Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, I sit with a question that's been quietly bothering me about pour over brewing. Why are we so afraid to let the coffee bed run completely dry? It's one of those rules in the specialty coffee world that gets repeated until it feels like law: keep water on the bed, never let it dry out, race your next pour in before the surface cracks. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to just test it. I brewed an Ethiopian white honey coffee two ways. One with a careful Melodrip pour, water always on top of the bed. The other where I let the bed go completely dry after my pours. The difference in the cup surprised me, and it changed how I think about pour over technique.

What you'll learn in this episode is what actually happens when you let the coffee bed run dry: a bolder, heavier cup with more body, almost like a French press came through your dripper. More importantly, you'll hear me work through the bigger question this experiment opened up for me. How many other coffee rules am I following without ever asking why? How much of what we call "wrong" in pour over brewing is actually just a tool we haven't learned to use yet? If you've ever felt boxed in by specialty coffee dogma, this conversation is for you. I'm encouraging you, as always, to trust your own palate, run your own experiments, and remember that you are the one drinking the coffee.

Support the show

For good tasty coffee, check us out at: everydaybeans.com

For tips, tricks and still trying to figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/@everyday-beans