The Beginner Guide to Chemex

By Chris Jordan
Published May 30, 2025
The Beginner Guide to Chemex

Brewing with a Chemex is as much an aesthetic experience as it is a practical one. The hourglass shape, wooden collar, and thick paper filters make it feel more like a design object than a coffee maker—but its real beauty lies in the cup it produces. Chemex coffee is clean, delicate, and crisp, highlighting brightness and floral notes with stunning clarity. It’s a favorite among those who want to truly taste the nuances in their beans.

The Chemex uses the pour-over method, but with one key difference: its proprietary filters. They’re about 20–30% thicker than standard paper filters, which slows down the flow rate and removes more oils and fine particles. The result is a brew that’s lighter in body than French press or AeroPress, but with striking definition and a refined finish. It’s ideal for single-origin coffees, especially those with fruit-forward or tea-like qualities, and it rewards a steady hand and a bit of patience.

While it’s capable of brewing for a crowd, Chemex still requires care when brewing. The grind size, water temperature, and pouring technique all play important roles in getting it right. But once you’ve mastered the rhythm—bloom, spiral, rest, repeat—it becomes a calm, almost meditative process. Unlike single-cup pour-over devices, the Chemex’s large capacity—typically 6 or 8 cups—makes it ideal for sharing coffee with guests or fueling a long morning without constant rebrewing. Its wide carafe shape and stable flow rate ensure consistency across larger volumes, so whether you’re making two cups or six, you get the same clean, balanced flavor with every pour. It’s a rare combination of elegance and practicality that fits seamlessly into both solo rituals and social mornings. There’s a reason it’s been around since the 1940s, and why it’s still sitting on the shelves of both design museums and top-tier coffee bars.

Equipment Needed for Chemex Brewing

  • Chemex Brewer (3, 6, or 8-cup size)

  • Chemex Paper Filters

  • Burr Grinder

  • Gooseneck Kettle (for controlled pouring)

  • Digital Scale

  • Timer

How to Brew Coffee with a Chemex (Step-by-Step)

  1. Grind the coffee – Use a burr grinder to achieve a medium-coarse grind, like sea salt. For a 6-cup Chemex, start with 42g of coffee to 700g of water (about a 1:16.5 ratio).

  2. Rinse the filter – Place the Chemex filter in the top of the brewer with the thicker side toward the spout. Rinse it thoroughly with hot water to remove paper taste and preheat the vessel. Discard the rinse water.

  3. Add coffee grounds – Place the ground coffee into the filter and give it a gentle shake to level the bed.

  4. Start the bloom – Begin your timer and pour about 2x the coffee’s weight in water (~85g) evenly over the grounds. Wait 30–45 seconds as the coffee releases gas and expands.

  5. Pour in stages – Continue pouring slowly in a controlled spiral, adding water in stages until you reach your total weight (700g). Aim to finish pouring around the 2:30–3:00 mark.

  6. Let it drain – Allow the coffee to finish dripping through. Total brew time should fall between 3:30 and 4:30 depending on grind and flow rate.

  7. Serve and enjoy – Remove the filter, give the Chemex a swirl, and pour into your favorite mug or carafe.

Chemex brewing is all about balance—between simplicity and control, elegance and functionality, flavor and finesse. When done right, it delivers a cup that’s clean, expressive, and quietly impressive. It’s pour-over coffee at its most refined.