Regular Drip vs Pour Over Coffee: What’s the Difference Anyway?

Manual coffee brewing methods are becoming increasingly popular, all around. You can typically find them in most coffee shops, nowadays, as well as in some home kitchens.

Pour-over coffee is similar to other manual methods, in that you get to control most aspects of the coffee, so it can be brewed to your preference, but have you ever wondered how it is different to regular drip coffee? These two methods are quite different, but they are both widely used.

At most coffee shops you can go in and order pour-over coffee, and you can choose a lot of things in how it’s made, offering a lot of choice to how your coffee tastes. However, even at a coffee shop, it will take a bit of time for pour-over coffee to brew.

One of the bigger differences I will note straight off is that regular drip coffee is an automatic process and there is not a lot you can do to change it.

Let’s look at how these two methods are different.

How are Pour Over Coffee and Regular Drip Coffee Different?

Before we talk about each of these methods individually, I’ll go over a small list of how the methods are different.

• Pour-over coffee is one of the most variable methods of manual coffee out there, while drip coffee is an automatic process and you can only change one or two things.
• Drip coffee is typically not as strong as pour-over coffee.
• You can run pour-over for multiple cycles, whereas drip coffee only runs once.
• Regular drip coffee runs near boiling water over a chamber full of coffee beans. Pour-over coffee uses water that isn’t quite so hot; it is just hot enough to coax the flavor out of the beans and into the coffee.

As you can see, there is nothing too apparent, but let’s take an individual look at each to see just what makes each so different. I will note that the price difference can get quite high, depending on where you look for your kettle.

Is Pour Over Coffee better than Drip Coffee?

In many ways, I would say yes. Most manual methods of making coffee are better than using drip coffee, as manual methods offer more versatility and choice when making your coffee. The kettles for pour-over coffee can get somewhat expensive, so it may not be a feasible choice for everyone,

Pour-over coffee is a method created by Japanese people to have a unique way of making coffee.

One thing you should know about this special style of Japanese coffee is it isn’t something you can just pour and go. It requires a special kind of kettle, a certain kind of carafe, and good beans. This particular method of making coffee requires a lot of patience, as it is one of the most time-consuming methods of brewing coffee.

The method uses a narrow spout to produce an even, steady stream of water – instead of flooding the filter and letting it drip, you deliver a measured amount of water over a period of several minutes. This method may seem to be a bit tedious and annoying to take so much time to brew the coffee, but it is well worth the wait.

The resulting coffee tastes different than most other methods of making coffee you can find. The flavor can be sweet and bright, something quite distinct in coffee. It is rare to have coffee that tastes as unique as this method. I really think this type of coffee making is worth all the time it consumes.

If you don’t like the fuss of French press coffee, and the taste of drip coffee is too disdainful for you, pour-over coffee is definitely one of the best alternatives you can choose.

If you are looking into using this method, I would take a look at some grinders, as grinding your own coffee beans for this can make it all the more personal.

Now if you’re looking into getting a pour-over coffee kettle, there are several you can find, but I would personally recommend this Stagg pour-over kettle.

Now let’s take a look at the regular drip coffee.

Is Drip Coffee Better than Pour Over Coffee?

The answer to that is a strong no. Although drip coffee does have some benefits such as being quick and easy to make, it doesn’t taste quite as good as pour-over coffee.

If you are looking to avoid strong coffee, regular drip coffee is a perfectly fine choice. Drip coffee is the most widely consumed form of coffee and is generally the consumer choice. Drip coffee is strong enough to really taste the coffee, but not unbearably so.

Most drip coffee machines are fairly inexpensive, the same goes for pour-over coffee kettles. Neither of these methods will set you back all that much, so either one is a nice choice if you’re looking to save some money.

The nice thing about drip coffee is that the machines range widely, you can find some advanced coffee makers that can be programmed to start at your convenience. There’s a large range of versatility when it comes to drip coffee makers because of how widely popular they are.

The downside to drip coffee is that it tastes nowhere near the same as pour-over coffee. While this may seem like a small thing, you really aren’t getting as much value out of your coffee when you are using a drip coffee maker. Drip coffee only runs through the coffee once, so there is much less value in using one, but the main factor that might settle your choice is simply how much time you have.

If you can set aside the time for it, pour-over coffee is definitely more worth it, but some of us simply don’t have the time in our days to make it every morning.

If you are looking into getting a good drip machine, I would recommend a coffee maker like this BESTEK one. It is inexpensive and has the programmable timer I mentioned earlier.

So overall, while drip coffee is not necessarily a bad choice, it is nowhere near as good as pour-over coffee.

So Which Method is best?

Overall, I would really have to say that pour-over coffee is going to be the better choice for many reasons, although it does have the drawback of taking up a lot of time in the mornings. I think the time it takes is well worth the wait. Pour-over coffee is some of the best tasting coffee you can achieve.

Now, as I said, if you are one of those people that run on a tight schedule, a drip coffee machine will be perfectly fine because even though drip coffee normally isn’t very modifiable, you can buy different machines with different benefits to them that you won’t get from a pour-over coffee kettle.