Anyone think that manual "pouring techniques" are mostly fluff?
If you search YouTube for V60 brewing videos and guides you'll find about three billion different ones. Some with agitation, some without; pouring fast, in the middle, making circles; 40-60 or 30-70 or whatnot.
I always think to myself that they're mostly just fluff.
It all depends on grind size and temperature. Doesn't matter how you pour (well, within limits I would think) as long as you get your temps and grind right for the pouring technique you've chosen.
Admittedly, I haven't tried a ton of different ones, maybe three or four. But this is the feeling what I've got.
Maybe there are some edge cases, like Ethiopian coffees being more prone to clogging the filter so less agitation might be a good idea.
Not a difficult thing to perform controlled tests on.
edit: Downvote if you like, but I'm not kidding. Keep water temp, grind, bean type/quantity etc all controlled, vary the pour method between trials. Taste. Do the cups taste the same?
Point being that yes, if you keep everything else the same the pouring technique does make a difference. But if you take each technique and optimize grind size and temperature for that technique you will get the same result.
That does not make sense. Temperature and grind size cannot replicate the effect of gravitational sorting, where smaller objects settle beneath larger ones after agitating. It's why crumbs are at the bottom of a bag of potato chips and not mixed throughout.