Over the past 10 years, Portland, Oregon-based Ratio has gone a long way in broadening the niche of beautiful, well-wrought, simple-to-use automatic home drip coffeemakers. The company's first two machines, the Eight and the Six, have both earned accolades not only for their good looks and serene user experiences but also, importantly, their effective delivery and dispersal of hot water at a
Equipment Review: OXO Rapid Brewer
Whether for cocktails, frappes, baked goods or speedy mornings, coffee-as-ingredient is big business these days. The number of bottled concentrated coffee products is on the rise in stores and online, and with the Rapid Brewer, housewares brand OXO delivers a simple means for anyone to create their own fresh hot or cold concentrate using any coffee at home, in minutes. For aficionados who
Equipment Review: Outin Nano Portable Espresso Maker
In the competitive market of portable espresso brewers, the Outin Nano, a lighthouse-shaped device with a built-in pump and onboard heat, aims to be a beacon of both convenience and consistency. Most gadgets designed for brewing espresso on the go are manually pumped and cannot heat water. In smaller handheld formats, especially, this tends to mean a herky-jerky flow as brew pressure drops
2023 Holiday Gift Guide: Coffee Makers Made by Coffee Makers
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
Everything But the Beans: Coffee Gear Gifting Guide for the Holidays
If Black Friday passed you by, black coffee can save the day, as both fuel and theme for holiday gift shopping. Besides all of the splendid coffees reviewed here, the unprecedented boom in new coffee brewing tools and accessories entering the market over the past couple of years has made it easier than ever to bring more excitement to a well-crafted cup, be it your own or a loved
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
Holiday Gift Guide for Coffee Lovers
As the number of cups of coffee enjoyed around the world flies north of two billion every day, it's clear that humanity's love of the beverage runs as deep as December nights run long. And yet like winter solstice snowflakes, no two coffee lovers are exactly alike in habits and preferences. Consequently, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to gifting for the coffee lovers in your life, and
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 Review: Baratza Virtuoso+ Coffee Grinder
Overall Rating: 8.5 Pros: A smart design, simple operation and excellent serviceability make this machine both a reassuring long-term investment and a pleasure to use. Cons: Beans tend to popcorn around as the hopper empties, and its once class-leading grind consistency has been overtaken by competitors. MSRP: $269.00 How to Interpret Equipment Ratings | Read complete report: Four
Equipment Review: Breville Smart Grinder Pro
Overall Rating: 9.0 Pros: The Smart Grinder Pro's grind consistency is best among the four grinders we review for this report. It is also relatively quiet, and its capacity for supporting espresso brewing is particularly impressive for a machine offered at so reasonable a price. Cons: The stubbornly convoluted user interface takes either patience or a workaround to overcome. MSRP:
Equipment Review: Oxo Brew Conical Burr Grinder With Integrated Scale
Overall Rating: 8.5 Pros: The Oxo offers admirable grind consistency and conveniently controls how much coffee is ground by weight rather than by time. Cons: The weight of the actual dose always slightly misses the target. The unit’s high-pitched noise is on the louder side and its lightweight materials raise longevity concerns. MSRP: $224.99 How to Interpret Equipment Ratings |
Equipment Review: KitchenAid Burr Grinder
Overall Rating: 7.5 Pros: In keeping with the classic KitchenAid ethos, this coffee grinder's strong and handsome construction paired with its simple operation makes for a compelling combination. Cons: Grind consistency, grounds retention, static and noise can all be problematic in various usage scenarios. MSRP: $249.99 How to Interpret Equipment Ratings | Read complete report: Four
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
Equipment Review: Fellow Stagg EKG Electric Kettle
Overall Rating: 9.5 Pros: Not only does this kettle look impressive and pour very comfortably, but its display is the most informative of any that we've seen, and it heats up quite quickly. Its interface is refreshingly intuitive and its build quality first-rate, down to the tiniest of details. Cons: The temperature reported on its display may be anywhere from 1-3 degrees higher than the
Equipment Review: OXO Brew Adjustable Temperature Pour Over Kettle
Overall Rating: 8.0 Pros: This kettle strikes an impressive balance between a generous capacity and a compact footprint while also reaching brewing temperature remarkably quickly. Its display is clear and easy to read without having to slide the whole unit closer on the counter, and its beep is a handy cue for when water has reached the target temperature. Its large and satisfyingly resistant
Equipment Review: Bonavita Interurban, Matte Black, 1.0L Variable Temperature Kettle
Overall Rating: 7.5 Pros: The Interurban is a successor to Bonavita’s pioneering, long-popular BV382510V kettle. The solid build of the Interurban inspires confidence, and its streamlined appearance cuts a bold yet charming profile on the kitchen counter. Cons: The built-in timer presents usability issues, the spout is not "drip-free," and the kettle brings water to brewing temperature
Equipment Review: Yabano Gooseneck Pour Over Digital Variable Temperature Control Kettle
Overall Rating: 6.5 Pros: The price is unbeatable, the temperature display is spot-on, and if you don't already own a pourover brewing device, this kettle comes with one. Cons: The Yabano is bulky, difficult to settle on its flimsy base, and allows wide fluctuation around a target temperature. Its interface is simple in appearance, but confusing to use. Price: $42.99 How to Interpret
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),
