How to use the Kalita Wave.

The Kalita can appear a little complicated at first glance, but in fact is very easy to use, and has a large margin for error. It is perfect for learning and even experimenting. The three small holes in the base of the brewer is what helps to give a consistently stable extraction, providing the grind size of the coffee is accurate.

What you need:

- Kalita Wave and your favourite cup

- Kalita Wave filter paper

- 15 grams of coffee with a more coarse grind

- Around 250ml of water, just of the boil (about 94 degrees c is ideal)

- Five minutes, with your watch for reference (or better still, a timer)

Step 1:

Place the Kalita dripper, with a filter paper inside, on top of your favourite mug. Use the water we have already boiled to wet the paper and afterwards discard this water. This not only preheats everything in preparation for your coffee, but also eliminates any potential of adding an unwanted papery flavour to your brew.

Step 2:

Grind the coffee you want to use with a medium-coarse grind. (We can always correct this in future depending of the time of infusion of your brew. Take a look at our post on grind size here for more information).

Distribute the coffee in the Kalita dripper as uniformly as possible.

Step 3.

Now comes the fun part. Begin by pouring about 50 grams of water, (as soon as the water touches the coffee, start your timer). Try to pour the water in a slow and steady manner; the objective here is to wet all of the coffee. Once you have done this, wait around 30-40 seconds as the coffee appears to expand and bubbles may rise to the surface. We call this stage the bloom. Basically, as coffee is a product recently roasted, it retains carbon dioxide and more volatile components. This step is to allow us to give time to the expulsion of these, resulting in a more stable and optimal extraction.

STEP 4:

After these 30-40 seconds, start to pour the water in a controlled and uniform manner. We want to pour the remainder of the water here over around 2-3 minutes, and to fill the Kalita Wave no more than three quarters. You can do this either in intervals, or pour consistently over the time in one go. Which strategy you use here depends on the size of the grind of coffee. If the brew takes over 3 minutes to complete and your coffee tastes bitter, grind the coffee more coarsely. If on the contrary the extraction is less than two minutes and you taste your coffee to be too sour, grind the coffee with a finer grind next time.

Lastly, enjoy your coffee! Don't hesitate to experiment!