Hario v60, part I

Hario v60, two cups in transparent plastic

I just purchased the brilliant Hario v60, which represents some of the slow brew movements on the coffee market, meaning brewing one cup a time. There has been a strong trend to maximize coffee machines to brew a large capacity and afterwards keeping it warm along as you drink it. Nevertheless people have realized that the manual drip brewing gives a superb extraction and therefore easily keeping the coffee well-balanced instead of over/under-extracted.

Front facing of the Hario v60 box

What makes this particular Hario dripper popular compared to others? Well the power of this dripper is the bottom, where the coffee exits. Traditionally its a tiny hole, which allow the brewer to regulate the water to help control how long the water is in contact with the ground coffee. Exemplified, it the water goes through too fast - you end up with hot brown water without much taste. If the water is running too slow through the coffee, the result will be bitter coffee. This particular Hario v60 has quite a huge hole, leaving a minimum control of the flow at all (This allows you to grind super find, which can be a fantastic thing and taste experience).

Hario v60, two cups transparent plastic

The Hario dripper is designed for your own coffee, leaving preground coffee running too fast through and causing a under extracted cup. The essential key is to grind fine enough to slow the drip, ending up with between three to six minutes of contact time between the water and grounds.

The filter is an extension of the philosophy of the exit hole, cause the filter is designed to encourage the water flow, not to hold it back. Again, this will encourage to grind finer than regular filter coffee. The filter paper is designed to be practically transparent, which is quite different compared to the Chemex´s, which seem thicker and slower.

Illustation of the exit hole and brewing technique of the Hario v60

The Hario also have these swirling fins inside, but I'm considering if the have a purpose besides contributing to the general design, because I seriously doubt that these fins encourage a specific flow in any significant way.

Hario v60, part II will highlight the brew method when using the dripper.

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// Hendrup