I recently saw a coffee influencer on Instagram using a Lilydrip ceramic insert to do what he called a “flat-bottom V60”. These are a range of pieces made in China that you can place in a conical brewer such as the Hario V60 in order to change taste profiles. For instance, I bought a conical ceramic insert and a flat one. I am not sure what they call them! (Star Flower and Lotos?) The flat is purported to increase sweetness in coffee. I have found that it does work. The conical piece seems to amplify, or emphasize what a conical brewer does–it seems to highlight brightness and flavor. Interestingly, it is the opposite-the counterpoint–to a popular practice of carving a divot in the middle of a bed of coffee in a V60.

My favorite brewer at the moment for a morning double is the Blue Bottle dripper. I like how it handles sweetness in coffee, done correctly. (I’m lucky in that Blueprint Coffee in St. Louis has been selling at grocery stores a very sweet coffee from Peru called Gallito). I have been working with Gallito for months, and I really like it. So, when I received the flat Lilydrip I set out to do a proof of concept–could I derive a Blue Bottle taste profile from a different brewer with a coarser grind? I did it! I used a metal Hario V60 and the Lilydrip to simulate the Blue Bottle. It worked elegantly, at four minutes and three seconds.

I did this three more times, twice with a glass V60, and once more again with the metal one. Both glass V60’s clogged, running at six, and then seven, minutes. The absolutely crazy thing was that the coffee was quite good, which I did not expect. It should have been overextracted, and therefore bitter. The fact that they did not taste overextracted tells me that this is a very robust system that is difficult to mess up! The metal one gave a great coffee at around four minutes.

What was going on? Was it geometry? I thought, maybe the pitch angle on the brewer was different. It doesn’t appear to be. Was my technique responsible–perhaps I poured too much water at the beginning, or poured too forcefully, jamming the insert down, lodging it too deeply? I couldn’t exactly test it too much. Then I looked at the brewers…aha, the metal and the plastic share the same-sized opening, but the glass one was smaller! Obviously, Hario of Japan is not sizing its V60’s made of different materials with Lilydrip of China in mind, but the fact is that their V60’s are not size-standardized. Again, the glass one is smaller than the plastic, metal, or likely, the ceramic V60 at the bottom opening.

I took a photo of the metal meeting the glass at the openings but could not post it here. If you happen to see this today, you can click over to @Bob_Hudgins on X to view that photo.

To reiterate, these Lilydrip ceramic inserts for the V60 coffee brewer are the real deal! I am amazed at what they have done for my V60 preparations. I’m super-pleased that I can get that Blue Bottle profile from a different brewer with a different grind. It has been a gratifying time of learning.