Timemore Chestnut C3
Manual burr grinder with stainless steel conical burrs.
A widely recommended entry-level hand grinder: consistent grind for filter coffee at a modest cost.
How to use a filter coffee machine
An electric filter machine (a drip brewer) heats water and showers it over a bed of ground coffee held in a paper filter. It is the easiest way to make several cups at once, and with fresh coffee and the right dose it is genuinely good.
Most disappointing machine coffee comes down to three things: stale pre-ground coffee, the wrong dose, and a machine that has never been descaled. Fix those and the cup changes completely.
- Ratio
- 60 g per litre
- Grind
- Medium
- Brew time
- 4–6 minutes
Step by step
- 1
Start with fresh, whole beans
Buy whole beans from a roaster with a roast date on the bag and use them within a few weeks of roasting. Pre-ground coffee loses its aromatics within days.
- 2
Weigh the coffee
Weigh rather than scoop. As a starting point use 60 g of coffee per litre of water (about 15 g of coffee to 250 ml) — the ratio range published by the Specialty Coffee Association for filter coffee — then adjust to taste. For a full 1.25 litre jug that is roughly 75 g of coffee.
- 3
Grind medium
Grind to the texture of coarse sand — noticeably coarser than espresso, finer than a cafetière grind. If the machine finishes very fast and the coffee tastes thin, grind finer; if it overflows or tastes harsh, grind coarser.
A burr grinder gives the even grind a drip machine needs. - 4
Fit the filter paper and rinse it
Seat the paper in the basket and rinse it with hot water, then pour the rinse water away. This removes papery flavours and warms the brew basket.
- 5
Fill with fresh cold water
Use fresh cold water in the reservoir, filtered if your area is hard. Fill only to the level that matches the amount of coffee you weighed out.
- 6
Level the bed and brew
Shake the basket flat so the water wets the coffee evenly, then start the machine. A typical brew takes four to six minutes.
- 7
Serve promptly
Decant into a warmed jug or flask rather than leaving the coffee on a hotplate, which stews it and turns it bitter within about 20 minutes.
Serve it fresh from the carafe — a hotplate stews coffee within about 20 minutes. - 8
Descale and clean
Rinse the basket and jug after each use, and descale every one to three months depending on water hardness. Scale slows the machine and drops the brew temperature.
Tips
- If the machine brews well below 92C, a pour-over will taste noticeably better with the same beans.
- Machines certified by the Specialty Coffee Association's Certified Home Brewer programme are tested for brew temperature and contact time.
- Coffee left on a hotplate keeps cooking. A thermal carafe holds the flavour far better.
What you need
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Coffee Scale with Timer
Digital scale with 0.1 g precision and an integrated brew timer.
Lets you follow roaster recipes exactly and repeat a great cup.
Fellow Opus
Electric conical burr grinder covering espresso through to cold brew.
A compact all-purpose electric grinder for people who want convenience without a large machine.
See the full list on our coffee gear page, and buy beans direct from UK specialty roasters.