Coffee preferences run deep for most of us. Maybe you’re an iced coffee devotee who drowns your cup in half-and-half and sweetener until it smells like a candle shop. Or perhaps you prefer a dark brew, potent enough to smell from several rooms away.
Whatever your style, achieving consistently great coffee at home proves surprisingly difficult. But here’s the truth: You don’t need an expensive machine to produce café-quality results. All it takes is freshly ground beans, filtered water and an affordable pour-over brewer like the $30 Dwell Dripper I’ve been putting through its paces.
Why this former barista is hot on pour-over
Pour-over drippers or brewers are simple in their approach. Most fit over a coffee mug and require nothing more than a paper filter. Although you must manually pour hot water over the grounds, you’re rewarded with a cup of coffee that has a rich flavor and isn’t over-extracted or bitter. Sometimes a pour-over dripper can yield cups so smooth that you don’t even need to add milk to it.
Read more: What’s the Best Way to Make Coffee? I Asked 10 Experts and They (Almost) All Agreed
The Dwell Dripper is perfect for pour-over newbies
There are countless options when it comes to a pour-over brewer, but the Dwell Dripper stands out because it’s designed for someone who hasn’t brewed at home before or is transitioning from a cheap electric coffee machine they acquired in college. Think of the Dwell Dripper as a gateway into a world of great-tasting coffee that doesn’t require a barista with a man bun to make it for you.
The Dwell Dripper, made by Verve Coffee Roasters, has a lot of unique features that make it as versatile as it is simple. It’s made from BPA-free silicone instead of glass, metal or ceramic and that makes it portable. I’ve been testing one for a few weeks, and I can easily envision tossing this in my suitcase on a trip without worrying about it breaking.
Pour-over brewers typically come in either a cone or flat-bottom design like the Dwell. A flat-bottom shape lets the grounds get more evenly saturated versus a cone-shaped dripper, when the grounds at the center can be extracted more than those on the perimeter.
“We as a company, Verve, are selling thousands of pour-overs a day. And we choose to use a flat bottom brewer because we really prefer that extraction method,” Colby Barr, Verve CEO and co-founder, told CNET. “It’s almost crazy to me that all brewing methods aren’t flat bottom from my perspective.”
Pour-over is the preferred method for this former barista.
Not only does the Dwell have a flat bottom, but most of it is open, which lets the filter and coffee do the brewing. This means that the dripper is simply there to hold everything in place, without compromising the brew itself — the filter is suspended over the cup. The dripper uses flat-bottom filters but is compatible with most Wave paper filters, including Kalita 185 filters.
How to use the Dwell Dripper
The Dwell comes with a small scoop that matches the color of the brewer. Verve created the Dwell Dripper in collaboration with Bould Designs, founded by Fred Bould, one of the designers behind the Nest Thermostat. The Dwell Dripper employs a unique and straightforward three-step process. Add a filter to the Dwell (bonus points if you rinse it). Then add three level scoops of ground coffee. And lastly, fill the brewer with hot water to the line on the side three times. Three minutes later, you have a yummy cup of coffee.
Normally, coffee snobs would tear up at the idea of using volumetric measurements instead of a scale. But using three level scoops actually works. I brewed more than a dozen cups of coffee with the Dwell Dripper while my coffee scale sat on the counter collecting dust. I made coffee from various roasters, like Verve, Four Barrel and Collectivo, and have been pleased with the results. Coffee from the Dwell has a great flavor, is smooth and has been consistent day-to-day.
But if you’re wondering about weight and ratios, three level scoops on the Dwell equals roughly 20 grams and the water weighs 300 grams for a 1:15 ratio — pretty standard stuff.
It’s simple and stylish.
Why the Dwell Dripper makes a great gift
The Dwell Dripper’s best feature is that it meets you where you’re at in your coffee journey. So if you don’t have a coffee scale or a gooseneck kettle, that’s OK. But if you do, you can use them. The Dwell’s wide appeal will ensure that coffee brew-at-home newbies and seasoned coffee snobs will both get a lot out of it.
The $30 price makes it a great gift for someone in your life who wants to brew better coffee at home. I also suggest getting them a great bag of fresh whole bean coffee and, if they don’t already have one, a good coffee grinder. The Dwell Dripper is something that will last you for years and is well worth the low upfront cost.
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