A frequent customer stopped in last week and asked my opinion on home coffee brewing. Her coffee maker recently wore out and she needed to purchase a new one. I immediately started talking to her about manual brewing methods! Because I am a geek, and I have found that if you have the time to dedicate to preparing your morning brew at home during your morning routine — manual brewing is the way to go! Not for everyone — it’s a process. Grinding, weighing, “blooming” …it takes time. But time well spent, because you will have created a beautiful cup of coffee and you will most definitely notice the difference in taste.
Now, for those of you who just want to have a machine do all the work, (and believe me, I GET IT) I would highly recommend two options:
The first has a reasonable price point, around $50 — give or take a few bucks, but definitely under $100. Ladies and gentlemen, the percolator — I am not kidding. Yes, the way your mom, or grandma brewed coffee “back in the day”. It will most definitely NOT disappoint. Check into them — there are a lot of choices out there. I discovered a vintage beauty my mom had on a shelf in her basement (retro 1970s) and we use it every morning.
The second option is a bit more of an investment and made by one of my favorite manual brewing vessel manufacturers — Chemex. The machine is called Ottomatic and she’s elegant and beautiful. The concept is still the manual brew process but the water is “showered” on the coffee grounds automatically, literally by (what looks like) a shower head. Dreamy, right? Yes, most definitely dreamy. This baby will set you back about $350, but worth every bit. Chemex makes quality products — plus they are a family-owned company with their headquarters right here in the US.
So there’s my input. I do absolutely LOVE the manual brew method and the process is actually quite relaxing — sort of a morning meditation. But when you need that coffee quick, consider my choices on automatic methods to get that tasty cup of caffeinated goodness into your body while getting ready for your day.
Remember that SO MUCH goes into a quality cup of coffee. And it goes far beyond the quality of your bean. I will be blogging more about that later — like water quality and grind and a CLEAN MACHINE.