How To Brew With A Kalita Wave Coffee Maker

Kalita was established in Tokyo, Japan, in the late 1950s. The company specializes in drip-based coffee-making equipment—coffee mills, kettles, and pour-over devices.

The Kalita Wave began popping up in US cafes in 2012 and took the coffee world by storm.

It boasts a flat bottom, which proponents of the Wave claim allow for a more even brew.

Here’s our tried-and-true brew method that yields a delicious cup.

What you’ll need:

☑️ Kalita Wave Coffee Maker

☑️ Kalita Wave coffee filters

☑️ ground coffee

☑️ hot water

☑️ cup

What’ll you’ll want to have:

☑️ decanter

☑️ coffee grinder

☑️ hot water kettle

☑️ coffee scale

☑️ thermometer

☑️ stopwatch

☑️ stirring device (we use a metal chopstick in this guide)

Shop local—find a roaster selling gear in your area online. Don’t know where to start? Check out this map.

The Sprudge Kalita Wave Brew Recipe

This guide applies to the 185 sized Wave, the larger the two offerings.

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40g ground coffee (medium)
640ml hot water (205ºF)

Add 80ml of hot water stir gently.

Pour remaining water intermittently ~3:30 total time.

Wait one minute for the water to draw down.

Step one:

Measure out 40g of coffee and get your hot water going. Shoot for 205ºF/96ºC.

Step Two:

Place the wavey filter in once your water is up to temperature. Pour a good amount of hot water through it to preheat the Wave and rinse the filter.

Grind the coffee and place it into the filter. Place your setup on the scale and tare it. Get your timer ready!

Step three:

Pour about 80g of hot water on the grounds and start the timer. Stir up the bed of coffee to make sure no dry clumps are hiding out.

The blunt end of a metal chopstick is an excellent tool for this.

Step four:

After 30 seconds have passed, pour the stream of water initially into the center of the bed, then use the stream’s directionality to distribute the coffee outwards evenly in a spiral-motion pour.

Because the Wave bed is a homogenous depth throughout, you don’t have to worry about focusing the pour in a particular area. Instead, it would help if you poured over the entire bed deliberately.

Step five:

Pour intermittently to keep the water level at a reasonable level throughout the pour and aim to finish the pour at 03:30, with an additional minute of drip through.

We like to gently rap the filter cone against the server as the last of the brewing liquid seeps through the surface of the coffee bed.

The quirkier aspect of working with the Wave is getting those excellent wavy filters to stay evenly spaced.

Try holding the filter down with your hand (make a C shape) and pour hot water straight down the middle of the filter to get it situated.

If all goes wonky, use a chopstick to salvage the waves. If that fails, accept that it doesn’t make a huge difference.

Some people insist that you don’t need to rinse the filter, not because the filter doesn’t taste like paper, but because the longer the paper is in contact with water, the more paper taste leaches into the brew.

In our experience, we prefer a well-rinsed paper filter to one that is not rinsed.

The objective with the Kalita is to maintain an even flow rate through the bed of coffee. This is generally achieved with pulsed pours.

Don’t let the water level expose the ground coffee – the liquid headspace above the grounds will somewhat buffer agitation.

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