My Coffee Setup
In early 2011 I had finished university (again) and decided that I didn’t want to drink bad coffee anymore. So I started to look into the basics of how to make good coffee. I started with a hand grinder and a French Press. I quickly realized that I don’t like the oily taste and got an Aeropress. By the time I had moved to NYC with only my Aeropress and grinder, my friend [Mathias][roidrage] had published his “The Beginner’s Shopping Guide to Filter Coffee Gear” which I used to restock my kitchen. Since then I’ve switched out some things and settled on some others and this page is the place where I write down my current setup.
At Home
Grinder
I used to use a hand grinder at home to make my coffee. As I was mostly making coffee for one person anyways, it wasn’t such a big deal. But especially for cold brew it got really annoying. So I bought an electric grinder and settled for the Baratza Encore there. It’s a good tradeoff between quality, usability and price. The most important point for me there was that it has a burr grinder, thus resulting in a more consistent grind.
Brew tools
90% of the time I make coffee with the Chemex at home. It’s overall my favourite way of brewing coffee as it is pretty easy and doesn’t take overly long. For the Chemex I usually go with a 7gr coffee/100ml water ratio. I use that as the base from which I calculate how much coffee grounds I need for the amount of coffee I want. I usually make either 300, 400 or 700ml of coffee depending on the number of people participating. My brewing process is based on the Intelligentsia one, so I let it bloom at 50-100ml of water for about a minute and then slowly pour in the rest. I have the 8-cup Chemex at home but would probably get the 6-cup one if I had to buy a new one. I also have a 3-cup one which I keep at the office for when I want to make coffee for just myself and don’t want to pour it all into the cup at once. I also have a Hario v60 and a HIC cone at home which I don’t use extremely often because I prefer the Chemex. But every now and then I make a pour over with them and am really happy I have those.
And there is also the Aeropress at home still. And I mostly use it for when I want to make a makeshift cappuccino or an Iced Aeropress when it’s hot, which is a nice way to have a cool drink without having to go all the way of making cold brew. For both I use the same ratio, which is 17gr per 2 Aeropress chambers.
I also have the Hario Buono kettle at home which is great because it has the swan neck which makes it great for a controlled pour. I also have a scale which I can’t say too much about. It’s mostly a regular kitchen scale and it works. If I had to get a new one, I would try to get one with a longer/adjustable timeout. Often enough it times out while I have the Chemex on there to measure the water I pour in and then have to remember where I’ve been and how much I still need to pour.
Travel
Grinder
When I’m traveling (which I try to keep carry-on only) I have the Porlex mini grinder with me. It has a big enough chamber for one person and it fits into the Aeropress so it takes up even less space. I used to travel with the Hario Skerton and the Hario mini mill. They are both great grinders. However the skerton doesn’t have a cover so the beans constantly spill out while grinding and the mini mill is slightly bigger than the Porlex so it doesn’t fit into the travel gear as nicely and also is made of mostly plastic which has broken for me before.
Brew Tool
For brewing coffee while traveling I exclusively use the Aeropress. It doesn’t take up a lot of space and makes great coffee. I bring the lid, the stirrer, and the scoop with me but often I leave the funnel at home. I also always bring the Kaffeologie S Filter with me in addition to some paper filters. I prefer the taste with the paper filters, but I don’t want to have to deal with running out of filters in a foreign city. I don’t bring a scale and I use the kettle you have or can get in most hotels. If there isn’t one, most hotels now have a Keurig machine in the rooms, which makes perfectly fine hot water if you leave the capsule out. I let it flow into one of the hotel provided cups and brew the coffee in the other one (thankfully there are almost always 2).
Beans
Bean supply is a highly subjective topic and it’s where opinions differ the most. I usually always have a subscription and get some beans in addition from roasters and coffee shops in my neighborhood. Right now I have a Heart subscription which is wonderful and I used to have a Squaremile one which was also great. For the additional coffee I either go with Toby’s Estate, Sweet Leaf, or Counter Culture.