To Find the Best Pour-Over Coffee Makers, I Tried 20 of Them and Made Over 100 Cups of Coffee

My love of coffee goes back to my barista training. Years ago, I worked at a small coffee shop attached to a bookstore, taking turns pulling shots for sugar-laden lattes and recommending pretentious books. (The wordier the prose, the more I loved it.)

But as I grew older, things flipped. I no longer read dense literary fiction, preferring sugary-sweet contemporary gay romance novels. My coffee obsession’s evolved, too. First, I stopped adding sugar, and then I phased out cream. My friends joke that one day I’ll open a coffee shop called “Stark and Austere.”

Hands down, my favorite brewing method is pour-over. It’s one of the simplest ways to make coffee, producing a medium-bodied cup with sharp clarity. However, there are dozens of pour-over coffee makers available in a variety of materials and sizes, and at a range of prices. To find the best ones, I tested 20 of them.

The Winners, at a Glance 

The Hario V60 is standard at coffee shops for a reason. It produces a clean, medium-bodied cup that highlights the nuances and flavors of coffee. With its one-piece ceramic design, featuring a handle and basic cone shape, it’s easy to use and cleans up quickly.  

The Kalita Wave features a flat bottom, which means it doesn’t require as much pouring precision, making it more forgiving. The flat bottom holds water for longer, lengthening the extraction process. Its stainless steel body is durable, sturdy, and virtually indestructible. Its coffee is balanced, too.

If you’re looking to brew more than one cup of coffee at a time, the Chemex is a great pour-over. I think it’s a looker, too, with its mid-century modern design and hourglass shape. It’s even in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. 

A narrower version of the Chemex, the MiiR carafe features a double-vacuum-sealed stainless steel body that retains heat well. Its top part comes off for cleanup, and sponges and bottle brushes easily fit inside. 

The Mugen is a variation of the Hario V60, with a smaller hole at the bottom and less ribbing on the sides, which slows down brewing. This means you don’t have to be as precise about pouring speed or placement. The result is a dripper that’s beginner-friendly yet produces the flavor of a classic pour-over.

This beautiful dripper comes in an array of colors, including matte pink and sunny “lemon curd” yellow. The Origami’s angled, folded edges give you the option of brewing with a cone-shaped or scalloped, flat-bottom filter, making it a versatile coffee maker.

The Yeti is solid, sturdy, and made from double-insulated stainless steel. It’s squatter than the Hario V60 Classic and has a lip that fits directly over travel and ceramic mugs. It makes a balanced cup of coffee, too.

The Tests

• Empty Filter Flow Rate Tests: I set up each brewer with a rinsed filter, then added 500 grams of water over 15 to 20 seconds. I recorded how long it took for the water to flow through the filter to assess the brewer's impact on flow rate.
• Coffee Flow Rate Test: I set each brewer up with a filter and 30 grams of freshly ground, medium-coarse, medium roast coffee. I then made a pour-over coffee, using 450 grams of water, a 30-second bloom, and 205°F water.
• Coffee Flow Rate Test 2: To see how the pour-overs did with smaller amounts, I made coffee using 16 grams of beans and 240 grams of water. 
• Temperature Stability Test: I positioned a ThermoWorks ChefAlarm probe in the coffee bed of each brewer, then added 205°F water using a gooseneck kettle and proceeded to make pour-over coffee. I recorded the temperature throughout the brew cycle, noting initial and peak temperatures.
• Taste Tests: I tasted each coffee after brewing. I also used a coffee refractometer to measure the total dissolved solids (TDS)—essentially the amount of coffee present—and assess any impact the brewer's design had on extraction.
• Additional Taste Tests: I took my favorite pour-over drippers and brewed coffee with light and dark roast beans. 
• Custom Recipe Test: To see if I could improve flavor, I took the winning pour-over drippers and deviated from the standard recipe above, tweaking the water temperature and grind coarseness.
• Usability and Cleanup Tests: During every test, I took note of how easy it was to set up and brew a cup of coffee, and what cleanup was like afterward. 

What We Learned

What Is Pour-Over Coffee?

To make pour-over coffee, a dripper is positioned on a carafe or mug. The dripper’s paper filter is rinsed with hot water, the water is emptied from the carafe/mug, and coffee grounds are added to the filter. Water is then manually poured over the coffee, giving the user full control over saturation and brewing. 

When done correctly, a pour-over produces a balanced cup of coffee with medium body, nuanced tasting notes, and sweetness. Pour-over requires more time and skill than pressing a button on a pod machine or drip coffee maker, but it still takes no more than 10 minutes. 

A Pour-Over Coffee Maker’s Shape Impacted Extraction

I tested pour-overs that were, for the most part, cone- or V-shaped. This allows water to funnel through the grounds, helping extract coffee evenly. But the Zero Japan Ceramic Coffee Dripper was wedge-shaped, with a long bottom edge and two holes. This made pouring water into the dripper more challenging and led to channeling, which is when water flows through some sections of the coffee grounds and skips other parts, creating both over- and under-extraction. At one point, coffee dripped through only one of the Zero Japan’s holes, showing how imbalanced brewing was.

I also tested the Kalita Wave, which is a flat-bottomed dripper. This shape allows water to sit in the coffee grounds longer to help with extraction. But sitting too long leads to a bitter and astringent cup, which is one of the reasons the Kalita’s accompanying filter has wavy sides. These folds allow water to bypass the grounds, diluting the concentrated coffee and resulting in a balanced cup. 

Understanding Bypass and No-Bypass Drippers

The merits of bypass versus no-bypass coffee drippers are up for debate. As mentioned above, bypass refers to water either bypassing coffee grounds. No-bypass means all of the water is forced to go through the coffee. The Hario V60 Mugen is an example of a no-bypass dripper, where the walls of the dripper have minimal ridges. The paper filter sticks to the walls, forcing water to travel through the grounds.

Despite the debate over the pros and cons of either style of dripper, a properly designed pour-over will give you a balanced cup of coffee. That said, if you prefer richer-bodied coffee, a no-bypass dripper may be better. Folks who like a quickly brewed, easy-to-make, balanced cup might gravitate toward a bypass-style dripper.

Brew Temperatures Were All About the Same

Almost all the drippers I tested did a great job of retaining heat as the coffee brewed, with minimal drops in temperature. Most pour-over recipes say to use water just under a boil, somewhere between 205°F and 210°F. This is because boiling water can scald coffee, leading to over-extraction and bitter brews. But too low a temperature, and coffee will be under-extracted, tasting flat, hollow, or even sour. I usually use water around 205°F, as this brings out the more delicate, nuanced floral and fruity flavors in naturally processed, lighter roast coffee. But with medium and darker roasted coffees with chocolate, nutty, or caramel flavor notes, I’ll use water that’s 208°F or 209°F. 

Why You Should Pre-Rinse Filters

Pre-rinsing the filter before brewing has several advantages. First, it warms up the dripper and carafe (or mug). Second, it helps settle and stick the filter to the dripper. If the filter’s askew, this can cause channeling, resulting in coffee that can taste flat, sour, and under-extracted or bitter, astringent, and over-extracted. Finally, rinsing the paper removes its papery “cardboard” taste. Personally, I find that naturally brown filters produce more cardboard-y flavor than white, bleached ones (more on this below). For this reason, I rinse the brown filters at least two or three times and the white filters only once.

Filters Made a Difference

Speaking of paper filters, the thickness and porosity of the filter can impact coffee. When testing the flow rate, I tried each brewer with the branded filter that came with it. I wondered whether this would make a difference—and it did.

Across the board, natural brown filters were thicker and less porous than their white, bleached counterparts. The process of bleaching paper breaks down cellulose, so it makes sense that bleached filters would be more porous, allowing water to flow through them faster. With a brown filter, it took the Hario V60 37 seconds to process 500 grams of water. With a white filter? Just 27 seconds. The faster the flow rate, the quicker the brew time, which resulted in brighter, more nuanced coffee. The slower the brewing, the fuller-bodied the coffee was. 

Coffee Has a Lot of Variables

Water temperature, filter type, grind coarseness, timing, and more can all impact brewing. This may sound overwhelming, but I think it’s exciting. It allows you to pick a variable and experiment. If coffee tastes weak, use less water or grind it finer. If coffee is too astringent and dry, you’re over-extracting it and it will need a coarser grind, or you may want to switch to a white paper filter instead of a brown one. Being able to make minor adjustments and finding out what you prefer can turn a good cup of coffee into a great one. 

Each Dripper Needed Its Own Brewing Recipe

Because of the popularity of the Hario V60 classic, the vast majority of pour-over “recipes” are designed with it in mind. But if you own a different dripper, minor shifts in the brewing method, like a finer or coarser grind, can accommodate design differences. For instance, the Chemex’s paper filter is thicker than the V60’s. In testing, this meant the resulting coffee had less body and sharper clarity. If I wanted a fuller bodied coffee with the Chemex, I’d grind coffee finer to slow down brewing. 

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Pour-Over Coffee Maker

The best pour-overs make great coffee—period. Look for one that’s easy to use, doesn’t need a lot of recipe tweaking or fussing to deliver a quality cup, and is easy to clean. For those who are new to pour-over coffee, get a brewer that’s more forgiving and doesn’t require eagle-eye pouring precision or a complex setup. If you have pour-over experience, a coffee maker that allows you to experiment might be better. I also prefer pour-overs with widely available filters. 

Our Favorite Pour-Over Coffee Makers

What we liked: The Hario V60 is one of the most popular pour-overs. The cone-shaped filter, with its sides angled at 60 degrees, funnels water into the center as it brews, and the coffee drips through a medium-sized hole. Classic recipes for pour-overs found online and in books are often designed with the V60 in mind. With a medium to medium-fine grind, the V60 produces a clean cup of coffee with a medium body, balance, and clarity that allows you to appreciate the tasting notes of most specialty beans.

What we didn’t like: Its cone shape means you have to be more mindful when pouring water to evenly saturate the coffee grounds. The ideal spiral pour—starting at the center, going out to the edges, and back into the center—takes practice and is easier if you have a gooseneck kettle.

Recommended accessories:

• Hario Electric Gooseneck Kettle: The Hario electric kettle is fast. It only has one temperature setting—boil—so brewing is simple.
• Trade Coffee Subscription: This dripper really lets specialty coffee shine, so why not experiment with different beans? The Trade coffee subscription matches your flavor preferences with different roasts and origins, and delivers them to your doorstep.

Key Specs 

• Material: Ceramic (also available in plastic, glass, and metal)
• Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Compatible with: Hario V60 Glass Range Coffee Server and Hario V60 Paper Cone Filters

What we liked: This stainless steel, flat-bottomed brewer is lightweight, easy to use, and durable enough to be tossed around or accidentally dropped with nary a dent or scratch. The flat-bottomed design means it’s more forgiving for those new to pour-over, and the thin paper filter has a scalloped, wavy edge and brews at a steady rate. The shallower coffee bed means you can saturate the grounds easily, leading to more consistent brewing. The resulting coffee comes out clean and well-balanced, with nice nuance and flavor notes. The stainless-steel construction makes it easy to clean as well.

What we didn’t like: Making smaller amounts of coffee with the Kalita Wave resulted in weaker brews than with cone-shaped drippers. The Wave’s filters are also harder to find in stores, though they are readily available online. 

Recommended accessories:

• Hasami Natural Mug with Saucer: Because the Kalita Wave Dripper shines with larger batches of coffee, you may choose to brew into a big mug. This one is an editor-favorite, and can hold 13.5 ounces.
• Fellow Stagg EKG Pro Electric Gooseneck Kettle: The Stagg EKG has topped Serious Eats' gooseneck kettles review for years. If you want to brew at a precise temperature, this is the kettle you need.

Key Specs 

• Material: Stainless steel, plastic handle
• Weight: 4 ounces
• Compatible with: Kalita Coffee Server and Kalita Wave Paper Coffee Filters (size 185) 

What we liked: If you’re the sort of person who makes large batches of coffee, for a bigger household or just yourself, the Chemex is a great option. The classic hourglass design, based on the Erlenmeyer flask, is eye-catching. The thick paper filter means the Chemex takes longer to brew, but the resulting cup has beautiful clarity with tasting notes that shine through. The large handle makes it easy to pour, though the classic model doesn’t have one.

What we didn’t like: The thicker filter requires extra rinsing to remove the papery flavor. The all-glass construction also means it’s fragile. 

Recommended accessories:

• Zeppoli Classic Kitchen Towels: Wrap this all-purpose towel around the Chemex while pouring and avoid hot hands. It's also great for wiping up drips and spills, because you can toss it in the washer with bleach.
• Mistobox Coffee Subscription: Mistobox tailors your coffee delivery to your flavor preferences. It's a great way to try new beans.

Key Specs 

• Material: Borosilicate glass
• Weight: 1 pound, 1 ounce
• Compatible with: Chemex Paper Coffee Filters

What we liked: With an hourglass shape similar to the Chemex, the MiiR has a narrower body and is made of stainless steel with vacuum-sealed walls. During my tests, its insulation maintained heat well. The resulting coffee was balanced, with a classic flavor, medium body, and nice clarity. Flavor notes came through without any muddiness.

The top of the carafe also unscrews, which makes cleaning it easier than the Chemex. The MiiR’s stainless steel construction is sturdy and durable.

What we didn’t like: Though the body of the MiiR stays cool, the top part of the carafe, where the paper filter touches, gets very hot. Be careful where you hold the carafe as you pour.

Recommended accessories:

• Baratza Virtuoso+ Conical Burr Grinder: This grinder has a huge range of grind sizes, so you can really dial in your ideal brew. It's an worthwhile step up from entry-level grinders.
• Felt+Fat 8oz Cappuccino Cup: The MiiR makes enough coffee for four 8-ounce cups. Serve your friends or family with this set of colorful mugs.

Key Specs 

• Material: Stainless steel, plastic handle and stopper lid
• Weight: 1 pound, 12 ounces (with stopper lid)
• Compatible with: MiiR New Standard Carafe Paper Filter and Chemex Paper Coffee Filters

What we liked: The Hario V60 Mugen looks similar to the Hario V60 with the same 60-degree, cone-shaped sides. However, the Mugen features a smaller hole at the bottom and minimal ridges on the sides to slow down brewing. Hario’s instructions say you can add the coffee and water all at once with no need to pour, pause, and repeat. However, I still preferred a standard way of brewing.

The Mugen’s slower brew time and no-bypass feature make it fairly foolproof, something that’s ideal for beginners. The resulting coffee had a medium to full body with a robust, classic taste.

What we didn’t like: The plastic base is awkward to grab and hold. With the heavier dripper positioned off-center, it felt unbalanced.

Recommended accessories:

• Krups Precision Coffee Grinder: This is the least expensive burr grinder we recommend, and it's a great match for the beginner-friendly Hario V60 Mugen. Its grind size is slightly inconsistent, but you can't be the price, and you have tons more control than with a blade grinder.
• Hario Electric Gooseneck Kettle: Brewing temperature matters, but if you're not ready to dive into precise temperatures, get the Hario electric kettle. Once it boils, remove it from the heating element and wait a few seconds before you begin your bloom—it'll be at a near-perfect temp for brewing.

Key Specs 

• Material: Ceramic, plastic collar
• Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Compatible with: Hario V60 Glass Range Coffee Server
• Compatible with: Hario V60 Paper Cone Filters

What we liked: This gorgeous dripper has 20 creases around it, allowing you to use a flat-bottomed Kalita Wave filter or a V-shaped cone filter. The Origami comes in a range of striking colors that look beautiful on display or in use. By just swapping filters, you can easily experiment using the same beans and grind size. It’s worth noting that Origami makes its own wave-style filter that fits into its dripper snugly. Coffee brewed with the Origami had a balanced body with sweet undertones.

What we didn’t like: The dripper doesn’t come with a collar, which is sold separately. Because the collar isn’t attached to the dripper, it’s easy to tilt the dripper when brewing, leading to inconsistent extraction. Some collars, like the plastic resin holder, have notches built in for stability. However, the wooden one that just has a hole the dripper sits in. 

Recommended accessories:

• Hario Buono Electric Kettle: If you prefer a stovetop gooseneck kettle, this is a solid pick.
• Fellow Ode Gen 2 Coffee Grinder: Serious about your pour-over? So is this grinder. Its flat burrs deliver seriously consistent grind size, and it offers nearly endless options for tinkering.

Key Specs 

• Material: Ceramic, optional wooden or resin collar
• Weight: 8.25 ounces (with wooden collar)
• Compatible with: Origami Carafe, Hario V60 Paper Cone Filters, Origami Paper Cone Filter, Kalita Wave Filter 185, Origami Wave Filter

What we liked: Yeti is an outdoor gear company, so it’s no surprise its pour-over coffee maker is durable and rugged. Made of a double-insulated stainless steel, the cone-shaped dripper fits over most ceramic and travel mugs, including the Yeti Rambler. This dripper has vertical ribs that brew faster than other pour-overs, leading to a bright cup of coffee with less body. 

What we didn’t like: Because it’s shorter, standard V60 cone-shaped filters stuck out over the top. Not a big deal, but when rinsing the filter, the overhanging paper flopped over and dribbled.

Recommended accessories:

• Fellow Carter Move Mug: Brewing your coffee to-go? This is a longtime Serious Eats-favorite travel mug. The inside is lined with ceramic, so you won't taste stainless steel every time you take a sip.
• 1Zpresso JX Manual Coffee Grinder: This is the best handheld grinder we've tested. It's easy to use and grinds beans quickly.

Key Specs 

• Material: 18/8 Stainless Steel 
• Weight: 10 ounces
• Compatible with: Most mugs and Hario V60 Paper Cone Filters

The Competition

• Zero Japan Ceramic Coffee Dripper: The Zero Japan Ceramic Coffee Dripper has a wedge-shaped filter that’s awkward to pour water into and leads to channeling. The handle was also small, making it difficult to pick up.
• Clever Coffee Dripper:. The Clever has a flat-sided cone with a rubber stopper at the bottom, which turns it into an immersion brewer (like a French press). Its coffee tasted very papery and thin. 
• Hario W60: The W60 features a flat-bottomed mesh filter basket that hovers over a ceramic cone designed to hold a paper V60 filter. While a dual filter system is intriguing, getting the coffee to flow through the brewer without backing up was difficult. It’s hard to recommend the W60 as a daily brewer, though pour-over aficionados might enjoy tinkering with it.
• Chemex Funnex: The cone on the Funnex was too tall and narrow for even coffee saturation. 
• Miir Pourigami: Because it folds flat, this is a great option for travel or camping, but the filter wasn’t stable enough.
• Coffee Gator Pour Over Coffee Maker: The metal filter allowed too much coffee to exit out the sides, leading to uneven extraction. 
• Bodum Pour Over: This thin glass brewer looked like a bulbous version of the Chemex, but felt cheap and fragile. The accompanying metal filter brewed way too fast, with water exiting out the sides, yielding a weak cup of coffee that had silt in it.
• Hario Woodneck Drip Pot: When using the standard pour-over recipe, the cloth filter left an unpleasant aftertaste, like brewing coffee through a wet sock. 
• Fellow Stagg [XF] Pour-Over Coffee Maker Set: This brewer is expensive and too narrow for coffee to extract evenly. 
• Melitta Filter Coffee Maker, Single Cup Pour-Over Brewer: Even though this is the original pour-over brewer, the single hole in the bottom caused the coffee to drain slowly and extract unevenly.
• Cerapotta: This Japanese pour-over’s filter is made of porous ceramic. You place the grounds directly in the filter and pour water over them. The porous nature of the ceramic means coffee brews relatively fast, and the resulting cup has a thin body and weak flavor. Light roast coffee did better with the Cerapotta.
• Hario Suiren: This beautiful brewer from Hario looks like a flower. It’s fussy to use, though, and if you tip it sideways or upside down, its fins fall out, making cleaning more challenging. It does brew a great cup of coffee, though.
• Graycano: This sleek, metal pour-over is solidly constructed and built to last, but it’s also very expensive. 

FAQs

What grind size should you use for pour-over coffee?

For pour-over, start off with a medium to medium-coarse grind. That said, each pour-over dripper is different and brews at its own speed. And different coffee beans have varying densities as well. This means that you might need to grind one bean at a particular setting, and another at a finer or coarser one. If you want a stronger brew, use a finer grind, and if you want a weaker cup, try a coarser grind. 

Is pour-over coffee better than drip coffee?

Pour-over coffee is just a manual version of automatic drip coffee. By brewing it yourself, you have control over the water flow, saturation, and timing, which can lead to a better-tasting cup.

How long does it take to brew pour-over coffee?

A typical pour-over cup of coffee usually takes about three and a half to four minutes to brew, not counting the set-up time of boiling the water, grinding the beans, or rinsing the paper filter. 

What's the ideal temperature for pour-over coffee?

Depending on your beans' roast and origin, you should be brewing between 195˚F and 205˚F. You can achieve that with a variable kettle that allows you to set an exact temperature. Serious Eats recommends the Fellow Stagg EKG.

Why We're the Experts 

• Irvin Lin is a cookbook author, recipe developer, food writer, photographer, and ceramicist. He wrote the cookbook Marbled, Swirled, and Layered, which was picked by The New York Times as one of the best baking cookbooks of 2016. He's also an IACP-award-winning photographer and is currently on the James Beard Book Awards Subcommittee. Irvin runs a blog called Eat the Love, where he’s developed, photographed, and written recipes since 2010. 
• He’s tested and reviewed hundreds of kitchen items, including stand mixers and digital thermometers.
• For this review, Irvin tested 20 pour-over coffee makers. He brewed over 100 cups of coffee for this article and is still highly caffeinated.