It is possible one of my favorite things about being married to Dave Kirk is that he makes pourover coffee for us every morning. The routine started a few years ago when he was waking up before the sun to study for the CPA. Pourover coffee gave him an extra boost of motivation to get out of bed, and since the process took the same amount of time as his morning prayer routine, it was a win-win. Even after the CPA, the habit (and our cravings for such good coffee) stuck.

It may take some extra time and effort in the mornings, but there is something surprisingly meaningful about de-automating one of the first things we do every day. No matter how hectic the rest of the morning is, at least one of us starts the day slowly and intentionally, creating something delicious and comforting, serving the other in the process. Below, find the exact steps we use to make pourover coffee at home every morning, plus the details on the tools and gadgets we use to achieve the perfect cups!

Tools

Must-haves: pourover coffee maker (we use the Chemex 6-cup to make about three cups of coffee), filters (linked to World Market since we always find them cheapest there), kettle (highly recommend one with temperature control so your water doesn’t cool down by the time you’re done making your coffee)

Highly recommend: coffee grinder, airtight canister, kitchen scale, thermos or carafe for keeping any extra coffee warm

Instructions

1. Start with whole coffee beans. Obviously, higher-end beans produce better results, but we usually use beans we like from Costco and then splurge on Counter Culture for special occasions! For our 6-cup Chemex, we grind about 50g of coffee beans. After weighing daily for a while, we now eyeball it and get close enough.

2. Fill your kettle to the max fill line and set it to 202 degrees F. While you wait for the water to come to temperature, grind your coffee beans. They should be a similar coarseness as sea salt.

3. Add a filter to the Chemex, with the triple-layered side toward the spout. When the water is hot, dampen the filter (this gets rid of any papery taste and warms your Chemex) and then carefully pour that water out.

4. Add your coffee beans to the Chemex and dampen them to “bloom” the beans. Be sure to get all the beans wet, while not doing a full pour.

5. Once that water drips through, pour water over the beans using a circular motion until the water reaches about 1/2 an inch from top of the glass. Once that water drips through, repeat until the bottom of the Chemex is full (just below the handle). (Note: we couldn’t find a kettle we liked that would hold enough water to make the whole Chemex of coffee. Our “hack” is that after the bloom + first pour, we refill our kettle to the max fill line.)

6. Discard the filter (hold it over your mug to prevent dripping on the floor) and pour your coffee!

Let us know if you have any questions! Hope this makes your morning a little brighter and more caffeinated :)