Preparing coffee with this coffee maker that has become a work of art requires a certain technique. But to prepare coffee with the Hario V60, it is necessary first to understand the history of the iconic coffee maker and the reason for its design.
Hario has been a manufacturer of heat-resistant ecological glass since 1921, with plenty of experience in glass coffee makers. So when the trapezoidal drip coffee maker boom arrived in the early 1980s, Hario wanted to achieve cleaner-tasting coffee using a parabolic shape.
The first invention they proposed consisted of wire rods holding a cone-shaped filter, where the water would filter through the ground coffee without soaking it. However, with the rise of mechanical coffee makers (capsule and automatic), people stopped using drip cones.
So 20 years later, in 2004, Hario revised its initial designs of the original conical dripper, eventually inventing the V60. The key to this coffee maker was allowing the water to pass freely through the coffee, achieved with the spiral ribs.
What is the perfect ratio for the V60? My ideal recipe
As I explained in the article on how to prepare coffee with the Chemex coffee maker, you should always keep a basic recipe when preparing coffee. Your recipe should be constant, easy to remember and apply. Afterward, you can make the modifications you need to adapt it to each moment or type of coffee.
- Coffee beans: 30 grams.
- Type of grinding: Medium / fine (the ground coffee should be slightly coarser than table salt).
- Filtered water: 500 grams.
- Water temperature: 198 ºF
Remember to use a scale and a timer when preparing coffee with your Hario V60. This way, you can easily control each part of the process.
This grind is the same as the one used in the recipe for the Aeropress coffee maker.
Get the right grind with the Hario V60
It would help if you always used a grinder with wheels, allowing you to achieve a more uniform grind without larger pieces of coffee. Remember that this is one of the most important steps when using a Hario V60 coffee maker; using the correct grind or not will condition the final quality of the coffee.
As with the Hario V60, the water spends little time in contact with the water; the grind must be finer than othering methods to extract the full yield of the coffee.
How to prepare coffee with the Hario V60 step by step
With this step-by-step guide, you can prepare a high-quality coffee with the Hario V60. I will detail each part of the process so that it will be easy for you to replicate it at home.
Once you have tried it, you can adjust some variables to make the final result better suit your tastes. Above all, you can modify the degree of grinding, although if you grind finer, remember to pour faster and if you grind coarser, pour slower.
- Take a Hario V60 filter and fold it on the crease so it remains open and can be placed in the cone.
- Once the filter is in place, run some hot filtered water through it to clean it of impurities and remove some of the papery taste. This will also heat the coffee pot, which will help a better extraction (do not forget to discard this water).
- Place the 30 grams of ground coffee in the coffee maker and shake a little so that the coffee bed is flat.
- Place the Hario V60 on the scale and start timing.
- Add 60 grams of filtered water (twice the weight of coffee) at 198ºF and let it brew for 45 seconds. You can help yourself with a spoon, so the water wets all the coffee equally.
This is the well-known blooming or pre-infusion process, where the coffee releases most of its aroma and carbon dioxide. Now the coffee is ready for extraction.
- After 45 seconds, we will pour as much water in 30 seconds to complete the 300 grams total. That is to say, at about 1:15 minutes, the scale should read 300 grams.
- Then, for 30 seconds, we add the rest of the water until the balance marks 600 grams. Remember to pour the water in circles and little by little.
- This water should drain completely in about three and a half minutes.
- A successful extraction is reflected in a flat coffee bed without many grounds stuck to the walls of the filter.
Keys to successful extraction with the Hario V60
To summarize all the steps followed and the keys to success with this recipe for the Hario V60, you should pay close attention to:
- That the grind is adjusted to the set times.
- That is sufficient contact time between the water and the coffee (related to the previous point).
- That no turbulence could agitate the coffee bed so that we can extract all the flavors without overdoing it and causing channels that will lead to under-extraction.
- Use water at a sufficiently high temperature for the coffee to be adequately extracted.
