Hario Drip Pot and a Coffee Ritual

Last week I pulled out my pile of filing, sorting it into Keep, Shred, Recycle piles. During that process I stumbled upon an old unused Williams-Sonoma{.broken_link} gift card. I can’t recall when I received it but it must’ve been at least two years ago. In California it’s illegal to expire{.broken_link} a gift card, so I didn’t have to go use it yet, but I felt like taking a walk. The closest Williams-Sonoma is downtown in Union Square, giving me a destination and a purpose.

It’s been years since I was in a Williams-Sonoma store. My kitchen is already stocked all the tools, gadgets and doodads required for all my cooking purposes. The only thing I’d like to have—a tea scale—isn’t offered there. So I wandered the four-floor shop for almost an hour, listening to Star Talk while trying to find anything which I could actually use. Eventually I found myself at the coffeemaker section and my eyes landed on this tiny drip pot. I was powerless against it and fell very deeply in smit with the adorable little thing.

Let’s be very clear here: I DO NOT need another method for brewing coffee. I already have:

• An Aeropress
• A Clever Dripper
• Several different sizes of moka pots
• A 10-cup Classic Chemex drip pot
• A vintage Dansk percolator (like this but orange)
• A vintage red Westinghouse percolator (pictured in the background here)
• An ibrik for Turkish coffee
• A Vietnamese dripper

That said, I was seduced by this tiny drip pot. It was slightly more than the value on the gift card, but it was also a floor model so it would be 10% off. I could rationalize that purchase.

The pot in question is a 480ml Hario Drip Pot. It has a wooden handle and a reusable muslin filter. It’s small enough that a single pot fills my favorite mug, which is more than I can say for my beloved Aeropress.

The kettle went on as soon as I got home this afternoon. Normally I wouldn’t have coffee this late in the day but this was a special occasion. New toy! New toy! I do love me a new toy.

For the past year and change I’ve been roasting my own coffee (a post for another day, that). This has ruined me for all other coffees. As if I weren’t snobbish enough, in the past month I’ve started weighing the ingredients for my morning brew. It’s become quite the ritual. While there are several steps in there, the basic version is: 15g unground beans, 250ml 200F° water, Aeropressed with a press time of around 30 seconds.

This new pot would need a new brew ritual…

• 30g of unground coffee beans (Ethiopia Bedele Sota Cooperative roasted to Full City)
• Grind in my Hario Skerton hand-crank burr mill grinder then add to the filter
• Heat 500ml of water to my usual preference of 200F° in my Breville variable-temperature kettle
• Once the water is hot, pour about 50g over the dry grounds and let it sit for about a minute to allow the grounds to bloom (read: foam up). While it varies by bean, my home roasted beans usually bloom like mad, releasing a lot of carbon dioxide and causing a large amount of foam. Without this bloom step most of my coffee makers will overflow from the foam and make a colossal mess.
• Stir the bloomed grounds, breaking down the bubbles which have formed, then add half of the water.
• Stir the grounds as the water drains through. When it’s all drained, add the rest of the water.
• Coffee’s done.

This method worked brilliantly. The coffee was smooth, rich, full of body and not at all bitter. It may even be as good as what I get from my Aeropress, which is high praise indeed. So, while I didn’t neeeeeeed a shiny new coffee maker, I’m very glad that I splurged and got one. I love this little thing.