An array of coffee brewers and grinders designed by working coffee professionals. Photo courtesy of Howard Bryman. For all the many beautiful and clever pieces of equipment that exist for brewing coffee, it's remarkable just how few of them are designed by "coffee people" — people whose primary occupation is within the coffee industry. Houseware companies and other manufacturers
Equipment Reports
A High-Quality Grind, One Brew at a Time: The Fellow Ode Brew Grinder
Note: A Version 2 of the Ode grinder is now available. Home kitchen appliances don't usually enter the market wafting on hype. Yet, when it comes to an ambitious new product from the young and media-savvy California-based coffee equipment manufacturer Fellow, we've come to expect nothing less. The hype has been especially intense in the run-up to the debut of the Ode Brew
Equipment Report: Four Mid-Range Burr Coffee Grinders Tested & Reviewed
Grinding whole beans immediately before brewing is one of the single most powerful upgrades you can make to the quality of the cup you brew at home. No matter what grinder you own, it's better than owning no grinder at all. Yet when examining the differences from one coffee grinder to the next, and contemplating the sheer variety of products available on the market, it quickly becomes clear that
Minding the Grinds: Our Approach to Sampling and Judging Grind Consistency
There were a number of ways we could have approached the evaluation of the four grinders reviewed this month with regard to producing consistent particle size. We could have judged the machines based on the results of brewing with the grounds they put out, or simply through visual inspection of the grounds, or by manually sieving each sample to separate particles by size. Instead, we decided to
Equipment Report: Digital Electric Gooseneck Pourover Kettles
Of all manual brewing methods, the pourover drip method may appear the most straightforward. But as direct as the procedure may seem, a steady arm and resolute focus will only go so far. To gracefully land, time and time again, upon all the enticing aromas and flavors about which roasters (and coffee reviewers) wax poetic, you need the right equipment. In particular, you need a good gooseneck
Cold-Brew Coffee Makers for Home Use, Four Tested and Rated
Summer is upon us, and our July report features reviews of four cold-brew coffeemakers. These are devices that brew coffee using cold water and extended coffee-water contact times rather than hot water and short contact times, as is the case with conventional coffee-brewing devices. The cold or iced coffee we enjoy in cafés and stores is not necessarily cold brewed. It is often brewed using
Equipment Report: Five French Presses, Tested and Rated
For this survey of French presses, we selected a representative cross-section of widely available units from this popular brewer category. We tested one example for each of five key sub-categories: a classic model (Bodum Chambord), a budget-friendly option (Mr. Coffee Coffee Press), a high-tech addition to the market (KitchenAid Precision Press), a technically refined premium press (Espro Press),
Three New Capsule Espresso Systems
Convenience-first single-serve coffee brewing devices are on a roll in North America, fueled by the success of the Keurig and its K-cup capsules. In Europe, where espresso rules, the Nespresso espresso system has had similar blockbuster success. Both systems use rigid capsules rather than tea-bag-like paper pods that characterized earlier (and less commercially successful) single-serve systems. As
Single-Serve System Reviews 2011
Bunn My Café The Bunn My Café uses paper pods, the same dimension pods as the Senseo brewer. Bunn only brands the brewing units; it does not sell Bunn-branded coffee and no license is required to produce Bunn-compatible paper pods. This hands-off, open format approach makes the Bunn program unique among single-serve systems. Proprietary capsule design: No Approximate cost per serving early
Consumer Reports Coffee Brewer Survey
As part of my self-improvement goal to become a kinder gentler person, I’ll resist the urge to ask, “What were they smoking?” Like a lot of baby boomers, I have a nostalgic appreciation for Consumer Reports. They represent the hard-line leftist/socialist bent of many workers in post-World War II. They stand for uniformity, the illusion of tight product tolerances. The skinflint in me wants to
Single-Serve Correction and Reactions: Tassimo and Keurig
The Coffee Review's recent review of single-serve coffees and systems (At What Cost Convenience: Tasting the New Crop of Single-Serve Coffee Systems) provoked some sharp reactions from readers as well as one well-taken correction. Braun/Tassimo Cappuccinos and Caffe Lattes It turns out we were wrong when we dismissed all of the coffee-with-milk drinks produced by the new single-serve coffee
