METHOD / COFFEE
VARIATIONS: 2
Switch Dripper
Hario V60 with a valve. Toggles between immersion and percolation in a single brew.
Optional: get to know each piece of the bench before you start.
The paper holds back the grounds and lets the coffee through when the valve opens. The Switch takes V60 filters; pick the size of your cone.
[01]How the Switch works
The Switch is a glass V60 mounted on a ball valve: open, it is a regular V60 (percolation); closed, it becomes an immersion vessel. What sets it apart from other hybrids is switching between the two modes within a single brew — each phase of the coffee can get the extraction regime that suits it best.
It is the most versatile dripper on the shelf: any V60 recipe runs on it, and the dedicated recipes exploit the valve to gain body without losing the cone’s clarity.
[02]Grind, ratio and temperature
Medium to medium-fine grind, a 1:15 ratio and water from 93 to 96°C. The immersion phase forgives a coarser grind; the percolation phase behaves like a V60. The same rule applies: grind runs the extraction — adjust it one step at a time.
[03]Which recipe to pick
The two house recipes are opposite philosophies of the same valve. The Hoffmann Switch opens in percolation (bloom and first pour like a V60) and closes at the end, finishing in immersion at 96°C to pull sweetness from light roasts. The Kasuya Switch — from the device’s co-designer — does the reverse: it starts closed with a short immersion, then opens for the final percolation pours. Worth brewing both with the same coffee and comparing.
[04]Common mistakes
Forgetting the valve state — starting open in a recipe that wanted immersion (or finishing closed and never draining); using water that is too cool for the immersion phase, which already loses heat sitting in the glass; and repeating V60 mistakes in the percolation phase: rushed pours, unrinsed filter, stream on the wall.