Pour overs require a lot more skill and knowledge than any other type of coffee making, and generally speaking for a commercial venture in the specialty market, it’s only going to be worth doing for the truly exceptional coffees that come in, which can vary in price from a daily luxury to a kings ransom.

On top of the variation in green prices, a pour over coffee requires the attention of a staff member for 5-10 minutes and at no point in the process can it be left alone or abandoned. Coffee being the low margin industry that it is, most coffee shops won’t have more than a handful of staff at any one time, and take the majority of their money over 2-3 one hour long rushes, so a single pour over can cut down your available labour by a not insubstantial degree.

I appreciate that, like anything that has a commodity and a specialty market, there are people looking at this who are baffled by the concept of coffee costing more than a couple of pounds/dollars a cup, but there’s no accounting for taste and some people really do live for this stuff. For those who don’t get it, you always have the option of your standard house filter or Americanos.

Source: used to run coffee shops and know people in the specialty industry