Best Coffee Beans For Pour Over: Picks For Coffee Hipsters

Pour-over brewing is known for showcasing a coffee’s complexity. The meticulous brewing method beautifully highlights the subtle nuances of your beans. So, it makes sense that the best coffee beans for pour-over infusion have rich flavor profiles worth celebrating. That’s why I put together this list.

There is no right or wrong coffee for pour over. You can let your taste buds be your guide. But if you’re unsure where to start, we’ve got your back. After copious taste testing, here are the seven picks for the best coffee for pour over, according to our expert team.

7 Best Coffee Beans For Pour Over In 2023

image	product	details
Best Overall Best Overall	Volcanica Ethiopian Yirgacheffe	Light-Medium Roast Ethiopian origin Lemon, Blueberry, and Blackberry notes
Best single Origin Best single Origin	Coffee Bros. Costa Rica	Medium roast Costa Rica origin Cocoa, toffee, lemon notes
Best Dark Roast Best Dark Roast	Koa Coffee Grande Domaine	Dark roast Hawaiian origin Tropical fruits, coconut, chocolate notes
Best Organic Best Organic	Lifeboost Medium Roast	Medium roast Nicaraguan origin Nuts, chocolate, strawberry notes
Best Value For Money Best Value For Money	Driftaway Mexico Chiapas Tzeltal Tzotzi	Medium-dark roast Mexico Baking Spices, Black Tea, Brown Sugar
Budget Pick Budget Pick	Peet’s Luminosa Breakfast Blend	Light roast Colombian and Ethiopian origins Passionflower, stonefruit, cacao notes
Best Light Roast Best Light Roast	Joe Coffee La Familia Guarnizo	Light roast Colombian origin Citrus, honey, nuts notes

Let’s get straight to my list of best-tasting coffee beans for making pour-over coffee in 2023. They range from light to dark roast and from bright, fruity single origins to rich dark chocolate blends, so you’re sure to find the right beans for you.

Best Overall

Volcanica Coffee began when its founders noticed all their favorite coffee beans shared a common trait: they all came from volcanic regions. The combination of high altitude and fertile volcanic soils provides ideal growing conditions for Arabica coffee, and the success of Volcanica Coffee stands testament to this. These coffee beans have a fruity flavor profile, which I think makes them an excellent choice for the pour-over method. Flavor notes I tasted having this coffee as a pour over are ones of blueberry, blackberry, and lemon.

Ethiopian Yirgacheffe beans are considered some of the best beans in the world. These particular beans are heirloom Arabica beans that have been harvested mainly from wild trees then wash-processed to enhance the floral flavors and acidity.

For me, the best advantage of Volcanica Coffee beans is that they’re very affordable and freshly roasted to ensure the best possible coffee tastes. I wouldn’t overstate it if I said this is the best combination possible. Often times excellent beans come with a high price tag, but with Volcanica you can really drink amazing coffee and not spend your life saving buying it. These Ethiopian Yirgacheffe beans have been sustainably sourced, grown using organic farming methods, and certified kosher.

The only disadvantage to these coffee beans I could think of is they might be too delicate for someone looking for a bold flavor profile.

Volcanica Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is priced at $19.99 for 16 oz and is available as whole beans or ground. 

Best Organic

4. Lifeboost Medium Roast

• Roast level: Medium

• Origin: Nicaragua
• Tasting notes: Nuts, chocolate, strawberry
• Certifications: Kosher, Fairly traded, Organic, GMO-free

Nutrition expert Dr. Charles Livingston founded Lifeboost Coffee to deliver coffee as healthy as it is delicious. They achieve this by sourcing only the top 0.5% of Arabica coffee beans grown worldwide and processing them with great care. I admire this effort. Plus, they produce some fantastic organic coffee that I’ve been trying out for some time now. In terms of flavor, you can expect a smooth and balanced cup of coffee. My subjective taste sensed nuts and cocoa powder notes accompanied by a subtle strawberry sweetness.

Lifeboost Medium Roast coffee comes from a small plantation in Nicaragua located at 5,700 feet on Mt. Kilambe. Arabica and Maragogipe beans are hand-picked by skilled workers, sun-dried, and washed in spring water to preserve the purity of the coffee.

I believe the best thing about brewing coffee from Lifeboost is the benefits for your health. How so? Their coffee is third-party tested to ensure it’s free from mycotoxins, heavy metals, acrylamide, pesticides, and 400 other toxins. In today’s world of fast production of everything, for me this is a privilege I like having.

Unfortunately, I know these beans are priced a little higher than other non-specialty coffee beans. So it will be a downside to some poeple.

Lifeboost Medium Roast costs around $27.95 for a 12 oz whole beans or ground-coffee package, and it’s also available as coffee pods or coffee bags.

Best Single Origin

5. Coffee Bros. Costa Rica

• Roast level: Medium

• Origin: Costa Rica
• Tasting notes: Cocoa, toffee, lemon
• Certifications: Kosher

Costa Rica is widely recognized as one of the world’s top coffee regions – Robusta beans were famously illegal in the nation for decades – so it’s a wonderful choice if you want to savor the complexity of a single-origin brew. 

This stunning microlot coffee from Coffee Bros doesn’t just come from a single country or growing region; it comes from a single farm! The Las Lajas family farm in the Central Valley is run by third-generation coffee growers. Their experience shows in this delightful brew, amplified by the unique Alma Negra processing method.

I love the vibrance of this coffee. It’s exciting enough that you know you’re drinking a premium single origin without being too esoteric. I could (and often did) sip this one all day. It has a wonderful fruity berry and toffee sweetness, bright citrus acidity, and a perfect balancing low note of rich cocoa.

Best Dark Roast

6. Koa Coffee Grande Domaine

• Roast level: Dark

• Origin: Hawaii
• Tasting notes: Tropical fruits, coconut, chocolate
• Certifications: Kosher

The Koa Coffee brand specializes only in sourcing and roasting the highest quality coffee from Hawaii, including the highly-prized Koa coffee. Found in 1997, the company has won the Gevalia Cupping Competition, PCCA Coffee of the Year, and been listed in Forbes’s “Top 10 Coffees of the World”.

What surprised me about these beans is that I could taste some notes unusual for the dark roast. For instance, I noticed some fruitiness and coconut notes. This is quite unique and I loved it. Apart from that peculiarity, there’s a medium body, low acidity, and rich, smooth taste that will make this coffee an excellent addition to your auto-drip or pour-over routine. I used it with my V60 brewer and it worked great.

Koa’s Grande Domain beans are a blend of Kona coffee beans and Kona peaberry beans. True Kona beans only come from a small growing region on Hawaii’s Big Island, making them considerably rare and much sought after. Koa Coffee’s advantage is that their Kona coffees are guaranteed 100% pure. More than a few brands will advertise Kona blends that contain as little as 10% Kona beans. 

As with Lifeboost, I believe the high price of these beans will be an issue for some people. While it’s a very reasonable price for pure Kona beans, it does make it more expensive than many other beans on our list.

The price of Koa Coffee Grande Domaine starts at $35 for 8 oz. It’s available as whole beans or ground, in 8 oz, 1 lb, or 2 lb packages.

Best Value for Money

Driftaway Coffee is known for high-quality beans, sustainable operation, and ethical sourcing – three things we can definitely get behind. 

Each month, Driftaway features a new set of five single-origin coffees with different taste profiles – Fruity, Classic, Balanced, Bold, and Extra Bold – roughly corresponding to roast level. While light roast pour overs are all the rage in Third Wave coffee shops, if you enjoy a more robust pour-over brew, consider the Bold profile from Driftaway. It’s a medium-dark roast that maintains enough complexity to make a delightful pour-over coffee. If you’re worried about a one-note coffee that tastes as much of smoke as anything else, toss those worries aside.

You’ll receive a new Bold coffee each month, plus plenty of other member perks. 

At present, the Bold offering is a washed Mexican coffee sourced from small, family-run farms. It has a nicely balanced flavor profile of nuttiness, chocolate, and spice notes, equally delicious when consumed black or with a splash of cream.

These beans are $19 per 12oz, quite an amazing deal we’d say.

Budget Pick

Peet’s Coffee is a San Francisco brand known for its signature coffee blends. Founded in 1966, it now also provides a wide range of single-origin coffees at affordable prices for the average coffee lover. But this doesn’t mean an average taste. I quite like Peet’s coffee. I picked the breakfast blend for this roundup because I liked the subtlety of passionflower floral notes that are not overtaking the taste as sometimes happens. Perhaps this is due to the hints of cacao that I also felt, and it’s a combination that works well together. This coffee blend has a mild body with bright acidity, making it perfect for brewing Chemex.

The Luminosa Breakfast Blend features beans from the Huila region of Colombia, harvested at altitudes over 4,500 feet and known for their sweetness. They’re blended with Arabica coffee beans from Ethiopia, adding floral notes to the blend.

Buying from Peet’s Coffee allows you to get expertly blended quality beans at a budget price. Each expertly roasted batch is shipped the same day to ensure that your beans arrive as fresh as possible.

I think the big downside to buying these coffee beans is that they’re only available as a 1lb bag. You’ll either need an excellent airtight storage container or use these beans quickly to enjoy them while they’re fresh.

Peet’s Colombia Luminosa is $16.95 for 1 lb. It’s available as whole or ground beans for drip, French press, or espresso.

Best Light Roast

The Joe Coffee Company started as a single cafe in New York in 2003 and has since expanded to include 21 cafes around the city and its own roastery. The company works directly with farmers and cooperatives to ensure ethical sourcing and sustainable relationships. La Familia Guarnizo light roast coffee beans have a sweet flavor with a hint of nuttiness. Expect to taste citrusy clementines, caramel, honey, and toasted pecans.

These are single-origin beans sourced from the Huila region of Colombia. Here, the Guarnizo family grows Caturra coffee beans at an altitude of 5,200-5,900 feet on the slopes of the Andes Mountains. 

Joe Coffee La Familia Guarnizo has the advantage of being a single-origin coffee from a well-respected growing region. It has a bright and light body, making it an excellent match with the pour-over brewing method.

The downside to these beans is that they are a little more expensive than other beans on our list. 

Joe Coffee La Familia Guarnizo beans are at $21.20 for 12 oz. They’re available as whole beans or in six different sizes of ground beans.

How To Choose The Best Beans For Pour Over Coffee

The best beans for pour-over coffee are the ones that taste good to you. So don’t get bogged down reading too much into the opinion of coffee experts. But if you’re not sure what you like, or if you’re excited to expand your palate, here’s a rundown of things to consider when buying coffee for the pour-over method.

Roast Levels And Flavor Profiles

The coffee roast level strongly influences the taste, aroma, and mouthfeel of your brew. Many pour-over fans prefer light and medium roasts because they tend to have a more complex balance of sweetness and acidity. But there are no hard-and-fast rules, so if you’re new to this brewing method, go ahead and experiment!

Here’s a quick overview of what to expect from various roasts:

• Lighter roasts typically have fragrant floral and/or fruity notes, with a mild body and brighter acidity. Light roasts are excellent for exploring the nuances of single-origin coffee beans.
• Medium roasts offer a bit more body and sweetness and less acidity than light roasts due to the caramelization of sugars during the roasting process. Common flavor notes include caramel, brown sugar, nuts, milk chocolate, and ripe fruit.
• Good dark roasts have a bold, rich body and an intense sweetness that can border on bitter. Their flavors – which tend towards dark chocolate, toasted nut, smoky, and earthy – are a product of the roasting process as much as the coffee bean itself.

Single Origins And Blends

I’m not here to tell you that single origins are better than blends or vice versa. Both deserve a place in your coffee repertoire. However, I will say that Arabica beans are far superior to Robusta for pour over brewing. Save your Robusta blends for your espresso machine.

Single-origin coffees, by definition, come from a single country. But traceability is a huge tenet of Third Wave coffee, so modern specialty roasters will likely offer single origins from a specific growing region or even a single farm. These coffees are a fantastic way to experience flavor profiles unique to a certain area. They are often exotic and complex, making a pour over brew the perfect way to taste every subtlety.

Coffee blends are typically designed by roasters to be crowd-pleasing and well-balanced. They combine different origins to take advantage of the best features of each. Brewing a blend with a pour over dripper delivers a smooth and easy-drinking coffee, something you might want to sip all day.

Fresh Is Best

This rule applies to buying coffee for every brewing method. But because pour over brewing highlights a coffee’s subtleties, it is particularly apparent when the brew is stale. 

Try to buy coffee beans within a week of roasting, and buy no more than you can drink in a month or two. If you can’t shop local, choose an online seller like Volcanica that roasts to order and ships immediately.

Freshly ground coffee is more important than freshly roasted; coffee goes stale even faster once it is ground. The best practice is to buy whole bean coffee and grind it with a burr grinder right before brewing. If a good grinder isn’t in your budget, shop brands that grind to order or see if a local coffee shop will grind for you.

How to make pour-over coffee

To make a pour-over coffee, you’ll first need to equip yourself with the following tools:

• Pour-over coffee maker
• Filters to match your coffee maker
• Good burr coffee grinder
• Gooseneck kettle
• Thermometer
• Coffee scale
• A serving vessel (optional)
• Good quality water

The steps for brewing pour-over coffee are:

1. Heat the water to 195-205 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Weigh your coffee beans–you’ll need 9-11 grams per 6-ounce cup
3. Rinse the paper filter if using
4. Grind your coffee–you’ll need anything from medium-fine to medium-coarse grind size depending on your coffee maker
5. Pour the water over the grounds, first to bloom the coffee, then to brew it

If you don’t have your equipment yet, check out our guide to the best gooseneck kettles and some cool pour over coffee stands. Or, watch Home Grounds’ video review on best pour-over coffee makers:

The Verdict

There is no single best coffee for pour over, And this is good news because it means you can find a favorite that suits your coffee taste. Look for something with complex, subtle, or contrasting flavors to understand why the pour-over technique has become popular.

This time, we’re choosing the coffee by its traditionally good region: Ethiopia Yirgachefe from Volcanica coffee. The delicate flavors are precisely the kind of tastes that the pour-over method extracts so well from beans. It also gives you the chance to enjoy one of the world’s highest-valued beans at an affordable price.