In the world of coffee consumption, innovation is constant. Ever so often, new products come to the surface with the goal to provide solutions and improved methods to farm, roast and brew coffee. One of these inventions is the Lilydrip.
This invention has kind of a funny story behind it. Lily, a little girl from China, one day put a glass marble in her dad’s cone brewer, claiming it will make the coffee taste better. It actually did! Thanks to her we now have the Lilydrip.
What is the Lilydrip
The Lilydrip is a unique tool that aims at improving quality while brewing coffee. It’s basically a ceramic modifier that you can use for your pour-over coffee. It comes in four different styles and it can be used with cone drippers like the V60 dripper, Origami Dripper, Brewista Dripper etc.
Technically, it is an add-on for your dripper that affects the result of your brew in several ways. Today, we are going to explain what benefits it can have for you brew and what’s the difference between the four styles. Finally, we will also provide you with the steps for using it for a delicious cup of filter coffee.
The Drawbacks of Cone Brewers
To understand the benefits of the Lilydrip, we must first think how a conical brewer works. Conical brewers are great for brewing a few cups of coffee at once with a medium-coarse grind. However, it is very tricky to yield only one tasty cup of coffee with such a brewer.
That’s because the flow rate with this brewer is quite fast at a medium-coarse grind and for a single cup one would have to use a small quantity of coffee. Due to the shape of the brewer certain particles of the coffee bed are more exposed than others and with flow rate being too fast the extraction would be uneven.
If someone tried to slow down the flow rate by going too fine with their grand then they would get an over-extracted and bitter brew. What the Lilydrip aims to do is to slow down the flow rate while at the same time making the coffee bed flat instead of conical. Let’s find out how it does it.
The Benefits of the Lilydrip
The Lilydrip slows down the drip rate thus resulting in a more balanced cup. By making the coffee bed thinner, the coffee grounds come to contact the water in a flat surface, extracting the flavours evenly. The Lilydrip manufacturers call this the “sweet zone”.
Derived from a tennis term, the sweet zone represents the area of the racket most optimal to serve a good ball hit. Similarly, the sweet zone of the brew while using the Lilydrip, is the depth of the coffee bed that yields the best possible extraction. What’s more, by making the coffee bed flat, it is easier to pour in circular motion.
Aside from the extraction variable, the Lilydrip helps you experiment with the overall brew time and your grind setting. This happens because it slows down the flow rate, thus affecting how fast the water goes through the bed of coffee. By going coarser, you can speed that up. In any case, feel free to experiment according to your taste and what’s ideal with your selected coffee beans.
The Different Styles of the Lilydrip
The Lilydrip comes in four different styles and their main difference is the way they affect the flow rate of the brew:
Lily: This is the original design with a normal flow rate
Diamond: This one is similar to the Lily but features a wider ring thus blocking the water more, resulting in a slower flow rate.
Donut: This design features a large bottom with a wide shape and outward ridges. Due to these features it results in a fast flow rate.
Starflower: This design also has a large bottom with a wide shape but it has inward ridges. This small difference makes it a little bit slower than the donut style but still fast in comparison to the other two.
Designing four different styles for the Lilydrip is a smart idea as each one offers a different range of possibilities for your brew. It’s up to you how much you are into experimenting. Figuring out which one is your favorite is definitely part of the fun!
Or buy the whole style of Lilydrip!
How To Use It
The Lilydrip comes together with a compact filter shaper to help you shape the paper filter for your brew. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to start brewing!
Equipment:
scales, timer, coffee and water
Instructions:
- Weigh 15g of coffee beans and grind them fresh.
- Heat 250ml of water to the desired temperature.
- Put the Lilydrip in your conical brewer.
- Put the shaped filter on top and preheat if you wish.
- Add your coffee in the brewer and put the brewer on your scales.
- Start your time and pre-infuse for 30 seconds.
- Keep adding water every 30 seconds in a circular motion until you reach 250 ml in 2’30’’.
- Enjoy your coffee!
As you can tell the Lilydrip is easy to use and the idea behind it is simple yet brilliant. It is also easy to clean, just wash with a mild soap and warm water.
Final Thoughts
It’s funny how much of a difference a small thing can do sometimes, isn’t it? The Lilydrip is an add-on of great value for those who love to experiment with their brew and are always in search of the perfect cup of coffee.
Such tools and ideas represent the passion and love we all have for coffee and make us all excited for what the future holds. After all, this was an accidental gift from a little girl to the glocal coffee community. Thank you Lily!
FAQs
How does the brew change with the lily drip?
Lily retains heat in the center of the coffee bed, raising the temperature of the bed. The inversion of cone geometry reduces bed height while increasing the surface area that comes into contact with fresh water. Both features increase extraction, and the flowrate is much higher due to the larger exit route (circle instead of single point in every cone brewer). Again, faster flow and finer grind equals more extraction per unit time. Lilydrip is essentially an extraction catalyst.
Does it work on any conical dripper, or only v60?
Yes, any cone dripper only.
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Disclosure: No compensation or free products were received in exchange for writing this review.
Vasileia Fanarioti
My name is Vasileia and I’m here because i decided to combine my two favourite things: writing and coffee. Don’t ever make me choose between filter and espresso, although I do have a soft spot for flat whites. I love travelling around the world and visiting coffee shops but my biggest goal is to visit a few coffee farms, to see where it all starts. Hopefully soon I’ll take you there through my articles.
