After cracking my last pour over maker, I decided to check out the cheaper options available, and this one caught my eye. The paper filters can be annoying to deal with (rinsing, ripping, etc) and I was intrigued about the possibility of just buying a permanent metal filter and being done with it. Well, after using it for a while, I can say that this pour over maker is pretty good, but not great. Maybe great for the price. But it can make a good cup of coffee if you are willing to get a little fussy over it. I have not used it with a paper filter, this review is how it was intended to be used. My tips/observations: -It does go way too fast if you pour the water in all at once. Any water directly in contact with the sides will basically immediately flow through. The key to this filter is understanding it's design; the bottom is solid, so water can only exit through the sides. The more water you put in at once, the higher the ratio that will be in contact with the sides versus the bottom, so the faster it will flow. So you must work somewhat slowly with this. -You will need a decent coffee grinder to use this. If you use a blade style grinder, it's going to pulverize some particles into dust before it can break down all the larger particles, as a result a lot of matter is going to make it through the filter into the brew, which will lead to over-extraction and lots of grinds in your cup. -Typically the way you make your brew faster or slower is by modifying your grain size, with smaller grains making longer brewing times. But unfortunately, this filter does not catch fine particulate, if you make them too fine you will end up with a lot of it making it past the filter. So instead you are going to need to maximize contact time with the grounds by pouring slowly. and don't let any of your water run down the side of the filter, you should be pouring in the area of coffee over the solid part of the filter, trying to keep the water pooled in there constant. It should take a few minutes to pour a whole cup, otherwise it's going to be weak. Just drip the water in. -You must bloom your coffee grounds before using this. While it's always preferable, if you don't bloom them and just pour all the water in, you are going to get a very weak cup. It's not really optional here. -This coffee maker isn't very dense, and will not insulate well. So you should heat up your maker. Before you start blooming the grounds, pour some hot water in the base and slosh it around, then bloom your grounds and let it sit with the hot water in the bottom. Then pour out the hot water before you start brewing. -Also, you should not place your coffee maker on something that is going to suck all the heat out of it, like a marble counter top. Use a trivet or something underneath and your brew will stay warm a lot longer. And if you don't heat up your mug first, use a little hot water in the bottom to do that, it makes a huge difference. -After you finish brewing, give the coffee maybe 30 seconds to settle, then GENTLY pour into your mug. Pay attention and pour slowly and you should be able to keep most of the grit out of the cup. The result of this will be, as advertised, a full bodied, very oily (if somewhat gritty) cup of Joe. I'd say this is probably the pour over equivalent of a french press, and that's how you have to look at it. The coffee needs more contact time with the water than the filter will give you, so like a french press, it is going to take a few minutes. If you are willing to do all these things, it's a great coffee maker. Me? I think I will pick up some chemex filters and use those on top of the steel. They might remove the oils, but I'm not really sure how much I care about that, compared to the hassle of brewing in slow motion. But for the price, it is pretty good.
