Ceramic Pour-Over Dripper

The pour-over dripper I use every morning is a ceramic cone with a single hole at the bottom and 3 interior ridges that keep the paper filter from sitting flush against the walls. That small engineering detail separates a $12 dripper from a $3 one. Ridges create air channels letting the coffee drain evenly instead of pooling at the edges. The result is a cleaner cup with less bitterness than what I was getting from a French press. I bought it from a ceramics studio near campus that hand-makes them in batches of 30 or 40. Each one has slight variations in the glaze, so mine looks different from my roommate's even though they're the same model. Brewing takes about 4 minutes from first pour to last drip, slower than a drip machine. But the routine of heating water, grinding beans, and pouring in slow circles has become a part of my morning I look forward to rather than rush through. Medium grind, slightly coarser than what the bag recommends, works best because ceramic retains heat better than plastic drippers. A finer grind would over-extract at that temperature.