5 Best Japanese Coffee Makers
Japan is pioneering the coffee dripper space, they are the leading coffee dripper manufacturers and exporters recently we have seen more and more up and coming brands such as Orea produce coffee drippers outside of Japan but Japan still dominates this market.
What is a coffee dripper?
A coffee dripper in its simplest form is essentially a funnel or a 'holder' that holds a coffee filter in place to which coffee grounds are placed in and extracted by using hot water.
Coffee drippers come in a range of different sizes, shapes, materials and accentuate different types of brewing methods. For instance some baristas prefer finer grinds that extract faster and have a higher extraction yield, to achieve this result a dripper such as the Origami Dripper when used with a conical filter has incredibly high bypass and allows you to easily brew coffee this way.
Different Coffee Dripper Shapes
As we mentioned before, coffee drippers are made in many different shapes and sizes. By far the most popular two dripper shapes are conical and flat bottom coffee drippers, both of which have their own advantages and are preferred by many coffee professionals equally.
Conical Coffee Drippers
Cone shaped coffee drippers represent the original mass produced coffee dripper design and were largely popularised by HARIO, a glassware and coffee equipment manufacturer located in Japan. Conical drippers used half circle filters that are folded over and creeped to create a quarter circle that opens up into a 60º cone shape.
Flat Bottom Coffee Drippers
Flat bottom coffee drippers are popularly described as have a more even extraction as throughout the entire bed of coffee the grounds sit at an equal distance compared to conical coffee drippers that have a varying distance between the centre and the outer edges.
Flat bottom filters commonly use a wave filter, made from a circular sheet of paper that has been pressed into a wave style filter that easily fits into these types of coffee drippers.
#1 Hario V60 Coffee Dripper
The Hario V60 is one of the most inexpensive, readily available and arguably the easiest pour over coffee dripper to use.
Featuring a 60º angle, a built-in base that sits on top of your coffee server or coffee cup and a handle this dripper is the go to Japanese coffee drippers.
#2 Kalita Wave Dripper
The Kalita Wave is the next dripper on our list, it's flat bottom base features a set of holes and fins that lift the filter off of the base causing a faster flow. Expect faster flowing pour overs and cleaner representation of your coffee as flat bed coffee brewers offer a style of coffee that exaggerates an even extraction.
#3 Origami Dripper
Origami is one of the newer coffee drippers to come from Japan, the Origami Drippers wave shaped fins mimics the folds of flat bottom wave filters and can be used to brew both flat bottom filters and conical shaped filters.
Available in a range of different colours, materials and shapes the Origami dripper has quickly become a fan favourite for many pour over coffee lovers.
#4 Cafec Flower Dripper
Cafec is another coffee filter and dripper manufacturer located in Japan, their Cafec Flower range of drippers similarly feature a 60º angle but instead of the long fins that this the filter up on the Hario V60, the flower drippers have calved out recesses that allow for pockets of air to form and a controlled amount of bypass to flow freely from.
#5 Loca Ceramic Stone Dripper
One of the most unique coffee drippers to come from Japan is the Loca Ceramic Coffee Dripper, this dripper doubles as a filter and the porous stoneware allows coffee to extract from the dripper and the extract through the pours of the stone while holding back the coffee grounds.
This brew method is very unique and is quite slow in comparison to other more traditional coffee filtration systems.
If you want to explore more Japanese coffee drippers and brewing equipment check out our collection of Japanese Coffee Gear.
