Pour Over Espresso At Home: Unlock the Barista in You

Let’s dive into the trending coffee brew method that combines both pour-over tools with espresso beans: the pour-over espresso.

True espresso provides a creamy, small, and highly potent cup of coffee. Pour-over espresso uses the classic pour-over technique with espresso beans to create a delicious cup of coffee. Coffee drinkers shouldn’t expect the classic three-part body of true espresso because the pour-over results in a watery espresso.

Anyone who knows coffee can tell you that espressos are a time-honored, international tradition, but we’re not here to pressure water through a puck of coffee. We’re combining pour-over coffee with aromatic dark roasted espresso grounds.

Keep reading and we’ll break down the science of the Pour-over espresso process, including the best equipment, techniques to bring out the best flavors, and what tastes you can expect.

The key to understanding Pour-Over Espresso

We gave you a short summary above, but what really separates Pour-over espressos from regular pour-over coffees or espressos?

What is it?

Using a pour-over brewer is simple, but how does it work with a Pour-over espresso?

In a normal pour-over brew, baristas pour hot water over coffee grounds to brew and create coffee. The grounds are normally dark roasted, and a filter sifts the coffee drink from the wet grounds into the pot or cup below.

Simple enough. But what if we replace the pour-over coffee grounds with espresso grounds? The resulting espresso pour-over provides a uniquely different aroma and body that will surprise many coffee aficionados with its nuanced taste.

Rather than a syrupy and thick cup of espresso, the Pour-over espresso will have less body and be lighter in flavor.  

How is it different from traditional espresso?

You may be wondering what we mean when we talk about a cup of coffee’s body?

When comparing traditional espresso versus pour-over espresso with the same beans, traditional espresso will have a creamy top, sweet middle layer, and saturated coffee-flavored bottom. Traditional espresso machines pressure water through the tightly packed coffee grounds, creating the different layers of an espresso.

Pour-over espressos rely upon gravity, meaning it lightly drains through the coffee into your cup. More of the water is present in the cup, making it less thick and syrupy. Your light-bodied coffee will be easily blended into espresso drinks, taking a less full and dominant stance in the cup.

When it comes to taste and mouthfeel, even novice coffee drinkers will be able to tell the difference.

What goes into a cup?

The ingredients and equipment you’re using will create vastly different cups of coffee, so it’s important you understand what you’re using.  

Choose the right beans

When comparing the difference between the traditional and Pour-over espresso, the bean is where you’re getting most of the flavor from.

Many people believe that espresso beans are darker and vastly different, but that’s not always true. Any roast or type of bean can be an espresso bean, but American consumers tend to expect darker espresso beans that will punch through the milk or sugar flavors of their coffee.

Americans, influenced by French and Italian cafés and coffee brewing, expect coffee to be dark, black, and deeply roasted. In roasting terms, they like their coffee past the point of a second crack.

Second crack means roasteries cook coffee beans long enough for the interior oils of the bean to break through the bean’s shell with an audible crack — not once — twice.

So if you’re buying an espresso blend, you can expect it to be darkly roasted. But of course, it’s your cup of coffee so make it how you like it — light roasts are more floral and acidic, dark roasts are more chocolatey and bitter, whereas medium roasts combine the best of both worlds.

We recommend picking single-origin or blended coffee beans that are fresh and finely ground to bring out the most flavor.

Pour-Over Espresso Equipment

To push your pour-over espresso game to the maximum, there are a few things you’re going to need.

• Pour-over coffee maker — there are two general pour-over styles: single and pot-brewing. Pick the coffee maker that suits your style but check to ensure it has the right filter because you’re going to be grinding extra fine.
• Filters — in addition to the standard filter that comes with some pour-overs, you’ll need to buy paper filters. These filters are the first line of defense between the coarse coffee grounds and your steaming cup of pour-over espresso.
• Kettle — The kettle both heats the water and provides a spout to pour the water over your grounds. There are kettles you can place on your stove or electric kettles that heat up on their own. We recommend a kettle with a gooseneck spout to provide more accurate pouring. 
• Scale — measuring by weight and not by volume will provide a level of consistency that brings out the absolute best from each pour. There are kitchen scales or niche coffee scales, and each will work assuming you can measure to the nearest decimal.
• Grinder — We break out the differences between burr and blade grinders in this blog article as grinders will be essential to create a freshly ground cup of coffee. Pre-ground coffee has a level of convenience, but the tasty oils can dry out over time and leave you with a lackluster pull.

Good tasting water

It almost feels obvious that better quality water will create better quality espresso, but it must be said.

When brewing the dark flavors of espresso, you really want fresh and clean water to balance out the harsh flavors. If your water is harsh and hard to drink, your pour-over espresso will simply turn into a sludge that nobody will want to enjoy.

When searching, look for mineral-rich water to enhance the flavors strained from your coffee grounds.