Best Coffee Beans For Pour Over Coffee
Pour over is possibly the most hands-on brewing method, done by slowly pouring hot water over freshly ground coffee. The pour-over result is a very different brew, which brings out all of the most complex natural flavors in the bean.
This is why the right coffee beans for pour-over are often very different from what you’d want for espresso or even drip coffee. Read on for some of the best coffee for pour over you can buy online.
TRADE COFFEE
Joe Coffee La Familia Guarnizo is Trade’s best pour-over coffee in this roundup. But, what Home Grounds’ team suggests is you SUBSCRIBE to Trade Coffee and experiment with all of their pour-over coffee options. This way you’ll not only taste Joe Coffee, but also play around with different pour-over tasting notes.
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The 8 Best Coffee Beans For Pour Over In 2023
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Volcanica Ethiopian Yirgacheffe |
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Koa Coffee Grande Domaine |
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Lifeboost Medium Roast |
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Peet’s Luminosa Breakfast Blend |
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Coffee Bros Medium Roast |
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Stumptown Founder’s Blend |
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Kicking Horse Smart Ass |
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Joe Coffee La Familia Guarnizo |
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Let’s get straight into the best-tasting coffee beans for pour-over brewing this year. They range from light to dark roast and from bright, fruity single origins to rich dark chocolate blends, so you’re sure to find the right beans for you.
1. Volcanica Ethiopian Yirgacheffe – Best Overall
Roast level: Light-Medium Roast
- Origin: Ethiopia
- Tasting notes: Lemon, Blueberry, and Blackberry
- Certifications: Kosher, Fair Trade, Organic
Volcanica Coffee began when its founders noticed all their favorite coffee beans shared a common trait: they all came from volcanic regions. The combination of high altitude and fertile volcanic soils provides ideal growing conditions for Arabica coffee, and the success of Volcanica Coffee stands testament to this. These coffee beans have a fruity flavor profile, making them an excellent choice for the pour-over brewing method. Expect to experience flavor notes of blueberry, blackberry, and lemon.
Ethiopian Yirgacheffe beans are considered some of the best coffee beans in the world. These particular beans are heirloom Arabica beans that have been harvested mainly from wild trees then wash-processed to enhance the floral flavors and acidity.
The advantage of buying Volcanica Coffee beans is that they’re very affordable and are freshly roasted to ensure the best possible coffee tastes. These beans have been sustainably sourced, grown using organic farming methods, and certified kosher.
The only disadvantage to these coffee beans is that they might be too delicate for someone looking for a bold flavor profile.
Volcanica Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is priced at $19.99 for 16 oz and is available as whole beans or ground coffee.
For more background on the brand, read our Volcanica Coffee review.
2. Koa Coffee Grande Domaine – Best Dark Roast
Roast level: Dark
- Origin: Hawaii
- Tasting notes: Tropical fruits, coconut, chocolate
- Certifications: Kosher
The Koa Coffee brand specializes only in sourcing and roasting the highest quality coffee from Hawaii, including the highly-prized Koa coffee. Found in 1997, the company has won the Gevalia Cupping Competition, PCCA Coffee of the Year, and been listed in Forbes’s “Top 10 Coffees of the World”. These dark roast beans offer flavor notes of toasted coconut, passionfruit, and milk chocolate with floral aromas. There’s a medium body, low acidity, and rich, smooth taste that will make this coffee an excellent addition to your auto-drip or pour-over routine.
Koa’s Grande Domain beans are a blend of Kona coffee beans and Kona peaberry beans. True Kona beans only come from a small growing region on Hawaii’s Big Island, making them considerably rare and much sought after.
Koa Coffee’s advantage is that their Kona coffees are guaranteed 100% pure. More than a few brands will advertise Kona blends that contain as little as 10% Kona beans.
The downside to these beans is the high price. While it’s a very reasonable price for pure Kona beans, it does make it more expensive than many other beans on our list. They’re also only available as a dark roast, which is not as popular with the pour-over method.
The price of Koa Coffee Grande Domaine starts at $35 for 8 oz. It’s available as whole beans or ground coffee in 8 oz, 1 lb, or 2 lb packages.
3. Lifeboost Medium Roast – Best Medium Roast
Roast level: Medium
- Origin: Nicaragua
- Tasting notes: Nuts, chocolate, strawberry
- Certifications: Kosher, Fairly traded, Organic, GMO-free
Nutrition expert Dr. Charles Livingston founded Lifeboost Coffee to deliver coffee as healthy as it is delicious. They achieve this by sourcing only the top 0.5% of Arabica coffee beans grown worldwide and processing them with great care. They produce some fantastic organic coffee. In terms of flavor, you can expect a smooth and balanced cup of coffee. You’ll get nuts and cocoa powder notes accompanied by a subtle strawberry sweetness and no bitter flavors.
Lifeboost Medium Roast coffee comes from a small plantation in Nicaragua located at 5,700 feet on Mt. Kilambe. Arabica and Maragogipe beans are hand-picked by skilled workers, sun-dried, and washed in spring water to preserve the purity of the coffee.
The best thing about brewing coffee from Lifeboost is the benefits for your health. Their coffee is third-party tested to ensure it’s free from mycotoxins, heavy metals, acrylamides, pesticides, and 400 other toxins.
The downside to these beans is that they are priced a little higher than other non-specialty coffee beans.
Lifeboost Medium Roast costs around $27.95 for a 12 oz whole beans or ground coffee package, and it’s also available as coffee pods or coffee bags. Read our Lifeboost Coffee review to learn more.
4. Peet’s Luminosa Breakfast Blend – Budget Pick
Roast level: Light
- Origin: Colombia and Ethiopia
- Tasting notes: Passionflower, stonefruit, cacao
- Certifications: Kosher
Peet’s Coffee is a San Francisco brand known for its signature coffee blends. Founded in 1966, it now also provides a wide range of single-origin coffees at affordable prices for the average coffee lover. With this coffee, you can expect the floral notes of passionflower, with sweetness from stone fruit, tempered by hints of cacao. It has a mild body with bright acidity.
The Luminosa Breakfast Blend features beans from the Huila region of Colombia, harvested at altitudes over 4,500 feet and known for their sweetness. They’re blended with Arabica coffee beans from Ethiopia, adding floral notes to the blend.
Buying from Peet’s Coffee allows you to get expertly blended quality beans at a budget price. Each expertly roasted batch is shipped the same day to ensure that your beans arrive as fresh as possible.
The downside to buying these lightly roasted coffee beans is that they’re only available as a 1lb bag. You’ll either need an excellent airtight storage container or use these beans quickly to enjoy them while they’re fresh.
Peet’s Colombia Luminosa is $16.95 for 1 lb. It’s available as whole beans or ground coffee for drip, French press, or espresso.
5. Coffee Bros Medium Roast – Best Blend
Roast level: Medium
- Origin: Ethiopia and Brazil
- Tasting notes: Brown sugar, red fruit, hazelnut
- Certifications: n/a
Coffee Bros is relatively new among coffee brands, founded in 2019 by two brothers in San Francisco. The company focuses on sustainability, spending 1% of its revenue on planting trees and aiming for a complete carbon-neutral operation. This medium roasted blend has a naturally sweet flavor, with notes of brown sugar, strawberries, and hazelnuts. It has an overall balanced and round body.
The Coffee Bros Medium Roast is a blend of 100% Arabica coffee beans from the Yirgacheffe region in Ethiopia and Minas Gerais in Brazil. The varieties include Yellow Catuai, Red Catuai, and Ethiopian heirloom coffees.
The best thing about buying a coffee blend is that you get a very balanced brew, which is smooth and easy to drink. With Coffee Bros coffee, you can also have peace of mind that your purchase will be helping to prevent deforestation.
The disadvantage of buying a blend is that you won’t get the bright, floral flavors that you might find in a single-origin coffee. Coffee Bros coffees are also said to have a lighter roast level than other coffee brands, so if you prefer a bold coffee flavor, this might not be for you.
Coffee Bros Medium Roast coffee is at $14.99 for 12 oz. It’s available as whole bean coffee only.
6. Stumptown Founder’s Blend – Best Organic
Roast level: Light-Medium
- Origin: Central and South America
- Tasting notes: Milk chocolate, vanilla, nuts
- Certifications: Organic, Kosher, B Corporation
Stumptown is a Portland-based roastery that has established itself among the most successful in the world in the two decades since its founding. Their commitment to sourcing good coffee, roasting it correctly, and distributing it as fresh as possible has garnered them worldwide. The taste of the Founder’s Blend is very chocolate-forward on the palate, with flavor notes of sweet vanilla and a hint of nuttiness.
These 100% Arabica beans have been sourced from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico. The precise coffees used will change throughout the year to ensure a balanced blend. Regardless of year, the Founder’s Blend is always made from certified organic coffee beans.
The advantage of buying from Stumptown Coffee Roasters is the beans’ freshness. They use innovative packaging that keeps coffee beans fresh for 90 days, and they also stamp every bag with its roasting date.
The only downside to this blend is that it doesn’t have the fruity and floral notes that many people look for when brewing coffee with pour-overs.
Stumptown Founders Blend coffee is at $17.65 for 12 oz. It’s available as whole bean coffee only.
7. Kicking Horse Smart Ass – Best Value for Money
Roast level: Medium
- Origin: Africa, South and Central America
- Tasting notes: Stone fruit, milk chocolate, berries
- Certifications: Organic, Fair Trade, Kosher
Kicking Horse Coffee has been roasting coffee beans in the Canadian Rockies for more than 25 years. As well as making great blends for coffee enthusiasts, the company is committed to social and environmental sustainability. The Smart Ass blend starts with the sweet aromas of vanilla and stone fruit. In the cup, you’ll get flavors of milk chocolate, sugar cane, and sweet berries, balanced by tart red currant.
The medium roasted beans in the blend are 100% Arabica, sourced from farms in Africa, Central America, and South America. Like all Kicking Horse coffee beans, they’ve been certified USDA organic and Fair Trade.
The advantage of the Smart Ass blend is the rich flavor profile and great value for money. It’s also a great all-around flavorful coffee that works well with a range of brewing methods.
The downside is that these beans will only ship to addresses in the USA and Canada.
The Kicking Horse Smart Ass coffee price starts at $11.99 for 10 oz. It’s available as ground coffee in a 10 oz size or whole beans in 10 oz or 2.2 lb sizes.
8. Joe Coffee La Familia Guarnizo – Best Light Roast
Roast level: Light
- Origin: Colombia
- Tasting notes: Citrus, honey, nuts
- Certifications: Rainforest Alliance
The Joe Coffee Company started as a single cafe in New York in 2003 and has since expanded to include 21 cafes around the city and its own roastery. The company works directly with farmers and cooperatives to ensure ethical sourcing and sustainable relationships. La Familia Guarnizo light roast coffee beans have a sweet flavor with a hint of nuttiness. Expect to taste citrusy clementines, caramel, honey, and toasted pecans.
These are single-origin beans sourced from the Huila region of Colombia. Here, the Guarnizo family grows Caturra coffee beans at an altitude of 5,200-5,900 feet on the slopes of the Andes Mountains.
For those that want to constantly explore the flavour merry-go-round that is coffee, single origins can provide a wide variety of options from wild to tame.
Joe Coffee La Familia Guarnizo has the advantage of being a single-origin coffee from a well-respected growing region. It has a bright and light body, making it an excellent match with the pour-over brewing method.
The downside to these beans is that they are a little more expensive than other beans on our list.
Joe Coffee La Familia Guarnizo beans are at $21.20 for 12 oz. They’re available as whole beans or in six different sizes of ground coffee.
How To Choose the Best Pour Over Coffee Beans
To choose the coffee beans for pour-over, you first need to understand what makes this brewing method so unique and how to make pour over coffee.
What is Pour Over Coffee?
We refer to coffee made with a manual pour-over brewer when we talk about pour-over coffee. You slowly pour hot water over coffee grounds held in a filter, extracting the coffee flavors and oils as it passes through. However, drip coffee uses a similar technique, the automation of the process results in a very different tasting coffee.
The main benefit of using a pour-over coffee maker is that it provides control over every part of the brewing process. You can make small changes to the ratio of coffee to water, the coffee grind size, the water temperature, bloom time, and rate of flow.
The result is a clean but complex cup of coffee that highlights the beans’ natural flavors.
People often use the pour-over method of brewing to brew specialty single-origin beans or coffees with delicate flavor profiles.
How Do You Make a Pour Over Coffee?
To make a pour-over coffee, you’ll first need to equip yourself with the following tools:
- Pour-over coffee maker
- Filters to match your coffee maker
- Good burr coffee grinder
- Gooseneck kettle
- Thermometer
- Coffee scale
- A serving vessel (optional)
- Good quality water
While you can brew a good pour over without a gooseneck, there are some techniques and recipes that are nearly impossible without the control a gooseneck offers.
The steps for brewing pour-over coffee are:
- Heat the water to 195-205 degrees Fahrenheit
- Weigh your coffee beans–you’ll need 9-11 grams per 6-ounce cup
- Rinse the paper filter if using
- Grind your coffee–you’ll need anything from medium-fine to medium-coarse grind size depending on your coffee maker
- Pour the water over the grounds, first to bloom the coffee, then to brew it
If you don’t have your equipment yet, check out our guide to the best gooseneck kettles and some cool pour over coffee stands. Or, watch Home Grounds’ video review on best pour-over coffee makers:
Why roast level matters
The coffee roast level also strongly influences the taste, aroma, and mouthfeel of your final brew.
Lighter roasts typically have fragrant floral and/or fruity notes, with a mild body and brighter acidity.
Light roasts are excellent for exploring the subtleties of single-origin coffee beans.
For example, trying out coffee beans from China, and brewing using the pour-over method is a great way to appreciate a light roast. Here are some of our favorite light roast coffees.
Medium roasts offer a bit more sweetness and less acidity than light roasts due to the caramelization of sugars during the roasting process. Medium roast coffee beans will have a more substantial body and a slightly toasted flavor.
Good dark roasts have a slightly bitter taste and a bold, rich body. Their flavors, which tend towards chocolatey, nutty, and earthy, are a product of the roasting process as much as the coffee bean itself. Light and medium roasts are the usual choices for pour-over coffee lovers, but it’s worth experimenting with dark roasts if you like these flavors.
The Verdict
There is no single best coffee for pour-over brewing, which is good news because it means you can find a favorite that suits your coffee taste. Look for something with complex, subtle, or contrasting flavors to understand why the pour-over technique has become popular.
A great place to start is with the Volcanica Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. The delicate fruit flavors are precisely the kind of tastes that the pour-over method extracts so well from beans. It also gives you the chance to enjoy one of the world’s best coffee beans at an affordable price.
FAQs
Yes, pour-over coffee can be healthier. For example, it is healthier for coffee drinkers compared to unfiltered brewing methods such as the French press. The paper filter used for pour-overs keeps more of the natural oils from the brewed coffee. These coffee oils can result in higher levels of bad cholesterol.
The best pour over coffee makers should be durable, provide consistent results, and brew delicious coffee. The right coffee maker for you should also match your skill level, the capacity you need, and your budget.
The best pour-over coffee makers for 2022:
Kalita Wave
Hario V60
Bee House Ceramic Dripper
Chemex Coffee Maker
Melitta Ready Set Joe
Kone Filter
Walkure Pour Over Coffee Maker
Hario Woodneck Drip Pot
The difference between pour-over and drip coffee is the brewing method. Pour-over coffee is a manual brewing method, while drip coffee is made in an automatic drip coffee maker. Pour-over coffee has crisp but complex flavors, whereas drip coffee has a smooth, mild taste. Brewing with pour-overs requires more skill than drip coffee.
