The manual drip technique (AKA "filtercone brewing") and an automatic drip-brewer are very similar; both involve pouring water through a conical filter into a vessel. The difference is that an automatic drip-brewer maintains consistent and hopefully ideal conditions, so when you drip-brew manually, you are essentially trying to recreate the environment inside an automatic drip-brewer.
The most important variables in terms of how much they affect the end result also happen to be easily isolated variables that you can control simply with tools. They are:
Temperature of the water
The best temperature is when the water is just coming to a boil, around 200° F or 93.3° C. An automatic drip-brewer will generally maintain a temperature of between 195° F and 205° F.
Water that is too cold won't extract enough of the oils and will give you flat, flavorless coffee. Water that is too hot will extract a lot of the proteins and give you very bitter coffee.
This is simple to control for; just use a thermometer, or learn how to recognize when the water is just about to boil.
Coarseness of the coffee
The grind (obviously, a fresh grind especially) is important here, as it is with any distillation method. What you need to remember is that you are matching the temperature and pressure of extraction.
For high pressure extraction (espresso), uniformly fine grind is preferred to ensure that the water does not shoot past the puck too quickly. For lower pressure methods (i.e. manual drip), you want a medium grind to ensure that the water passes easily but not too quickly.
Again, this is simple to control for; just use a good, reliable coffee grinder.
Ratio of water to coffee grounds
This is mainly a matter of personal preference. Figure out what you like, but ensure that this is the final variable you are isolating. Use a measuring spoon, start at 8 grams (about 1 rounded tablespoon) per 5 oz water, and start experimenting from there.
Once you've dealt with the obvious factors above, proper technique becomes essential to improving on the consistency of your brewing process. You'll want to watch out for:
Steady heat during the pour
Depending on the material your filter cone is made of, it may take a while to heat up, which means that initially the water will lose heat to the cone and become too cold before it passes through the coffee.
You can compensate for this by pre-heating the cone. Use hot water for this; don't use the microwave, especially if it's a plastic cone.
Ceramic cones are more heat-stable than plastic, but will take longer to heat up, so it's more important to pre-heat them. You probably don't need this stability because the water shouldn't be in the cone for too long - unless you're brewing a full pot. Most pour-overs should really only be for about 20 ounces of coffee.
Pour Time
The best automatic coffee makers have a sprinkle head and pour out over a deliberately extended period of time, as opposed to shoving the coffee through in a rush. This is because you are trying to extract flavor as thoroughly as possible, and quick is not thorough.
Maintain a slow, steady pour. Trickling is less effective since it will cause an uneven leaching from the grinds, so be wary of this. Submerging is even less effective because you will lose heat from your water as it sits there. This is probably the most important part of a good brewing technique.
It should take 4-5 minutes, pouring evenly over all the grinds, to extract a full 10 cup pot. Hopefully your arm is strong or you're only doing 1 cup.
More practically, you will want to refer to this chart on specific infusion times: For example, for a #4 filter, and 20 ounces of coffee, you will want to spend 2 minutes and 30 seconds on the infusion (they recommend 32g or ~4 rounded Tbsp of coffee).
Wetting the filter
This applies when your filter falls down (as wetting it keeps it up) - not a big problem with conical filters. That said, in some cases rinsing off your filter is preferred in the event that your filter gives an off-flavor. I personally have never encountered this with unbleached filters.
Wetting the grounds
There are two schools of thought on this. Some say to do it, others say not to do it because it locks up the oils or stales the coffee when done too far in advance.
In the case of a straight pour over filter, non-vacuum, sweetmarias.com recommends "blooming the coffee 15-30 seconds" by sprinkling with a pre-pour. (I assume that's what 'wetting the grounds' meant. In my experience, premature moisture is less of a problem for beans with more sugar, i.e. lighter roasts.)
As for time between wetting filter/grounds, you should minimize wetness of coffee in the interest of freshness by thermal conservation, or refrain from either step.
Height of pour
This matters mainly because you don't want to splash water or grinds everywhere, but more importantly you don't want the water to lose heat on its way down by pouring too far.
Rotation of pour
Pick one, do it evenly across all grinds. The important thing here is consistency.
Now go enjoy some hand cranked coffee consistently.
Best Answer
Turkish coffee refers to the method of making coffee, not a type of coffee. Also known as mocha or kahve, it is traditionally made in an ibik using cold water to prolong the time the coffee "brews" and releases flavour. The ibik (aka cezve in Arabic) was invented in the 16th century, replacing the previous method of steeping the coffee in hot water set in sand on a tray over glowing embers for a whole day.
The Turkish coffee or mocha maker also aims to produce as much foam as possible and has to bring the mix of water. sugar and very finely ground mocha coffee slowly to the boil stirring all the time. Cold water ensures the maximum oxygen content in the water and therefore potentially more froth. As the coffee comes to the boil and the froth rises, it must be quickly removed from the heat before it boils over -- a little like boiled milk.
Sometimes the froth is skimmed off and divided into the demitasse or mocha cups about three times before the coffee is finally served. The more proficient the mocha maker, the more foam they can produce. And a real Mocha Master knows exactly when to take the mocha off the hotplate at the first boil. Wait too long in the hope of obtaining more foam, and the coffee "catches" and is overcooked. It is then considered a failure and has to be thrown away, because it tastes too bitter and burnt. If, however, you get the timing right, the taste and the silkiness of the foam is unforgettable. Interesting to see that Wikipedia Turkish coffee page mistakenly shows a cezve and not an ibik serving Turkish coffee in Turkey.
In Turkey it is said when a girl can make coffee with a full "head" of froth, she is ready to marry. The Coffee Barer by John Frederick Lewis (1857) The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons