Bee House Ceramic Coffee Dripper - Large - Drip Cone Brewer

The BeeHouse Coffee Dripper has been in my possession for the last seven days. After perusing multiple websites and reviews I settled on the BeeHouse over Hario Dripper. The consensus is that the BeeHouse Dripper can deliver a great cup of coffee without the hassle of having a perfect pour using a kettle specific for pouring water. I love my coffee gadgets as much as anyone else but I had to think a few times as to whether a dedicated kettle for pouring water made any sense. In the end I settled for the BeeHouse Dripper which I have seen used by Blue Bottle Coffee. If they can get a great tasting cup of coffee, I certainly can make it happen at home. (It's also interesting to note that while they use what looks like a BeeHouse dripper they sell a Bonmac dripper to customers.)

My method is like many you might have found on the web. Here's my morning process:

1. Place the dripper on top of a cup. The mouth of the cup needs to be less than 3.5 inches in diameter. Standard mugs might not pair well with this and you might need to use a more svelte cup.

2. Boil the water and then wet the filter paper that's already placed into the dripper. Not sure it matters but I use Trader Joe's #4 filter paper. Dump out the flushed water.

3. Grind the beans using my Capresso Infinity burr grinder on medium fine settings.

4. Pre-wet the grinds with water from a Japanese porcelain tea kettle and wait 30 seconds. The pour is probably not as controlled as the Hario kettle but it does provide a smoother pour that a wide mouth tea kettle that spews water.

5. Pour in the rest of the water by starting the pour from the center of the dripper and in a circular motion going out but not touching the sides. This is the zen part as I move the tea pot in a circular motion and trying to control the flow creating perfect circles.

6. Wait for the drip to complete which is approximately 3 minutes

7. Sip.

About 4 of the 8 cups I've made were fantastic. I have had to mess with the amount of beans used and the grind. Without a kitchen scale my use of beans can be random and I think the results show. Also the amount of water I used is by feel and sight and not measurement. Again a possible point of failure. Nevertheless I've used this method in replacement of my Aeropress the last week and the key difference is a much smoother but just as tasty cup of coffee. Initially I had mistaken the smoothness as not being strong enough but after a few more days of coffee tasting I've come to see that the smoothness is an advantage in allowing you taste a different aspect of the coffee.

And yes, this is like other BeeHouse designs: simple, elegant and functional all at the same time.

I've made some of the best coffee ever with this, melita #2 filters, and fresh ground (medium grind) coffee. Hot-not-boiling water, pour slowly and stir the grounds periodically.

Two things I wish this had:

* a wider base to fit over my favorite coffee mug

* bigger slits for "see through" unless the mug is light-colored, it's not really a useful feature, because it's too dark inside the cup.

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Nice, simple design. The handle is not quite a easy to hold as a typical "mug" style version. Also, this is labeled Large, but takes #2 filters which are the smaller size. I thought large = #4 size.

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With lots of experimentation, I've been able to get my technique down and can make a cup on par with the $3-4 ones that I used to buy (oops). This seems to let liquid through fast enough to not over-extract the beans, so long as you have everything else set up the way you want it. brewmethods[dot]com has a ton of videos illustrating various pour-over techniques.

Minus 1 star for maybe being too thin along the bottom (I managed to break off the bottom piece by accidentally whacking it against the table -fixed it with epoxy later) and being a bit pricey. I like the design though so I guess that helps.

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I've made wonderful, dense, rich coffee consistently with this cone. I took one star off because of the shape of its base, which doesn't fit as many containers as other drip cones do. I use a Bodum double-walled glass, and the cone isn't very stable on it. I'm very careful, though, and the results have been great. Surprisingly, I made a cup of coffee using the Hario cone, with the same amount of coffee and grind as I use for the Bee House, and the Hario turned out weak and flat. I'm sure that it's possible to make an excellent cup of coffee with the Hario, but from what I've read you need lots of control of the water pour and thus need their $50+ kettle. The BeeHouse works fine using my regular kettle. So if you're not into buying more specialized equipment, this is the way to go.