Guide · Kalita Wave

Kalita Wave: 155 vs 185, and how to brew on a flat bed

The Kalita Wave is a flat-bottom dripper with three small drain holes and a pleated “wave” filter; the holes limit how fast the brew drains. A common starting point is 20 g of medium-coarse coffee to 300–340 g of water at about 200 °F (93 °C), finished in 3–4 minutes.

Updated 2026-10-16 · sources listed at the end · recipes are shown as each source published them; brand names appear only where a cited recipe or spec requires them

155 or 185: the two sizes

The number names both the dripper and its paper. Kalita’s product pages mark each dripper as made for its own filter only (Wave Filter 155 or 185), and its FAQ says Wave drippers should be used with the dedicated Wave filter.

Kalita does not define a “serving” in milliliters, so weigh instead. Every recipe below that names a size uses the 185, and all of them brew roughly 260–355 g of water — about one large mug. At the SCA reference of 55 g/L, one 8 fl oz mug (237 ml) takes 13.0 g of coffee and two mugs (473 ml) take 26.0 g, the same figures as in how much coffee per cup.

Recipes compared

Four roaster recipes as published. Ratios are our arithmetic from each recipe’s grams; the SCA’s 55 g/L works out to about 1:18.2.

Seattle Coffee Gear’s product guide, a US retailer’s, gives the baseline used in the steps below: 20 g to 300–340 ml (1:15 to 1:17), about 200 °F, 3–4 minutes. The SCA recommends 93.0 °C ± 3° (200 °F ± 5°) at the point of contact; Stumptown sits at the top of that range and Madcap’s 207 °F just above it.

Two notes on the published numbers. WatchHouse’s equipment list says 240 ml of water while its pour schedule ends at 260 g; the table uses the schedule. Prima Coffee’s comparison of seven Kalita recipes lists Stumptown’s as 21 g : 375 g (1:18) and 2:45–3:00, while Stumptown’s own page now gives 345 g and about 3:00.

Brewing a Kalita Wave, step by step

1. Heat the water to about 200 °F (93 °C).
2. Weigh and grind 20 g medium-coarse. Seattle Coffee Gear compares it to coarse sea salt, slightly finer than for a Chemex; Kalita’s FAQ describes medium-coarse as between granulated sugar and coarse crystal sugar.
3. Seat the filter that matches the dripper and rinse it with hot water to remove papery taste and warm the dripper and server. Discard the rinse water. Leave the waves standing: a filter pressed flat against the walls slows the flow dramatically.
4. Add the coffee, tap or shake the bed level, and zero the scale.
5. Bloom with 40–60 g of water (two to three times the coffee weight) in small circles. Wait 30–45 seconds.
6. Pour in stages: three or four more pours in slow, steady circles about every 20–30 seconds, without letting the bed run dry, up to 300–340 g.
7. Let it drain. Total time should land around 3–4 minutes; WatchHouse says the spent bed should finish completely flat.
8. Remove the dripper, discard the filter and serve.

Flat bed vs cone: what is actually known

Kalita’s own explanation has three parts: the 20 waves keep paper contact low so water does not pool; the flat “wave zone” lets water soak the grounds evenly even with an uneven pour; and the three holes keep coffee liquid from lingering, which Kalita says limits off-flavors. Prima Coffee writes that the flat bottom lets water pass through a wider bed for “a more even extraction” than a cone such as the V60. Those are maker and retailer descriptions, not measurements.

The closest controlled study comes from the UC Davis Coffee Center. Frost, Ristenpart and Guinard (Journal of Food Science, 2019) brewed the same coffees in flat-bottom and semi-conical baskets of an automatic drip brewer, with water, temperature and flow rate held constant:

• The semi-conical basket gave significantly higher TDS (strength); the authors estimated a sensory threshold of 0.24% TDS.
• Tasters could tell the two baskets apart, but could not reliably tell medium from medium-fine grind.
• Light roasts from the flat bottom leaned toward dried fruit, sweet and floral notes; from the cone, toward citrus, berry and sour. For dark roasts the flat bottom gave more chocolate and woody notes, the cone more bitterness.
• The researchers did not call either shape better. Daily Coffee News reported that the work was underwritten by Breville, maker of the brewer used.

The study used a machine basket with a 2 cm flat spot, not a hand-poured Kalita or V60, so it shows that geometry matters rather than how these two drippers compare. To read TDS and extraction numbers like these, see the brewing control chart.

Troubleshooting checklist

• ☐ Slow and bitter: grind coarser (Seattle Coffee Gear, Madcap); Stumptown also suggests pouring faster.
• ☐ Fast, sour or thin: grind finer; Stumptown adds pouring more slowly.
• ☐ Slow even at a coarse grind: check that the filter waves have not collapsed against the walls.
• ☐ Grounds stuck on the pleats: Madcap makes one circle over the filter ridges on its sixth pour to knock them back into the bed.
• ☐ Dry patches on the bed: Stumptown aims its pulses at the darker, drier spots.
• ☐ Filter will not sit right: 155 and 185 papers are not interchangeable; match the number to the dripper.
• ☐ Balanced but too strong or weak: change the ratio, not the grind.

Background

Kalita’s company history dates its founding to October 1958 in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. Kalita defines “Kalita style” as its own three-hole dripper used with a paper filter, and its Wave series page lists the same three holes under the flat-bottom basket; the stainless Wave models are listed as made in Tsubame, Japan. For how the Wave sits next to the V60, Chemex and Melitta-style cones, see pour-over technique and the grind size chart.