Review: Melitta Pour-Over Coffee Brewer

According to a study conducted by Melitta in 2015, coffee is the most commonly consumed beverage in Canada, with 84% of Canadians saying that they drink it.

(Edit, June 2020: Apologies for not noting the source there. I can no longer find it, either. Searching for it on Google brings me back to this very post.)

Normally I'd note the potential bias there but a) potential bias is pretty obvious and b) 84% doesn't seem far-fetched.

According to CBC.ca, 67% of Canadians aged 18-67 drink coffee daily.  According to that same article, coffee drinkers consume, on average, 16.6 cups of coffee per week, or 2.4 cups per day.

Melitta's history

German housewife Melitta Bentz invented the Pour-Over™ over 100 years ago. Before that, coffee was brewed similar to the way tea is steeped now – coffee grounds were boiled in a cloth bag tied with string. This resulted in a cloudy, bitter coffee with an oily residue. The pour-over technique changed the way people made and consumed coffee.

Everyone's got their favourite – and their opinion is “THE RIGHT” one.

Coffee is a personal, very subjective subject. Everyone's got their favourite coffee spot and a preferred at-home method. They like it just so.

Some people prefer a stronger cup, others prefer a weaker cup. Some people want it black, others load it with condiments. Some like it flavoured, others insist on – to quote Denis Leary in this swear-laden rant – coffee flavored coffee. I think that if you need to load it up with condiments or flavour, you don't really like coffee and should choose another beverage. Embrace the bean.

My last five years of coffee makers

When I first moved in with my man almost five years ago he had an espresso machine that he'd modified to his liking. It eventually broke.

We tried French press for awhile, and it was good. I'd used one when I lived alone. We used one as our camping coffee method.

Then we went Keurig but the environmental guilt was too much for us. So much waste! For awhile, after each time I used the Keuring to make a cup of coffee, I would open the k-cups and dump the grounds into the compost bin. After awhile I stopped doing it each time, instead tossing them aside to do a bunch of them “later”. A time came when I stopped altogether. Eventually we started using reusable cups with our own freshly ground coffee but we still had that guilt. Two people have told me recently – and this might just be rumour – that the inventor of Keurig machines feels guilty about his invention and its environmental impact. In my home, we refer to all coffee machines that use cups and pods as “waste packaging dispensers”. I know that biodegradable cups exist now, but the non-recyclable and non-compostable still dominate.

Then came our beloved Aeropress, of which we own at least 3. (One at home, one at work, one at our trailer…) It became my favourite method by far. Using the “inverted” method, I get a strong cup with a thin layer of crema on top. Crema is one of my criteria for enjoyable coffee.

Today: Melitta?

Having experienced many home coffee brewing methods and having a current favourite, I wasn't looking to make a change. I was slightly skeptical when Melitta's PR company offered me Melitta's 1-cup Pour-Over Coffee Brewer to try, but I accepted it with an open mind. I do not accept every product offer. In fact, I decline most. However, Melitta is an established name. They've been around a long time. And I like coffee.

Having a current favourite, I didn't expect much from Melitta's 1-cup Pour-Over Coffee Brewer. I was pleasantly surprised.

Melitta's representative sent me a can of ground coffee but I haven't opened it, choosing instead to grind my own as usual. Nothing is the same as freshly ground. My current beans aren't fancy. They're not fair trade or locally roasted, although I have some favourite local roasts. The beans I currently use are “Colombian Supremo” from a local grocery chain.

Just one disadvantage to start

The first thing I noticed with Melitta's 1-cup Pour-Over Coffee Brewer was a disadvantage: I didn't know how much water to use. One of the brewer's features is a “window” that allows you to see how much coffee you're brewing. However, while it allows you to see into your cup, it doesn't help determine how much water to put into the cone. As I do with the Aeropress, I began the brewing process by slowly pouring a little bit of boiling water into the coffee grounds to saturate them and let them “bloom” before slowly pouring the rest of the water. With the Melitta brewer, I paused after pouring in a little more water, let the cup fill, poured some more water, pausing and pouring until the cup was filled with the desired amount of coffee.

The solution to the water volume issue that I came up with is to fill your mug with water, pour that water into a measuring cup, and then note to use that much water next time. (So if your favourite mug holds 1 U.S. cup of liquid, pour 1 cup of boiling water into the cup.) You'd have to do this with every different sized vessel that holds your coffee.
If you've got a better idea, feel free to share it.

Oh, but the smell…

After that, all good. My man walked into the kitchen as I was making the first cup and observed that it smelled good. It really did. The smell of fresh-brewed coffee is one of the best smells in the world, isn't it? Unless you don't like coffee or the smell of it.

The taste?

I tried it black first, and it tasted really good. Much better than I expected.

I proceeded to make one of my Bulletproof-like lattes and it was delicious with its added cinnamon, vanilla and grass-fed dairy, blended to a lovely froth.

Clean up is a snap!

[*finger snap*, like in a cheesy commercial]

Clean up was easy. Melitta's 1-cup Pour-Over Coffee Brewer takes a #2 cone filter. When the coffee has finished brewing, dump that in the compost bin and rinse the plastic brewer- and the rinsing part is optional.  It's slightly easier to clean than the Aeropress, which requires a good rinse.

Verdict

I still love my Aeropress, but will use the Melitta 1-cup Pour-Over Coffee Brewer at work. It saves money on buying coffee, and saves the guilt of using one of the Keurig machines at the office. Curious? Go for it! Melitta's 1-cup Pour-Over Coffee Brewer is a great choice. It also costs under $5 in both Canadian and U.S. currencies. You can find it at Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, and other retailers.