French Press Vs Drip Vs Pour Over – Let The Brew Battle Begin!

Let’s dig down and detail French press Vs Drip Vs Pour over and talk about all three coffee brewing methods and the type of coffee brewed, what you can expect and what type of beans work best with each of the three brewing techniques.

Keep reading for the details!

French Press Vs Drip Vs Pour Over Coffee

This article details and compares French press Vs Drip Vs Pour over coffee in many aspects including health, flavor, caffeine content, and which beans they are best used with.

While it is not my pejorative to tell you which is best, as coffee is very personal and what you like and enjoy will be different from others.

Me, personally, I used different brewing methods all the time as some are better than the others for specific beans and roasts. Coffee is all about matching the best beans with a particular brewing technique.

Read: French press Vs Drip

What Is Pour Over Coffee?

Pour over coffee is a coffee brewing technique and method that gives you full control over all the variables associated with brewing. Temperature, grind size and the contact time that your hot water has with your ground coffee.

The fresh flow of hot water over the coffee grounds which pass through the bed of coffee and the coffee filter into your cup produces great tasting cups of coffee.

Coffee drinkers and coffee lovers prefer this brewing technique as it is, by far, the best brewing technique for extracting the intricate, delicate and exquisite light and nuanced flavors from the origin.

It is, by far, the best brewing technique for single origin light roasted coffee beans, particularly blonde roasts and white roasts.

To make great pour over coffee you will need a gooseneck kettle to help you to get full control over the flow rate.

What Is French Press Coffee?

French press coffee, like pour over coffee, gives you full control of all the variables associated with coffee brewing, which helps you to get a very personal taste to your coffee experience.

A French press is a very different method of extracting the flavor as it uses the full immersion method where your coffee grounds are immersed in hot water. The metal mesh filter helps to get all the coffee oils and flavors into your cup of coffee.

It the French press method is best suited for brewing medium roast, medium-dark roast and dark roasted coffee beans.

What Is Drip Coffee?

Drip coffee, also referred to as brewed coffee, is still one of the most popular coffee brewing methods in America.

Coffee enthusiasts often overlook drip coffee and see it as a device of convenience as it is effectively speaking, an automatic pour over coffee maker where heated water is sprayed over a bed of coffee and thanks to gravity, it passes through the coffee and the filter and into the carafe or cup below.

Quite often my morning cup of coffee is a drip coffee. I set it up, jump in the shower, let it brew and when I am finished my coffee is sitting there, hot, ready and waiting for me.

The finished brew is clean, crisp and fresh tasting. Unlike a pour over drip coffee is best suited for medium roast, medium-dark roast and dark roasted coffee.

Due to the lack of control over the variable, it is not suitable for light roasts and is not as good as pour over for this type of coffee bean.

Read: Pour over Vs French press Vs Aeropress 

French Press Vs Drip Vs Pour Over Flavor Profile

Let’s get down to the details of the flavor profile of a typical cup of coffee while using these three brewing techniques.

The method of brewing coffee, even with the same beans, can produce a very different flavor.

French Press Flavor Profile

Brewing a French press coffee you can expect a strong coffee in terms of flavor as it is rich and full-bodied. This is why many people find it to be a very enjoyable brewing technique.

A French coffee press steeps your coffee grounds in hot water with an extended brew time of around 4 minutes to 5 minutes. The extended brewing and the immersion in hot water extract the flavor compounds and oils. The metal mesh filter ensures that none of the coffee oils are filtered out and make their way into your final brew.

Drip Coffee Flavor Profile

Drip coffee, while it can produce a strong coffee in terms of caffeine content, does not produce a strong tasting coffee. This very convenient coffee brewing method produces a clean, crisp tasting cup with a lighter and clean body with a more simplistic and less intense flavor.

Often described as mellow.

Pour Over Coffee Flavor Profile

Pour over coffee tastes very different from a coffee brewed using a French press coffee maker and a drip coffee machine. It’s best suited for your light roast and medium roasted beans as the brewing technique highlights the subtle, complex, delicate and intricate flavors of a coffee bean which get lost with immersion brewing.

That is the reason why premium quality and specialty grade Arabica beans of light and medium roasts work best. If you love the nuanced flavors of a single origin coffee, this is the brewing method to use.

French Press Vs Pour Over Grind Size

The grind size that you use is critically important; get it wrong, and your coffee will just not taste as you expect or want it to taste.

Let’s go beyond French press Vs pour over grind size and include drip coffee grind size.

French Press Grind Size

To get a full-bodied coffee with this brewing method you need a coarse grind. The perfect grind size is between 0.75 mm and 1 mm. If your grind size is too large, you will end up with a coffee with a taste that is too bitter and too strong.

Conversely, if your grind size is too small, too fine, you will end up with a lighter coffee in terms of flavor and may even end up being under extracted and sour.

To get the best quality and consistent grind size for all coffee brewing methods I strongly suggest using a ceramic flat burr grinder.

Pour Over Grind Size

The ideal grind size for pour over coffee is medium fine to brew the perfect coffee with this method. The perfect size if you are using a measurement is 0.5 mm.

Like French press coffee, the perfect size is very important as too small and too large will both produce an imperfect coffee.

Drip Coffee Grind Size

A medium coarse grind size is ideal for an automatic drip coffee maker. Using the correct grind size for drip coffee, and all coffee brewing techniques is critically important as getting it wrong results in a coffee that will taste too bitter or too light and sour.

Read: Pour over Vs French press

French Press Vs Drip Vs Pour Over Coffee To Water Ratio

The coffee to water ratio is of critical importance for making a great tasting hot coffee using all three of these coffee brewing techniques. Use too focused a ratio and your coffee will be too strong; use too weak a ratio and your coffee will end up too watery.

Let’s get to it as it!

French Press Ratio

The perfect French press ratio is 1:15, that is 1 part coffee and 15 parts water. To make your French press coffee stronger, you can opt to have your coffee water ratio slightly more focused (1:14 for example). If you want a weaker smooth coffee you can try using more water and a ratio of 1:16.

Drip Coffee Ratio

The ideal ratio for drip coffee brewing is 1:18, this brews the perfect cup of coffee for this brewing method. To make it stronger, try a ratio of 1:17 or 1:16. Making your coffee weaker has little point, little sense as outside of the 1:18 ratio will make your drip coffee taste too weak.

The easiest way of controlling the coffee to water ratio is by controlling how much coffee is used.

Pour Over Ratio

A good coffee to water ratio for pour over coffee is 1:16, that’s 16 parts water for every part of coffee used. This can be made stronger by using a 1:15 coffee to water ratio; to make it weaker, use a 1:17 ratio.

Experiment and find which is best suited for your personal coffee taste and preference.

French Press Vs Drip Vs Pour Over Coffee Brew Time

Brewing time, also known as the extraction time, is very important to get it right as getting it wrong will result in under brewed, under extracted weak, water and sour tasting coffee when your brew time is too short.

Too long a brewing time will result in a bitter, too bitter to enjoy due to over extraction.

Coffee brewing is about getting all the factors that affect coffee brewing exactly right.

French Press Brew Time

The ideal brew time for a French press coffee maker is from 4 minutes to 5 minutes. Outside of this range, will result in a coffee that is either too weak or too strong.

Drip Coffee Brew Time

The brewing time for an automatic drip coffee maker is approximately 4 to 5 minutes depending on the specific coffee maker and brand. The variation is due to the flow rate.

Pour Over Coffee Brew Time

The brew time for a perfect pour over coffee is from 3 to 4 minutes in total. The actual brew time for pour over coffee is the short period of time that each pour has with your coffee grounds, known as contact time. While pouring, you must be careful not to flood your coffee grounds.

The total time is from 3 to 4 minutes.

French Press Vs Pour Over Health

It is your health that brings you wealth and not the other way around. Coffee is a very healthy drink. Let’s be all-inclusive and talk about all three brewing methods, including French press, pour over and drip coffee and not just French press Vs Pour over health benefits.

There is no real great difference in the health benefits that a particular coffee brewing method has as the thousands of studies available didn’t particularly focus on a brewing method.

There are two key points that I did discover, I’ll get to in a moment.

Coffee is very healthy as, according to medial researchers and well respected health websites like HealthLine, WebMD and others, coffee is great for your cardio vascular system, your liver health, and your brain health.

Studies also indicate that coffee is for your mental health too as 3 cups of coffee per day, due to dopamine enhancing effects, enhance your dopamine levels.

These health benefits are due to the nutritional content, the flavonoids, phenolic compounds and the powerful antioxidant chlorogenic acid.

Now for the two keep points that I discovered.

Coffee oil contains a compound known as cafestol, which has the effect of increasing your cholesterol levels. This makes the French press the least health of the three brewing methods due to the metal mesh filter failing to filter out the coffee oils.

There is more chlorogenic acid, which is a powerful antioxidant that is only found in coffee, has greater amounts in light roast coffee beans. Due to a pour over coffee working best with light roasted beans and making use of a paper filter we can deduce that this brewing method has the greatest health benefits of all three brewing methods.

French Press Vs Pour Over Caffeine

Different brewing methods produce and extract different amounts of caffeine in the final cup of coffee. Keep in mind that the brewing method is only one factor of many. There are many more factors that affect the amount of caffeine in a beverage, including, but not limited to, the coffee variety and the different types of coffee bean, including location and how they were roasted.

Let’s look at French press Vs Pour over caffeine content and include drip coffee too.

Of the three brewing techniques, a French press will produce the most caffeinated coffee due to the brewing process requiring a more focused coffee to water ratio of 1:15.

The more coffee that a drink uses, the more caffeinated it is.

Frequently Asked Questions About French Press Vs Drip Vs Pour Over

Which Is Better A French Press Or A Pour Over?

Which brewing method is better depends on the beans that you are using and the cup of coffee that you wish to produce as an end result. If you are using dark roasted coffee beans and want that deep, dark and tasty coffee, a French press will be your best option.

If you are using a lighter roast and want to extract the delicate and intricate and complex flavors, then the pour-over brewing method will be your best brewing process to use.

Why French Press Coffee Is Better?

French press coffee is better due to the brewing method and technique taking advantage of the full immersion technique of immersing your coffee grounds in hot water for an extended period of time. The result is a tasty, more robust and intense cup of coffee.

Also,

French press coffee is very easy to make. All that is needed is hot water and coarse ground coffee beans.

Is Pour Over Better Than Drip?

Yes, pour over coffee is better than drip coffee due to you having more control over the brewing method and technique which enables you to brew a better tasting cup of coffee.

What Is The Best Method To Brew Coffee?

The best method to brew coffee is very subjective as it depends on the outcome that you are seeking.

If your goal is a great tasting intense and bold coffee, the French press method stands out as the best, by far.

However, if your objective is to make a great cup of coffee with the delicate and intricate flavors of origin from your light roasted coffee beans then pour over coffee method is best and stands head and shoulders above all others.

If you want an intense cup of coffee and a focused and concentrated shot that has a greater amount of chlorogenic acid, antioxidants, flavonoids, phenolic compounds and all the nutrients associated with coffee, then the espresso brewing method and making a double ristretto is the best way.

If you’re looking for a coffee that is easier on your stomach, mild, well-balanced and is easier on your stomach due to a reduced acidity, then cold brewing is the best method.

Does Pour Over Taste Better?

Yes, the pour over process produces a coffee that has better taste when you are using light roasted coffee beans. This brewing process uses a constant flow of fresh hot water and is the brewing method that extracts more total dissolved solids than other brewing methods.

As an important note, a pour over does not produce a coffee that tastes better for dark roasted coffee beans.

Why Is Pour Over Coffee So Good?

The pour over method produces a cup of coffee that is so good due to the ability of yoru to have precision control over the temperature of your water, the flow rate and thus the contact time between your coffee and your hot water.

As a result, this gives you full control over the taste. Coffee enthusiasts love this method from white roasted coffee, blonde roasts and other light roasts.

Why Are Pour Overs Expensive?

Pour over coffee brewing equipment and all that you need for making a perfect pour over coffee can add up; what you will need:

• Digital coffee scale with a timer.
• Gooseneck kettle with digital temperature control.
• Ceramic flat burr coffee grinder.
• A pour over system like A Hario V60 or Chemex, for example.

Your grinder and digital coffee scale can be used for other coffee brewing methods and not just pour over.

Is Pour Over Coffee Weaker?

A pour over coffee has a lighter taste and flavor due to the coffee beans being used are usually of a lighter roast. The lighter and “weaker” flavor is from the beans, not the brewing process.

Weaker is in parentheses as is weaker due to not having as much of the traditional coffee taste as dark roasted coffee beans. However, it contains more flavor compounds due to extracting more total dissolved solids.

Final Thoughts – French Press Vs Drip Vs Pour Over

By reading this far you have found out how a French press vs Drip Vs Pour over compares with each other, their health benefits, which is the healthiest, which is the least healthy and what is the most caffeinated.

More importantly you have uncovered what beans are best suited for each of the three brewing methods.

Join our fun and friendly coffee community and tell us which of the three coffee brewing methods is your favorite! Find us on Facebook/Meta.

Derek Marshall

Derek Marshall, a certified barista by the Specialty Coffee Association possesses over two decades of experience in specialty coffee shops. He holds professional certifications for coffee brewing and barista skills. Derek is also an author with authoritative books covering various coffee topics including specialty coffee, sustainability and coffee, coffee brewing, coffee recipes, coffee cocktails and books focusing on Brazilian coffee, Vietnamese coffee, Indonesian coffee and Malaysian coffee. As a barista for over two decades, Derek Marshall has worked in specialty coffee shops across the United Kingdom, Spain, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. His expertise extends to the distinct coffee cultures, specialty beverages, and brewing techniques of each nation. Functioning as a coffee consultant, Derek charges US$50 per hour. To learn more about Derek Marshall and Latte Love Brew, visit his About Me Page. For coffee inquiries, contact him at +34-639-410-375 or Derek@LatteLoveBrew.com, mentioning your name and location