Review on ☕ Kalita Silver Stainless Steel Wave 155 Coffee Dripper - Optimal Size for Perfect Brewing by Tara Hammack

Infused coffee is great if you've ever tasted a cup that was brewed properly, ie. perfect pouring of Chemex. But this is not always convenient for a person, so I ordered Kalita Wave 155. It was a great success at first, but over time it only got worse. and worse. and worse. What happened? I finally figured it out today (it took quite a while): 155 isn't good for brewing anything more than about 8 oz, maybe 10, which for me is the bare minimum I've ever enjoyed brewing for myself (not to mention a few people). Maybe Japan doesn't eat as much coffee as I do, but the problem with infuser coffee is that (when made right) it tastes so good that it's hard to stop drinking. Brew larger amounts at 155, the smaller cone shape pushes the water through a longer "column" of coffee and it will over-extract if you go beyond the amounts listed above. I usually want to make 27g per 350ml of water, which is way too much for that. The result is decent, but is (to my best description) dark in hue, as if something acidic has been over-extracted. Perhaps with less surface area, more oil can pass. The 185 dropper from the same recipe (27g/350ml) produces an amazing cup of coffee that makes me wonder why I should even pay anyone for it. If I reduce to 20-22g (same ratio of water) in this dropper I get a cup almost as good as this one. "perfect cups" might start around 16-20g I think. But I never feel like drinking such a small amount of coffee at a time. There is another downside. Filters for this format are much more prone to warping straight out of the box than its big brother, and they're also more prone to cracking when pre-wetted (the cone is closer to a 90-degree angle, I suspect). So annoying. I switched to 185 and get great brew from 20g to 40g of coffee and my 27g/350ml recipe makes for an incredible cup. The matching Kalita carafe is great if you don't want to brew directly in the cup. Short version: If you don't like tiny coffees, do yourself a favor and run towards 185 screaming. 155 is not for you. (I still give it 4 stars for people who like small portions because this thing makes a very good cup.) Normal people spend years off the beaten track trying to perfect this format for a decent portion of coffee.