Brewing
~15th century
Pour Over
The most famous pour-over on earth wasn't designed by a barista. It was designed by a chemist — and MoMA still owns one.
Peter Schlumbohm didn't design the Chemex like a coffee maker — he designed it like a lab instrument, because he was a chemist, not a barista. That mindset stuck: MoMA now keeps one in its permanent collection, and it turned up in James Bond's apartment in the original films, on the strength of pure form.
But pour over earned its place in specialty coffee through what it does, not just how it looks. It became the third-wave movement's signature method because it hides nothing — you taste the coffee, not the technique. Grind size, water at 90–96°C, and a 30-45 second bloom that lets trapped CO₂ escape before extraction begins: get those right and nothing stands between you and the bean. Hario's V60, launched in 2004, turned chasing that precision into a global obsession among baristas.
Origin & History
The Chemex was invented in 1941 by Peter Schlumbohm, a chemist who designed it as much as a scientific instrument as a coffee brewer. The Hario V60, now the most widely used pour over in specialty coffee, was introduced by the Japanese glass company Hario in 2004 and became the object of intense global obsession among baristas.
Fun Fact
The Chemex appears in the permanent collection of MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York. It was also spotted in the apartment of James Bond in the original films.
Related Drinks
- Turkish CoffeeIn the Ottoman Empire, a wife could divorce her husband for one reason: he stopped making her coffee.
- Hand DripOne frustrated housewife's fix in 1908 became an art some baristas now spend decades perfecting to the second.
- French PressIt's called a French press. An Italian patented it first, in Milan, in 1929.
- AeroPressA frustrated engineer built this to fix one bad cup. It now has a world championship.
- SiphonIt looks like a chemistry experiment about to go wrong. It's just coffee — and it's cleaner than a French press.
- Moka PotThe Bialetti family invented the moka pot. When they died, they were buried inside one.