Espro Entering the Pourover Field this Spring with Bloom

Premium manual coffee brewing equipment and vessel maker Espro has developed a new pourover brewer called the Espro Bloom.

Designed in collaboration with professional barista Kaley Gann, the brewer incorporates some of the ideas put forth by Gann in her own custom brewer, the KG90, which she used to help win the 2019 United States Brewers Cup.

Like the KG90, the Espro Bloom works with flat-bottom paper filters, allows a fast, free flow of liquid, and features a 90-degree angle at the base of the brewer. The similarities end there, though, as the Bloom widens distinctively towards the top.  Rather than supporting a filter with a wide-open crosshatch design like the KG90, it the Bloom features an integrated 1,502-hole microfilter at the bottom.

Vancouver, British Columbia-based Espro has also developed paper filters to fit the brewer, which is made entirely of 18/8 food-grade stainless steel with a silicone sleeve around the top for insulation, grip and exterior temperature control. For users who prefer to skip the paper waste or enjoy a heavier body, a built-in steel filter allows for brewing without the paper filters.

Espro’s recommended recipe with the paper filter involves 16.5 grams of finely ground coffee with 50 grams of water for a 30-second bloom followed by another 260 grams of water for a finished brew in about two minutes. The filter-free recipe is the same, but with a coarser grind that takes a few seconds longer to finish.

Espro Product Manager Terry Hamer told Daily Coffee News that the Bloom’s array of precision-etched, 500-micron-wide holes is arranged in a precisely swirling Fibonacci pattern, and that each hole is flared to take advantage of fluid mechanical properties that enhance the speed and evenness of extraction. The flare towards the top of the brewer is intentionally steep for channeling a circular pour of water swiftly down into the brew bed.

“This is a completely separate design from Kaley’s,” Hamer told DCN. “We worked closely with her, among other experts, on the design of this brewer to get the design right, to get even extraction for great tasting brew, consistently. This was the main challenge posed to us by coffee lovers and baristas who wanted to make barista-quality coffee at home without the inconsistency of other pourover brewers.”

Hamer said that in a pinch, Kalita or other flat-bottom filters would get the job done, but that Espro’s Bloom-specific filters are ideal. The company plans to pursue a Kickstarter campaign to attract pre-orders prior to launching the Bloom in regular retail channels.

“There is a large coffee community on Kickstarter, who like to support new products early,” Hamer said of Espro’s return to the crowdfunding platform despite at this point being a well-established and experienced manufacturer. “It is an excellent way to reach them and interact with them.”

The Espro Bloom Pour Over Coffee Brewer is expected to be priced at roughly $30 USD. Filters will be sold in packs of 50 for $7.98 or 100 for $9.98. The Kickstarter campaign will launch later this Spring. In-person demos will be conducted at Booth #2151 at the SCA Expo in Portland, Oregon, taking place April 23-26.