Blue Bottle Dripper

Equipment notes

Blue Bottle Coffee released this in-house ceramic dripper in late 2016, after a research effort that drew on an MIT-trained engineer and the physics of water flow, running through some seventy prototypes and roughly a million data points. The goal was a brewer forgiving enough that anyone, in a cafe or at home, could repeat a consistent pour over. Each piece is made as Arita porcelain, fired using the Kyuemon kiln in Saga, Japan. A flat bed and a single center outlet hand flow control to the dripper itself. Forty vertical ribs along the inner wall keep the filter lifted and the water path even, while the precision-gauged outlet is meant to hold drawdown steady regardless of how the water goes in. Water pools shallowly over the bed and drains evenly through the grounds, a design intended to bring out a rounded, sweet cup with body. Blue Bottle's own method blooms first and then adds water in a few stages, and its proprietary paper filter is shaped to fit the dripper's flat bed. Because the design is meant to hold together even when the pour wavers, it suits brewers who value repeatability over technique, and anyone just starting with pour over.

Filters that fit

• Blue Bottle Dripper FilterDefault
• HIFLUX Purity Wave 185Compatible
• HIFLUX Wave 185Compatible