A Holiday Gift Guide: Gear for the Coffee Nerd

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You probably know somebody who loves coffee: drinking coffee, making coffee, and, above all, talking about coffee. If so, please accept my condolences, along with a hard truth: there is no way to cure this condition, nor to lessen the distress of those who suffer on account of their proximity to it. Just know that, while you happily slurp your morning cup of whatever, the coffee obsessive in your life wakes up every day and braces for disappointment, and quite possibly despair. Espresso is a technological marvel; a delicious shot can require thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment and lots of practice, not to mention whatever milk or milky liquid is required. But plain (or “filter,” or “drip”) coffee is fiendishly, infuriatingly simple. Ground coffee and hot water, mixed and then separated. What could go wrong? Just about everything, it turns out. The process can be exceedingly finicky, which is what makes it fun, if you have a suitably expansive definition of “fun.” It turns out that a plain cup of black coffee need not be plain at all, once you learn to draw out and enjoy the kinds of strange flavors (floral? tangy? tannic?) that many coffee drinkers would just as soon avoid. Best of all, this is the kind of hobby that requires only a relatively modest investment of money, along with an absolutely immodest investment of time and attention. If you want to improve (or, perhaps, ruin) the morning routine of a coffee drinker in your life, here are some suggestions.

Ground Down

One reason a coffee obsession is cheaper than, say, a wine obsession: coffee is much more perishable, which means it generally won’t hold its value. Once roasted, coffee should be consumed within a couple of months; once ground, it should be brewed almost immediately. And so any serious home brewer needs a grinder that can reliably pulverize coffee into particles of uniform size: no boulders, no dust. If you would like to spend a lot on a grinder, you certainly can. The EG-1 ($4,095), from Weber Workshops, is a beautiful contraption that resembles a telescope, with an angled barrel that deposits your coffee into a small tumbler. If you’re shopping for a serious home brewer, upgrade to a set of flat Core burrs ($250 extra), for superior precision. For less than a tenth of the price, you could buy a Comandante C40 ($290), a satisfyingly solid hand grinder that resembles a militarized pepper mill. But many daily brewers will want a reliable electric burr grinder, such as the Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2 ($400), from Fellow; for an entry-level alternative, try the Encore ($120), from Baratza.

Drip Too Hard

The most addictive way to brew coffee also happens to be the most low-tech: put some coffee in a cone and pour water over it. By varying the speed and the shape of your pour, along with the grind size of the coffee, you can create a wide spectrum of results, from undrinkable to undrinkable, with delicious somewhere in between. The Kalita Wave 155 ($34) resembles a stainless-steel teacup, with three holes in the bottom to let your brewed coffee slowly drip into the vessel below; you’ll need a pack of size-155 filters ($8 for a hundred), and perhaps a small glass carafe ($27). Alternatively, the V60 Ceramic Coffee Dripper 01 ($20), from Hario, has one big hole at the bottom, which means that the coffee can flow more quickly out of your filter. (This dripper gives you more control, which means it’s less forgiving.) For anyone who insists upon automation, Fellow’s Aiden Precision Coffee Maker ($400) does its own pouring, but allows users to fiddle with the timing. And, for true simplicity, an old-fashioned French press can still make a very tasty cup of coffee, especially when paired with a superior grinder; buy one from Bodum ($15 and up) or upgrade to Espro ($37 and up), but don’t worry too much about insulation, because you probably don’t want your freshly brewed coffee to be sitting—and stewing—in the French press for any longer than it has to.

In Hot Water

If you’re using a French press, any kettle will do. But if you’re using a cone, you will probably want to avoid dumping all your water into the cone at once, which means you will need a kettle with a long, thin spout. Plenty of stovetop gooseneck kettles are available, although they require some monitoring: when the water boils, the neck may start to spit. Coffee lovers with sufficient counter space may prefer electric models, like the Greater Goods electric kettle ($65) or the Stagg EKG ($180 and up), which have variable temperature control—useful because many coffee-brewing recipes call for water that is not quite boiling.

Weighty

If you’re going to go to the trouble of carefully grinding your own coffee and pouring water slowly over the grounds, you may as well use a digital scale to insure the proper ratio. (One rule of thumb is six grams of coffee per hundred grams of water, although opinions differ.) Just about any scale will work, as long as it is reasonably durable, with a maximum capacity of at least a kilogram or two. My own battery-powered Escali kitchen scale ($32) is sleek and functional, and has never objected to being scalded or drenched. If you pay close attention at coffee shops, you may notice that many of them use the Pearl ($150), by Acaia, a blocky scale designed for coffee: the display is helpfully bright, so it won’t be outshone by your kitchen lights, and it includes both a timer and a gauge that shows how quickly or slowly you are pouring, just in case you’re trying to figure out what you did right, or wrong.

Watery

No one likes watery coffee, which is why coffee drinkers sometimes say they take their coffee “strong.” (In fact, the perceived strength of a cup of coffee may reflect its concentration, or its degree of extraction, or its roast level—three separate qualities, although they interact.) But of course water is the main ingredient of coffee, which means that, if you care a lot about how your coffee tastes, you should also care a lot about how your water tastes. I happen to enjoy the taste of New York City tap water, but not everyone loves what comes out of their faucet. One easy solution is to start with distilled or demineralized water, either from a filter or from your local supermarket, and then add minerals back in, to fine-tune the taste of your coffee. Apax Lab makes a set of three mineral concentrates in dropper bottles ($65), which you can add in varying amounts. When I am somewhere with suboptimal tap water, I prefer an even simpler approach: small packets of mineral powder ($17 for twelve) from a company called Third Wave Water; simply add a packet to a gallon of distilled water, shake well, and start brewing.

Coffee to Go

Coffee shops are everywhere, but if you have become the kind of person who brews coffee with a digital scale, you may find that delectable coffee can be hard to find. For a coffee lover on the road, one indispensable gadget is the AeroPress Go ($40), a small, lightweight plastic cylinder that brews quite nice coffee by plunging hot water through a bed of grounds atop a paper filter. (It also makes a tasty cup of iced coffee—just use half as much water, and put an equivalent amount of ice in your cup.) The KINGrinder P2 ($44) is a lightweight hand grinder that slips snugly inside the AeroPress Go, although AeroPress also sells its own compatible travel grinder ($200). You may also need a portable scale (Weightman Espresso scale, $14), and maybe a portable kettle—do not, under any circumstances, attempt to brew real coffee using the warmish water from a hotel Keurig machine. Brentwood makes a funny-looking but functional collapsible kettle ($26), and a number of other companies manufacture cylindrical versions. One from Sekaer ($28) is more streamlined, but also a bit heavier. And by far the most important product for a coffee lover in transit is a thermos. Kinto’s travel tumbler ($34) is a handsome receptacle available in a number of colors, with a lid that screws on tight and enough insulation to keep a cup of coffee warm all day long.

In an Instant

Perhaps you know someone who wants to make coffee without, you know, making coffee? A rather paradoxical desire, but evidently an abiding one. Instant coffee is more than a hundred years old, and although coffee companies are always claiming to have improved upon the process of making it, and although many high-end coffee roasters now sell their own instant coffee, I haven’t yet tasted one that is more savory than the brown liquid you are likely to get from, say, a flight attendant with a rolling cart. In pursuit of convenience, a company called Steeped is putting ground coffee into tea bags, working with roasters including La Cabra ($31-$35 for a “seasonal bundle” of twelve bags); all you need is boiling water, plus enough patience to dunk vigorously and then wait for about five minutes. The best version of instant coffee comes from Cometeer, which sells little pucks of frozen coffee concentrate that are at least comparable to the real thing; they are available at select supermarkets and cafés, or online, where the order price (gift packs start at $100 for thirty-two capsules) includes the cost of dry-ice packaging.

At Last . . . Coffee

None of this coffee gear is helpful if you have no coffee to brew. (I have occasionally found myself in this pitiable position.) Plenty of coffee drinkers enjoy medium or dark roasts, which tend to pair well with milk and other adulterants. But black-coffee obsessives sometimes gravitate toward very light roasts, which are a bit more polarizing and, not coincidentally, can be harder to find. Hydrangea, an excellent little roaster in Berkeley, California, specializes in “light, fruit-forward, experimental coffees”; a basic subscription ($27 per shipment) delivers one eight-ounce bag every four weeks. If you would like to simultaneously gratify and insult the coffee lover in your life, consider a gift from People Possession, a Parisian roastery known for strange and delicious coffees, and for unapologetically obnoxious marketing. Many of its coffees are sold in cans, for no particularly good reason; Iridescence ($35), a tea-like coffee from Panama, is sold in a can that has been crumpled, although, the roasters note, “This process is completely useless and in no way alters the taste of the coffee you are about to consume.” ♦