- Early steep-and-release-style brews were introduced in the eighteenth century. In his book All About Coffee, historian William Ukers refers to a French design from 1710 which featured coffee brewed in a bag. When the beverage was deemed ready, the bag was removed.
- In 1996, Philip P. DiFilippo patented a modern steep-and-release brewer designed for coffee-making.
- In tests, brews steeped in a Clever dripper for 3:00 minutes and 5:00 minutes, respectively, took twice as long to draw down (approximately 2:00 minutes in total), compared with brews steeped for 1:30 minutes.
- Blooming in a steep-and-release brewer prevents a crust from forming.
- Blooming was shown to increase extraction yields in steep-and-release brewing.
- The average drawdown speeds of the water-first approach was much faster; the coffee-first brew took 39% longer to draw down.
- Because it apparently promotes faster flow rates at the end of the brewing process, the water-first approach to steep-and-release brewing allows you to both brew on a considerably finer grind and to reach higher extraction yields, whilst avoiding choking the filter paper.