V60 or Chemex extraction experiment with stirring, and look for local unique materials such as Burntwood paddles to do this. Additional photographs of Joel's large variety of works can be seen here.
Written by,
Tyson