Designing the April Pour-Over Brewer: An Interview with Patrik Rolf

Roaster. Consultant. Podcaster. There’s not much Patrik Rolf hasn’t done when it comes to coffee. Originally from Sweden, Rolf made a name for himself as a coffee roaster in the Berlin coffee scene. After deciding to found his own company, Rolf moved to Copenhagen to launch April Coffee.

In 2019, Rolf won the Swedish Brewers Cup competition and went on take second place at the world championship. Although all competitors write a routine around their coffee, Rolf took it one step further and designed an entire brewing device: the April Pour-Over Brewer. We recently caught up with Rolf over email to learn what’s so special about his device.

Baristas love to complain about the shortcomings of different brewing devices, but you set out to design a better pour-over dripper. What was the inspiration?

To brew the roasted coffee from April in the best possible way. If you think about it, very few, if any, current brewing devices are created with modern (lighter) roasted coffee in mind. After a long time of improving my roasting, I felt there was a missing link and it was clear that it was my brewing that wasn’t able to keep up with my roasting.

There are lots of debates about flat-bottom drippers versus conical. It strikes me that your dripper has the best of both worlds: unrestricted flow rate and an even coffee bed. Was that intentional?

Yes, it gives the brewer a more uniform extraction (in my world meaning that all the coffee is more evenly saturated). At the same time, you can play with contact time and don’t have to worry about having too much bypass.

There have never been more pour-over drippers on the market. What do you think sets yours apart?

In the end, you have to use it and brew with it, side by side with other pour-overs to really understand the difference. For me, it comes down to the balance, sweetness, and structure of the taste you get with the April brewer, especially in the lower temperatures. On top of that, the design feels more contemporary, less bulky, and more elegant.

When can we expect the April Pour-Over Brewer to be available?

It already is available as the April Brewing-Kit. Apart from that, we are working on a metal version as well as a new version in a different style of clay. With that, we are also introducing our own paper-filters.

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