On Sunday, April 7, the New College West Coffee Club began offering a drink deviating from their other offerings: pour-over coffee. The drink, available exclusively as a hot 12-ounce cup, uses a freshly-ground Ethiopian bean. It’s also the manifestation of a dream by Coffee Club’s Director of Coffee Education, Ned Dockery ’25.
To understand both the process of adding the new drink to the menu and the steps required to make it, I spoke to both Dockery and Katie Greppin ’26, a Head Barista at Coffee Club. Dockery explained that he wanted to expand beyond espresso drinks.
Saying that espresso “is just one way of brewing coffee,” Dockery “wanted to show people that there is this different method of brewing coffee.”
To make their pour-over, Coffee Club utilizes an alternative process from what they usually do to make their drinks. They heat water to a near-boiling point and measure out the exact amount of coffee beans they want. They then use an “immersion brew,” where the coarsely ground beans sit motionlessly in the hot water. Afterward, Coffee Club allows the water to run through the coffee grounds to brew the coffee in a percolation method, resulting in a single-dose cup.
Greppin affirmed that the process of adding the drink to the menu was largely attributed to Dockery, who ran a session teaching the Head Baristas the new method of brewing. Following this, the Head Baristas then assisted in training the rest of the Coffee Club employees.
I had the pleasure of trying the new pour-over drink this week, and it might just be the best cup of coffee in Princeton. Because of the unique pour-over process, there’s a slightly longer wait time than your typical coffee — you won’t be able to grab a quick drink and speed to your first class of the day. But if you take the time to sit down, maybe eat some breakfast while you wait, you will have fruity, delicious coffee in about eight minutes.
Upon first sipping the new drink, I was struck by its unusual sweetness. As a black coffee lover, I have come to expect a bitter aftertaste, but there was no bitterness to be found in Coffee Club’s new pour-over. The flavor was strong and rich with an intense fruitiness. Dockery explained that the fruitiness comes partly from the bean’s Ethiopian origin but also from a natural fermentation process, which involves letting the cherry encase the bean while it dries after being picked. The result was an almost tangy cup of coffee, flavorful enough to be enjoyed thoroughly with or without milk and sweeteners.
At $4.25, the Coffee Club’s pour-over is certainly not cheap for a standard cup of coffee, but it is worth the money.
If the pour-over drink is commercially successful at the NCW location, Dockery noted that Coffee Club is hopeful to extend the item to their other location at Campus Club. He said that this specific drink is special because “for people who have only tried coffee… in the form of a latte or just typical black coffee that you get at the office … [pour-over] can really introduce [them] to the wide open world of what coffee can really be.”
Greppin echoed that opinion, stating that the pour-over is worth the wait because it’s “an individualized cup of coffee … we make it to order for you right then and there.” So whether or not you consider yourself a coffee person, if you have a few extra minutes in your morning, take your breakfast in Yeh, or are willing or to head down to the new colleges give the pour-over a try. Its sweet, robust flavor might just surprise you.
Lulu Pettit is a contributing writer for The Prospect at the ‘Prince’ who enjoys writing about food, movies, and local businesses. She can be reached at lp3153@princeton.edu, or on Instagram @itslulupettit.
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