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Cafezinho

Sweetened coffee strained through a cloth filter and served in tiny cups. Offered to every visitor, everywhere, constantly.

A cafezinho is a small, strong, sweet coffee served in a tiny cup — and in Brazil it is less a drink than a social obligation.

The method

Water and sugar are heated together. Finely ground dark-roast coffee is added off the heat, steeped briefly, and strained through a cloth filter — a coador de pano, a fabric sock on a wire ring.

The sugar goes in with the water, not afterwards.

The cloth filter

Brazil’s traditional filter, and it does something paper does not: it holds back fines while letting more oils through, producing a cup with more body than a paper filter and more clarity than a press.

It must be rinsed thoroughly, stored wet in the fridge, and replaced regularly, or it turns rancid.

The social role

Offered to every visitor to a home, office or shop, at any hour. Refusing is possible and slightly awkward.

Making one

60 g coffee per litre, water and sugar heated together, steeped off the heat for three minutes, strained through cloth.

What you need to make it

The equipment this actually requires — not a shopping list, the shortest route to doing it properly.

  • The reference pour-over Manual brewers

    Hario V60 02 Ceramic

    60° cone · spiral ribs · 1–4 cups

    The most transparent cup you can brew for twenty euros, and the least forgiving. Ceramic holds heat where plastic does not — and the open bottom means your pour, not the dripper, decides the coffee.

    Best for: Someone who wants to taste what a single-origin coffee is actually doing.

    8.2/10

    ≈ $25 / £20 / 22 €

  • Best filter grinder Grinders

    Fellow Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2

    64 mm flat burr · filter only · single dose

    64 mm flat burrs, near-zero retention and a footprint the size of a mug, built for filter and honest about not doing espresso. For pour-over it is the clearest grind you can buy at this price.

    Best for: V60, Chemex, AeroPress and batch brewing, where clarity is the whole point.

    8.7/10

    ≈ $345 / £275 / 300 €

  • Best pour control Kettles

    Fellow Stagg EKG Pro

    0.9 L · ±1 °C hold · counterbalanced gooseneck

    The best-pouring kettle sold, and the hold function matters more than the thermometer. Expensive for boiling water — but if you brew pour-over daily, it is the accessory that most improves the cup.

    Best for: Daily pour-over, where flow rate is the variable you are trying to control.

    8.6/10

    ≈ $195 / £165 / 180 €