What is the Melitta 64007?
The original pour over, still made, still cheap, still the filter everybody else copied.
Melitta publishes a one-cup plastic cone that sits on a mug, a supply of Melitta #2 cone filters in the box, and a design credited with letting you watch the level and avoid overfilling. It is the wedge shape Melitta Bentz patented in 1908 and the reason paper coffee filters exist at all.
Why the filter standard is the whole story
A brewer is a lifetime purchase. The filters are a weekly one.
Melitta #2 papers are made by Melitta, by supermarkets under their own labels, and by a dozen other manufacturers. They cost very little, they are on the shelf of any grocery shop in the world, and reusable metal versions of the same shape are widely sold if you want to stop buying paper altogether.
Compare that to a Kalita Wave or a Stagg [X], each of which takes a filter made by exactly one company for exactly one brewer, with no reusable equivalent. Over the life of the brewer that difference dwarfs the difference in purchase price, and it is invisible on a spec sheet.
What the wedge does that a cone does not
It is not a V60 with a flat price. The geometry is genuinely different.
A V60 is a 60-degree cone with a single large hole and spiral ribs, built so the brewer controls the flow with the pour. A Melitta wedge has steeper walls, a flatter base and one small hole, so the paper itself restricts the flow.
That makes it slower and much less sensitive to technique. You can pour a Melitta from a normal kettle, badly, and get a decent cup, which is not true of a V60. What you give up is the ability to steer the brew: with the flow set by the hole and the paper, there is little a pour can change.
For a huge number of people that is the correct instrument, and the fact that it costs almost nothing has more to do with plastic and scale than with it being a lesser brewer.
Melitta 64007 vs OXO Brew Single Serve
Two takes on making pour over easy, and one of them removes the pour entirely.
The OXO Brew also takes standard #2 filters, but adds a water tank and a shower head that meter the water for you, so there is no pouring skill involved at all.
The Melitta is a fraction of the price, has nothing to break, and packs flat. The OXO removes the last variable and is the better machine for somebody who wants the same cup every day without thinking. Both are the right answer for different amounts of money.
Is the Melitta 64007 worth it?
The best value on this entire site, and it is not a close contest.
It costs less than a bag of beans, uses the cheapest filters in coffee, and makes genuinely good filter coffee. Anybody wondering whether they like pour over should buy this before anything else, because it answers the question for almost no money.
It is plastic, which is the honest limitation: it does not preheat the way ceramic does and it will not look like anything on a counter. Melitta publishes no hole diameter, no rib design, no weight, no country of manufacture and no warranty term here.
Who should buy it (and who should not)
Buy it first, before any other brewer.
It suits somebody trying pour over for the first time, a travel bag, an office drawer, a holiday cottage, or anybody who wants a brewer they will not mind losing.
Do not buy it if you want to learn pour technique, because the geometry deliberately removes most of it. And do not buy it for more than one cup: for a pot, Melitta sells the carafe version.
Frequently Asked Questions
What filters does the Melitta 64007 take?
Standard #2 cone filters, sold by many makers and in most supermarkets. Reusable #2 cones also fit.
Is a Melitta cone as good as a V60?
Different, and much easier. The wedge shape and small hole set the flow, so a poor pour matters far less. A V60 rewards technique the Melitta ignores.
Does it need a gooseneck kettle?
No. That is most of the point of it.
Does it sit on a mug or a carafe?
A mug. It is a single-cup brewer.
Is it plastic?
Yes. Melitta also sells porcelain versions of the same shape if that matters to you.
