Orea Brewer
How to use the Orea brewer, the London flat-bottomed dripper with steep 73° walls and swappable bottoms: OREA’s own recipe, filters and Orea vs Kalita Wave.
Contents
How do you use an Orea brewer?
The Orea is a flat-bottomed dripper from London with steep 73° walls and a fast flow. OREA’s own starting recipe uses 16 g of medium-coarse coffee to 260 ml of water at 94°C, poured in five spiral pours of about 50–60 g, with the first at 0:00 and the last at 2:15. It should finish in 2:30 to 3:00.
At a glance
- Ratio
- 1:16
- 16 g : 260 g
- Grind
- Medium-coarse
- Water
- 94 °C
- Brew time
- 2:45
- approximately
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Origin
- United Kingdom
Method
Wet the filter
Put a flat-bottomed filter in the Orea and wet it. OREA says there’s no need to preheat the brewer, and cold water is fine for wetting the paper.
Add the coffee
Add 16 g of medium-coarse coffee and level it.
First pour40 s
Start the timer and pour in a spiral to 60 g, with water at 94°C.
Second pour35 s
At 0:40, pour in a spiral to 110 g.
Third pour30 s
At 1:15, pour in a spiral to 160 g.
Fourth pour30 s
At 1:45, pour in a spiral to 210 g.
Last pour and drain30 s
At 2:15, pour in a spiral to 260 g and let it drain, finishing at about 2:30 to 3:00.
The Orea is a flat-bottomed pour-over dripper from OREA, a small, independent coffee equipment brand based in East London. OREA says it created its first brewer, the V1, in 2020 and officially launched on 1 February 2021. The Orea has narrow, steep walls, angled at 73° on the V4 Narrow, and a base designed to let coffee drain quickly: it’s known for one of the faster flows among flat-bottomed drippers. The V4 takes replaceable bottoms that change how it drains. Here’s OREA’s own recipe, plus two more to try.
The short version
- A flat-bottomed dripper with steep 73° walls (65° on the V4 Wide).
- A fast flow: the grind does most of the work of setting the brew time.
- OREA’s recipe: 16 g coffee, 260 ml water at 94°C, five spiral pours.
- Flat-bottomed filters, wave or flat, size 185 for the V4.
- Four replaceable bottoms on the V4: Fast, Classic, Open and Apex.
How does the Orea work?
Like the Kalita Wave, the Orea is flat-bottomed, so the coffee sits in an even bed and the water passes through it evenly. But its walls are steeper and narrower, and it drains faster, so the coffee spends less time in contact with the water. That tends to give a clean, light, bright cup, and it means the grind does most of the work of controlling the brew time. The Roasters Pack says the V4 Wide holds about 20% more than the Narrow and drains about 30 seconds slower in the same conditions.
How much coffee and water should I use?
| OREA (V4, Fast bottom) | Process Coffee | Abdullah Isaacs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee | 16 g, medium-coarse | 20 g | 12.5 g, medium |
| Water | 260 ml | 300 g | 200 ml |
| Temperature | 94°C | 93°C | 93°C |
| First pour | To 60 g | 50 g, 35 seconds | 50 ml, wait 45 seconds |
| Then | Spiral pours at 0:40, 1:15, 1:45 and 2:15 | 70 g, then three pours of 60 g, 30 seconds apart | Pour to 125 ml, then to 200 ml |
| Total time | 2:30 to 3:00 | Not given | 2:00 to 2:30 |
OREA’s recipe is from its V4 guides, which pour at about 5 g per second. Process Coffee’s recipe was published in The Coffee Vine’s brew guide, made on an Orea V3. Abdullah Isaacs’s comes from Coffee Magazine, also on a V3. OREA says the V4 works best with 12 to 24 g of coffee, and up to 28 g at most.
What grind size should I use?
Start around medium-coarse: OREA gives 22 to 26 clicks on a Comandante C40 for its base recipe on the Fast bottom. OREA suggests grinding a little finer on the Fast bottom and a little coarser on the Classic. If it finishes fast and tastes thin or sour, go finer; if it stalls or tastes bitter, go coarser.
How do you brew with an Orea, step by step?
- Wet a flat-bottomed filter in the Orea. OREA says there’s no need to preheat the brewer.
- Add 16 g of medium-coarse coffee.
- Pour in a spiral to 60 g with water at 94°C.
- Pour in a spiral to 110 g at 0:40, 160 g at 1:15 and 210 g at 1:45.
- Pour to 260 g at 2:15, then let it drain, finishing at about 2:30 to 3:00.
OREA treats the timings as a guide: pour again when the water has almost reached the coffee bed. Brew mode on this page times each stage for you.
Which filters and bottoms does it take?
The Orea uses flat-bottomed filters. OREA sells its own in wave and flat styles. The V4 Narrow and Wide both take size 185 (large) papers; the small O1 takes size 155 wave filters. The V4 comes with four replaceable bottoms: Fast, Classic, Open and Apex. OREA says the same recipe works on all of them, with a slightly finer grind on the Fast bottom, a slightly coarser one on the Classic and more central pouring on the Open and Apex. The original V3 was made of a plastic called Trogamid; for the V3 MK2, OREA switched to a high-impact polypropylene. There are also glass and porcelain versions with OREA’s original Open bottom.
Orea vs other flat-bottomed drippers
| Orea | Kalita Wave | Tricolate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walls | Steep, 73° (Narrow) or 65° (Wide) | Sloped, with a wave filter | Vertical, a cylinder |
| Flow | Fast | Slower, three small holes | Controlled by a dispersion screen |
| Filters | Flat or wave | Wave | Its own |
| Pouring | Several pours | Several pours | Can be poured all at once |
General guidance only. Take care with hot water, and follow OREA’s care instructions for your brewer.
Orea vs other methods
- Kalita Wave: the classic flat-bottomed dripper.
- V60: the cone dripper with a single large hole.
- Origami dripper: a ceramic cone with deep folds.
- Tricolate: a cylinder brewer that stops bypass.
Explore every pour-over method in the pour-over chapter.
What you’ll need
Words in this guide
- Pour-over
- Pour-over is a way of making filter coffee by hand: you pour hot water over ground coffee in a filter cone and let it drip through into a cup or jug.
- Bypass
- Bypass is brew water that flows around the coffee bed instead of through it, for example down the sides of a filter, so it reaches the cup without extracting much flavour.
Questions & answers
What is the Orea brewer?
A flat-bottomed pour-over dripper from OREA, a small coffee equipment brand based in East London. The V4 Narrow has steep walls angled at 73°, and the V4 Wide has 65° walls. It’s known for a relatively fast flow among flat-bottomed drippers.
What filters does the Orea use?
Flat-bottomed filters: OREA makes its own in wave and flat styles. The V4 Narrow and Wide both take size 185 (large) papers, while the small O1 takes size 155 wave filters.
What’s a good Orea recipe?
OREA’s own starting recipe is 16 g of medium-coarse coffee to 260 ml at 94°C, in five spiral pours, finishing at 2:30 to 3:00. Process Coffee uses 20 g to 300 g at 93°C, and Abdullah Isaacs uses 12.5 g to 200 ml at 93°C.
What are the Orea’s bottoms?
The V4 comes with four bottoms: Fast, Classic, Open and Apex. OREA says the same recipe works on all of them, but suggests grinding a little finer on the Fast bottom, a little coarser on the Classic, and pouring more in the centre on the Open and Apex.
Orea vs Kalita Wave?
Both are flat-bottomed drippers. The Orea’s walls are steeper and it flows faster; the Kalita Wave has three small holes and a slower, steadier flow.
Sources
- V4 guides. OREA
- OREA: exceptional coffee brewers and filter coffee accessories. OREA
- Orea V4 brewer. The Roasters Pack
- OREA Brewer V3 MK2 (large, 185). Rogue Wave Coffee
- Our brew guide for September 2023. The Coffee Vine
- Beauty in the brew with Abdullah Isaacs: Orea filter. Coffee Magazine
- Brew guides. The Roasters Pack
General guidance only. Not medical, food-safety or professional advice. Always follow your equipment's own instructions.