It's been a big year for grinders... and it's not over yet, because a brand new option just hit the market, the Rancilio Stile. Intended for both home and commercial applications, it appears to be made for some serious use. On the outside it shares their classic understated and straightforward design, and on the inside its sports...
Everyone loves an underdog... and living in the shadow of popular siblings can be a frustrating existence, but the Lagom Mini aims at bringing the premium feel and brewing experience of its bigger burred family members, the P64 and P100, to those not looking to drop a lot of money on a coffee grinder. But they still...
Coffee people are a fickle bunch... when a hot new piece of gear drops everyone and their cousin's brother's uncle are going on and on about it, but as soon as something else hits the market it's gone as fast as it came. Yet, there's one piece of coffee gear that tends to always maintain a...
There are few brand names in coffee... that carry as much history and respect as Mazzer. They've been in the coffee grinder and burr business for nearly 75 years and have built a positive reputation across the entire industry. Their burrs have become synonymous with quality, and many other grinder companies build their products around Mazzer's...
Rancilio is no stranger to espresso... they've been building machines for 95 years, and put them on home counters in 1997. Over that time the Silvia has become synonymous in home barista circles and is now in its sixth generation. From the humble single boiler, to today's dual boiler with PID and "soft infusion" the Silvia...
There must be something in the water... because powered hand grinders seem to be all the rage, or at least I'm getting them in waves. Regardless, here we are, and today we're with Timemore's Grinder Go Advanced. Unlike its close relatives the Slim and Chestnut X this grinder contains a unique twist for a piece of...
Crowdfunded coffee gear and I have a rocky relationship... there's been ups, downs, and everything in between. That same attitude also translates to hand grinders, which as I've said before aren't really my thing. But the Goat Story ARCO is a little different. It's a hand grinder, but also an electric grinder. It appeals to those...
A filterless coffee brewer isn't unheard of... but I don't recall any of them using that particular aspect as their main marketing point, and that is where the Pure Over comes into the picture. This relatively new pour over dripper designed by Portland based glass artist Etai Rahmil was originally a Kickstarter that was fully funded...
When it comes to brew methods... you can't find two as massively different than espresso and cold brew. One takes 24 hours and the other, 24 seconds. So when I saw the Osma I couldn't help but be intrigued. If you aren't familiar, the Osma is essentially a combination of an espresso machine and a cold...
If you're an eagle-eyed viewer... you've maybe noticed a new addition on my bar in some of my recent videos, and that is the Option-O Lagom P64. From a distance it looks like a microscope, but similarly it is intended to magnify the flavors of your coffee...see what I did there? If you aren't familiar its...
If there is one question... I get asked on a very regular basis it's why a relatively simple espresso machine like the La Marzocco Linea Mini is worth $5,000, and to be honest it's not an easy question to just answer off the cuff. The response I often use is related to cars, because you can...
Okay, I admit it... last week's video was a bit of a tease, but I needed some extra time to work on the full review of my new Weber Key. Which was for many coffee lovers, one of the most anticipated coffee grinders since the Fellow Ode, and we all saw how that worked out. The...
This may surprise you... but I'm actually very risk adverse. So of course crowd funding isn't really my thing, it feels a bit like a gamble, and when I saw the Weber Workshops Indigogo campaign for the new Key grinder I was a little apprehensive. But I found myself powerless, I had no idea how much...
It may not come as a surprise... That capsule based coffee machines have never really been on my radar. That is until I heard of the Morning machine. It boasts some features that seem better suited to top of the line espresso machines. Things like pre-infusion, blooming, automatic volumetric, and three phase pressure control. So if...
The home grinder market... has more or less exploded with options over the last couple years, many of them single dose, aimed at taking on the current king; the Niche Zero. Some of them even touted as the "Niche killer", and now Eureka, a grinder company with over one hundred years experience, has entered the battle...
It takes a certain type of coffee person... to want to manually hand grind their coffee. It may or may not surprise you, but I'm not that type of coffee person. I've grown very accustomed to my daily ritual using an electric grinder, but the growing popularity of quality hand grinders is hard to ignore. There...
Air is the enemy... of your coffee's freshness. There is no way to put a complete stop to oxidation that will eventually make your coffee go stale, but thankfully there are some containers out there aimed at helping slow the process down. Today's tester is for the Planetary Design Airscape. It's been on the market for...
I'll admit it, I'm late... to the Fellow Ode party, but its definitely not for lack a trying. I've been reaching out to Fellow on multiple avenues trying to get an Ode for review since late 2020. Unfortunately every lead led me to a non-response, a pass off, and one case being purely ignored (see the...
For quite some time... beverage enthusiasts have been making and designing their own glasses to elevate their drinking experience, and the company Kruve has continued to try to innovate in the coffee vessel space. It all started with their award winning filter glasses, then the pro-swirl espresso versions, and now with the new Kruve Imagine line...
In the very recent past... handheld espresso was more or less a distant fantasy than it was a true reality. Even though there are multiple accessories and compact options on the market, most if not all fall kind of flat. The Joepresso, and the Fellow Prismo claimed real shots from your Aeropress, and that just isn't...
Just a few short days ago... there was a knock at my door, and there on my doorstep sat a box that I wasn't expecting. It was from Fellow, and after my most recent harsh (but fair) review of their new French press I wasn't sure what to expect. My mind raced. Is this a cease...
In the coffee world... very few manufacturer names fill the hearts of baristas with quite as much excitement as Mahlkonig. With nearly 100 years of coffee grinding pedigree, and a line of legendary cafe heros like the EK43 and Peak, they are finally entering the world of home brewing. The brand new Mahlkonig X54 is their...
It's time for a home brewer renaissance... and it's possible that the Ratio Coffee home brewers will be the vehicle for such a change. Personally, I do love a good pour over, but there is still a place in my kitchen for the perfect brewer...once I find it. Many of the current options have been around for...
Dairy alternatives and I... have a bit of a contentious relationship, I've always wanted to like them, but I feel like they tend to fall short in one way or another. Whether it's how they taste, how they blend with coffee, their foamability or mouthfeel, they just don't check all the boxes. I'm clearly not the...
No one ever said that coffee... was a cheap hobby, and at this point in my whole coffee loving life I've fully accepted that as a reality. Yet, there are still times where the price of some coffee gear really makes me give it a double take, and the Clara French press from Fellow is on...
I'm a man of my word... and a couple month's ago while reviewing the Robot I said I would soon be releasing a head-to-head battle with the Cafelat Robot and the Flair, but what I didn't tell you was I was waiting for the new 58 to drop. In the world of hand pressed, fully manual...
The time has finally come... after a year of speculation and vague information the brand new Flair 58 has finally arrived on the scene. I've been a big fan of the Flair machines since I picked up the Signature Pro about two years ago. It was my first foray into hand pressed espresso, and I was...
Brewing coffee quickly... hasn't always been looked at as a good thing, but as we've developed a better understanding of extraction it's become more widely accepted. First science told us to run faster shots of espresso, and now the Espro Bloom has entered the fray claiming tasty brews in record time. They do this by utilizing...
The hand grinder market... has really blown up over the past few years, with new options hitting shelves and websites at a pretty solid rate. There are names that most coffee enthusiasts kick around on the regular like the Comandante and the Kinu M47, but there's a newcomer to this market, and its boasting some pretty...
The unsung hero of the coffee bar... is the humble grinder. The espresso machines, coffee drippers, and latte art pours tend to often be the stars of the show, but today I'm revisiting my experience with a Niche Zero year one review. If you've been around for a minute you may recall the original review I...
Four years ago this week... I became the proud owner of a brand new, crispy white, La Marzocco Linea Mini. In that time it has given me endless hours of entertainment, content for videos, increased my barista skills, and also helped motivate me to create not one, but two businesses. So I do generally look at the...
When I think about making espresso... I generally picture myself at home, or in a cafe working behind a classic countertop machine, but I also have to remind myself that other people actually leave their house sometimes. So something like the Wacaco Nanopresso may actually be a the perfect option for those adventurous, espresso-loving spirits who...
There comes a point where one may ask... how many coffee drippers is too many? Well, I'm not sure yet, and I know I haven't reached that point just yet. So I felt like the Origami Dripper is a welcome addition to my already somewhat crowded home barista coffee cart. For what seems like quite a...
It seems every couple of months... a new distribution tool materializes out of the bottomless dark void that is third wave coffee gear economy. The WPM (Welhome Pro) ESPCUP is the newest contender to an already pretty full arena of tools. With big coffee industry names like ONA Coffee, Pullman, and Saint Anthony's Industries already having...
Coffee can take many forms... and throughout the roasting process it goes through a variety of transformations. Each phase of the roast brings out a unique flavor characteristic. Now, whether it tastes good is, like all coffee, is subjective. For me, the ideal roast is always past first crack. But as a lover of coffee I...
La Marzocco has a habit... of making Mini versions of their commercial machines. I'm sure you've heard of the Linea Mini, but in case you haven't, its pretty epic. Their newest addition to the Mini line up for home baristas is the La Marzocco Swift Mini. The full-size Swift is a cafe workhorse that you'll find...
Don't let the name fool you... it's not some kind of robot butler, the FrankOne is actually a coffee brewer. Once you get past the name, which really isn't explained anywhere on the website (the owners being Eduardo and Otto) its actually a pretty interesting piece of coffee gear. It's uses an electric USB charged vacuum...
I found Jot Coffee... while scrolling through Instagram. Rarely do sponsored posts catch my attention, but at some point this hyper focused marketing has to work. So after watching their video pitch I did the unthinkable and made my way to their website. Similarly to their advertisement it was clean, engaging, and very well designed. The...
Being the coffee nerd... that I'm sure you are (otherwise you may of made a wrong click somewhere) you've likely heard of or own something made by Fellow Products. They make all kinds of useful and extremely aesthetically pleasing specialty coffee gear. I mean, you'd be hard pressed to find another company that makes a better...
The Leverpresso is... the smallest lever espresso machine on the market, at least that I'm aware of. It begs the age old question, does size matter? Get your mind out the gutter. I'm talking about if it can it live up to its larger and more expensive cousins like the Flair or the RoK? Well, today...
It's time for a tamper comparison... and the two puck pressers I'll be looking at this week are the ever popular Barista Hustle and the Pullman Big Step. These two tend to be a couple of the most popular options in the specialty coffee industry. You'd be hard pressed to find at least one cafe out...
The Fellow Monty... not to be confused with the "full Monty", is a newcomer to the milk cup market. At least they seem new to me, I didn't see them popping up until the last couple months. They looked intriguing to me, as I do love all things without handles (note my favorite handleless milk pitcher)....
I'm late to the Niche Zero... party, but if there's one thing I've learned as a somewhat sociable adult, its never show up to a party on time. So here I am. Thankfully a local coffee lover reached out and allowed me to borrow their beloved Niche Zero in exchange for my beloved Lux-D. Seemed like...
Linea Mini reviews are so... hot right now. In fact, they have been for years. Ever since I published my year one ownership review roughly three years ago, it has been my one of my most popular posts ever on the blog year to year. Recently I saw Chris Baca threw his 5-panel hat into the...
Cafe Concetto's metal filters... for the Aeropress has entered a ring that isn't extremely full of challengers. I've seen them bounce around online a few times in the past, but it seems that no one has fully perfected it...yet. At least to have it stand up to the tried-and-true paper filters. For those who have followed...
ONA Coffee has dropped the OCD V3... and it's time to find out if its a step forward, or just more of the same. For those who have been following along with my personal love-hate relationship with the OCD (ONA Coffee Distributor) tool you know that I've been both a huge proponent of the tool, and...
Now that the Flair... has been on my counter for a month or so, and I've pulled quite a few shots with it I think it's time to do a review for it. The model that I have is the Signature Pro, which comes with a pressure gauge, updated stainless steel pieces, an additional portafilter, a...
Counter Culture is a veteran... in the specialty coffee industry. Born out of North Carolina in 1995 this wholesale juggernaut has always put a main focus on quality coffee, education, and sustainability. Their story is full of breakthroughs and pushing the industry as a whole forward. Before it was the industry standard, they put their money...
Elixir is one of those... roasters that you hear about pretty often if follow the specialty coffee industry as closely as I do. Personally and professionally I have a ton of respect for them. For a roastery that is relatively young (established in 2010) they've really managed to create a name for themselves. They're a highly...
In the spirit of full disclosure... I've had Linea Caffe's coffees a couple times before and have really enjoyed them. The man at the helm of Linea Caffe is Andrew Barnett, master roaster and longtime coffee aficionado. He began Linea Caffe with the goal of wanting to "turn people onto the flavors of the world's finest...
The Melodrip is the new kid on the block... well, the pour over block anyway. Although, I may be doing some espresso experiments with it down the road. But I digress. I first took notice of the Melodrip after watching some of the Brewers Cup competitors using it. I did a bit of research on it,...
As a coffee professional... I'm ashamed to admit I've never been to Portland. Considering the sheer amount of amazing coffee in that town it is most definitely on my must-go list. As part of that pilgrimage visiting the fine folks at Dapper & Wise will be on the itinerary. Since I've already had a couple of...
