Melodrip Review: The Coffee Tool to Upgrade your Pour-Over

default image by Vasileia Fanarioti | Updated on July 9th, 2022
melodrip

In the last few years, we have seen a rise in the invention of coffee tools or brewing modifiers that are meant to help control these variables. The Melodrip is one of them. Let’s find out a bit more about its origin, use, and benefits.


What is the Melodrip

Melodrip

The Melodrip is a coffee tool that can be used during the pour-over brewing process. It is basically a handheld dispersal dish that distributes water evenly during pouring and thus helping to control agitation.

When brewing pour-over coffee there are many variables that you need to keep in mind if you want the best result in your cup. Water quality, grind size, coffee quality, saturation, distribution, and agitation are only some of them. 

Origins of the Melodrip

Melodrip started as an effort to better control agitation during the pour-over brewing process. Its inventor, coffee enthusiast Ray Murakawa had spent a long time experimenting with different brewing techniques to better understand every single variable that would affect the final brew.

In Ray’s own words “I’ve spent years testing, documenting, and understanding every subcomponent of various pour-over techniques, and I soon realized that pouring water was a process that contributed to the highest amount of variability in the slurry. 

Hydration, saturation, temperature distribution, and agitation… After observing and measuring the effects of these techniques, it was clear that in many cases, the gooseneck kettle alone was not capable of fully controlling these variables with precision.  Especially in regards to controlling agitation.”

Ray concluded that controlling agitation with just the right pouring technique was not enough and started working on a prototype using various components from petri dishes to lab gear and more. 

The Melodrip Design

Melodrip

In the end, Ray came up with a design that looks like a mix between a petri dish and a shower screen. It features a handle-held dispersal dish made of clear Tritan plastic that spreads the singular, relatively heavy stream from a kettle into an array of very gentle dribbles. 

The package also includes a glass stick for stirring and is made from borosilicate glass. In general, apart from being a useful modifier for pour-over brewing, it’s also an aesthetic to have.  

After designing the Melodrip and realizing its potential, Ray decided to launch a Kickstarter project to back up his idea and gain supporters. The project was a big success and Ray got the funding he needed to bring his product to the coffee market.

How to Use the Melodrip

Using the Melodrip sounds easy in theory.

What you will need:

The simple method:

  • 1. Pour to Bloom
  • 2. Pour 60ml of water into the Melodrip.
  • Use the stick to stir 3 times or 10g of water ever 5 seconds and repeat it again.

The simple method can be altered in many ways and you’ll find a ton of experiments out there providing different instructions. You do, you!

However, if you want to follow the Melodrip method down to the science, since they have been perfecting their method for quite sometime, here it is:

The Melodrip method

  1. Bloom Stage: A circular water pulse of 10g water, wait, 10g water, wait 10g water, then mix with the glass stick to eliminate clumps. The goal is to slowly, but evenly saturate the brewbed without creating a foam slurry or developing any particle suspension.
  2. Mixing with the stick is important as it saturates the bloom evenly. If you skip this step, the slurry may have channeling.
  3. After a 30sec bloom, repeatedly pulse 10g of Water, pausing each until the waterline lowers to the coffee. Continue to repeat until you hit 200g Water.
  4. Finally, Pour 20g Water with a bare kettle. Then pour 20g Water with a bare kettle again to finish off the brew.

You can also watch this video here:

However, this tool is designed to add extra precision to your pour-over brew and therefore I recommend it for those who enjoy the brewing process and don’t mind the bit of extra effort. It might take a few tries to get the hang of it but the result will be worth it. 

The Benefits of the Melodrip

I am definitely one of those who believe that the Melodrip fulfills its goal, to deliver better brewing consistency during pouring. After using the Melodrip you will quickly realize that your coffee has more clarity and deeper, more complex flavors. 

The result, he says, is a “cleaner cup,” since the controlled flow of water minimizes the effect and volume of fines (bean micro-particles — as previously stated, coffee can get really, really technical) coming through the filter.

Other than this, the Melodrip is also a small tool that is easy to pack and travel with. The only drawback is that the glass sticks for agitation might be a bit fragile, which is probably why they come in a pack of five.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it! A very cool-looking coffee tool to help you up your pour-over brewing game! It’s really great to see that as the industry moves forward, more and more people are coming up with innovative ideas to brew better coffee.

If you’re someone who loves experimenting and enjoys the manual aspect of brewing their coffee then the Melodrip is definitely the coffee tool for you! Not only will it make your coffee taste cleaner and more flavorsome, but it will also add a very aesthetic vibe to your brew bar! 

Try using Lilydrip with the Melodrip combo!

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Disclosure: No compensation or free products were received in exchange for writing this review.

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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.