Japanese Drip Bag

A drip bag is a single-serve pour-over in a packet. Inside a sealed sachet is a paper filter bag of ground coffee with two folding cardboard ears. You tear it open, hook the ears over the rim of your cup, and pour hot water through it, just as you would through a dripper. It was developed in Japan, where drip bags have been sold in hotels and shops since the 1990s, and they’re now popular with specialty roasters everywhere. Here’s how to get a good cup from one.

The short version

• A tiny pour-over in a sachet, with ears that hook on your cup.
• Tear, hang, pour.
• Wet the coffee first, then pour slowly in stages.
• Use the water the pack says, such as 140 ml for UCC’s bags.
• Developed in Japan, popular since the 1990s.

How does a drip bag work?

The bag is a paper filter holding a single dose of ground coffee. The ears fold out and grip the rim of the cup, so the bag hangs inside like a small dripper. Hot water poured into the open top seeps through the coffee and the paper and drips into the cup. It’s percolation, like a V60, rather than steeping like a coffee bag.

How do you use a drip bag, step by step?

1. Tear the top off along the line.
2. Pull out the ears and hook them over the rim of your cup.
3. Wet the coffee with a little hot water and wait about 20 seconds, as UCC’s pack directions suggest.
4. Pour slowly in two or three stages, letting it drip between pours.
5. Stop at the amount on the pack. UCC’s bags, for example, call for 140 ml in total, added in three pours.
6. Lift the bag out and drink.

Brew mode on this page times the bloom and the pours for you.

How do I get a better cup from a drip bag?

• Use a cup that’s not too wide, so the ears grip firmly, and not too short, so the bag doesn’t sit in the coffee.
• Water just off the boil, poured slowly, a little at a time.
• Don’t overfill the bag: it overflows or water runs round the sides.
• Don’t use too much water, which makes it weak. If it’s weak, use less.
• Gooseneck kettle? Helpful, but not needed.

Drip bag vs coffee bag vs instant

	Drip bag	Coffee bag	Instant
How it brews	You pour water through it	Steeps in the cup	Dissolves
Like	A tiny pour-over	A tiny French press	No brewing
Cup	Clean, light	Fuller	Varies
Time	A couple of minutes	About 5 minutes	Seconds

Who invented the drip bag?

Accounts differ, and dates vary between sources. Yamanaka Industry is credited with a patent application for a hanging coffee filter bag in 1990; one account says those early bags couldn’t hold the weight of the brewed coffee and weren’t a commercial success. Newidea Pack, a packaging-machine maker, says that in 1998 another company improved the design by extending the hanging part outwards, giving the drip bag we know today. Synonymous Coffee notes that research is split between two patent holders, Shimizu Kimiaki and Miyahara Fumio, and Stitch Coffee says Shimizu, a Tokyo resident, patented an earlier “paper extractor” in 1983. Drip bags reached the market in the 1990s, most notably in Tokyo hotel rooms, and today they’re sold in Japanese supermarkets and convenience stores. Patent records are the best place to check the details.

General guidance only. Take care pouring hot water into a bag hooked on a cup, and use a sturdy, stable cup.

Drip bag vs other methods

• Coffee bags: steeped in the cup, like tea.
• V60: the full-size pour-over.
• Kono Meimon: a Japanese cone dripper.
• Clever Dripper: steep, then drain.

Explore every pour-over method in the pour-over chapter.