Kalita Kantan single-use coffee drippers

I mentioned these disposable pourover kits in a previous blog entry and figured I’d post more details since they’re not getting much coverage yet online as far as I can tell. In a nutshell, Kantans are the bomb. They're really compact and make a great cup. Might be hard to beat them for traveling/camping. On the minus side, they can’t hold more than ~16 grams of coffee. Also, I have yet to "load" a Kantan filter without spilling a little bit of coffee into my mug. I usually just give the mug a quick rinse before I start to pour. So, maybe stay away if you're in a rush and/or clumsy. I'm still a fan though.

Source + more info.

There are instructions in Japanese on the back of the resealable package, but you don't need them. Just pinch the filter assembly so that it bends into a rainbow shape and fits on top of your mug (seems to fit a wide range of mug sizes) and then gently push the filter in the middle down a bit with your finger. A quick filter rinse might be in order at this point.

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Next, fill the filter with ground coffee (I used setting #20 on my Virtuoso, which is toward the fine end of the drip grind range). This is what the Kantan looks like with ~16 grams in it. I wouldn't recommend more. For my taste, that means I'm limited to 8 oz. of water or so when using these filters, which suits me just fine.

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Finally, pour. I used my clunky old electric kettle and managed well here, though a more controlled pour like you get with the Buono (or the Crate & Barrel oil can I wrote about before) is better due to the small opening. Because 16 grams of coffee fills the filter up pretty good, I had to pour often in maybe .3-oz. increments. Any more and the bloom would have overflowed.

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Et voilà. Call it beginner's luck, but this was my best-tasting cup of Paradise Sumatra Danau Toba yet somehow. Since the filter assembly appears to be entirely made out of brown paper, I just chucked it into the trash afterward (no mess). There's a Japanese recycling symbol on the back of the package that includes the code PP (for polypropylene), but I can't tell if that refers to the filters themselves or just to the packaging. Anyone speak/read Japanese?

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p.s. More nice images for the curious...