Our mission always has been to help consumers identify and purchase superior quality coffees. But purchasing superior quality coffee beans won’t guarantee a superior quality coffee experience if poorly prepared with inferior equipment. So it’s not surprising that we frequently receive requests from readers for reviews of coffee equipment. In our most recent reader survey, 88% of respondents were either very interested or moderately interested in having Coffee Review publish equipment reviews.
We listened. Based on your comments, the Coffee Review editorial team, with the help of frequent contributor Howard Bryman, will selectively test equipment and provide reviews and reports that will help consumers enjoy superior quality brewed coffee. The first of this new series of reports, Digital Electric Gooseneck Pourover Kettles, appears this month. For a look at report topics planned for later this year, see our 2020 Editorial Calendar.
How Are Our Reviews Different?
Although useful reviews of coffee equipment regularly appear online, few are conducted with the care and independence that we will bring to ours. Many online equipment reviews are simply summaries or aggregations of consumer reviews. Others are informative but uncritical overviews by equipment sellers. But at Coffee Review every piece of equipment we review will have been worked with and used, run through relevant instrument-based testing procedures, and, when relevant, sensory testing of output by the experienced Coffee Review tasting panel.
Given the extent of our testing and the thoroughness of our reviews, we can only review a limited number of models in a given product category, in most cases three to five. We will choose those we do review on the basis of their popularity, or, if they are new to the market, the credibility/track record of their manufacturers. We may mention other products in a category in our report introductions.
Those Affiliate Links
Most review sites include affiliate links that provide a modest commission to the reviewer for purchases made by shoppers at affiliated retail websites such as Amazon. After flirting with such affiliate links in equipment reports and equipment reviews on CoffeeReview.com, we’ve decided to forgo them. For us, it’s just the right thing to do.
We Receive No Affiliate Commissions for Coffees We Review
As always, Coffee Review does not collect affiliate commission for sale of coffees we review. We support our detailed and influential coffee reviews and reports through other revenue streams, including advertising and a soon-to-be introduced optional membership program for readers.
