Any coffee aficionados in your inner circle? Nothing will make them smile more than some coffee paraphernalia found in their stocking. Lousy t-shirts, pyjamas, perfumed candles, yaaawn… Let’s forget about it. As if there weren’t enough geeks’ broken hearts. Here’s a list of some top-notch coffee equipment that will make a perfect gift this year.
Design
Loveramics Porcelain
Beautiful mugs, cups, saucers, pots and the like designed with the intention to connect modern trends with a traditional character. Although looking elegant, shiny and adorable Loveramics is a porcelain of choice among many coffee professionals because of its solidity and technical attributes, meeting the SCA standards, by the way. You can also find the special ‘Bond series’ that’s been designed by Simon Stevens,a world-class designer and winner of various awards in the field of ceramic products. Even a coffee-science-nerd-master will admit his coffee just tastes more funky in this top-quality porcelain scenery!
Fellow Stagg Kettle
Every passionate brewer is aware of the need to be precise and repeatable while infusing his or her precious, holy beans. So there it goes. Built-in temperature gauge, profiled spout, stainless steel and a perfect counterbalance when pouring are one side of the coin. The other? The Stagg is a small piece of art design made in two versions: black matt and shiny steel. Both are suitable for gas, electric and induction hobs. I actually can’t decide what gives me more fun – using the Stagg for making coffee or simply staring at it.
Barista & Co Accessories
They’re from Great Britain and they make coffee accessories. Very solid accessories. And very pretty ones. Once again the great workmanship goes hand in hand with a beautiful, minimalistic design. Graceful golden french-presses and milk frothers will not only make their jobs efficient but also look as a distinctivepart of one’s kitchen interior. And my personal favourite piece of equipment – milk pitchers in copper or gold. Marvelous and precise!
Weigh, grind, brew!
Acaia Scales
Tech geeks have iPhones, coffee geeks have Acaia. What connects those two besides an elegant look and fancy glowing screens? Well, you can connect Acaia Pearl to your phone and track the brewing process in real time. But what coffee fanatics probably love about those scales the most is unbeatable speed (20 ms response time!),precision, accuracy and reliability. If that’s not enough, it’s even sensitive to evaporation-related weight changes. Once again, Acaia is frequently chosen amongst the professionals all around the world. Its appearance couple of years ago changed the game big time!
Comandante
Grinding. Many argue this is the most important act in the coffee brewing process. Justifiably!Depending on the size and shape of ground particles the very same coffee may taste delicious or dull. Becoming another sensational game changer, Comandante is regarded as not only the best hand grinder in the world but also one of the best grinders… in general. The simplicity of use and German precision are all one needs to attain the best quality here. Definitely one of the hottest and most desired coffee gear on the market today!
KRUVE
Many have tried to perfect the grinder. We perfected the grind. KRUVE is a simple device that’s able to make a superb grind impeccable. It consists of two tiers and up to 15 different sieves. That’s some severely geeky stuff. One can manipulate the whole grind size distribution generated by a grinder, therefore change the parameters of extraction, experiment, compare, test and improve the brewing process. Officially recommended by some of the best baristas in the world who were utilizing KRUVE in their competition routines.
The Gabi Master A
Two amazing novelties among hand-brew devices. The Gabi Master is a one-serve dripper with the brewing paradigm replicated from the modern batch brewers. Water drains slowly to split up into sixteen even streams falling consistently into different parts of the coffee puck. It brings a super-even extraction. It brings a hyper-sweet and yummy brew. They bring a smile on barista’s face. You can check out our test HERE.
BOOKS
A bookthat is tailored to the needs is always a perfect gift. There are some really smart publications written by the best of the best.
The World Atlas of Coffee by James Hoffmann – the industry role model and a World Barista Champion writes about all key factors of the coffee chain. You get to know everything from how the coffee is processed to the development of an espresso machine.
What I Know About Running Coffee Shops by Colin Harmon – written by a four-time Irish Barista Champion and owner of 3fe, one of the smartest coffee businesses these days. It’s a combination of memories, ideas, solutions and tips concerning opening and running a coffee shop. Plenty of interesting insights into the culture of specialty coffee industry are this position’s strong suit.
The Coffee Man by SasaSestic – freshly printed last month, written by (as many consider him) the best barista in the world. This book is about coffee farmers and communities all around the world and tells the story of Sasa’s road to the World Barista Championship victory. It’s worth noting that Sestic’s goal was to donate 100% of the money raised during his Kickstartercampaign to a couple of farms in Ethiopia and Nicaragua.
Le Nez du Café by Jean Lenoir – this is the book with a set of 36 aromas present in coffee. That’s the fun – smelling and reading about the smells. Then repeating. Thanks to Le Nez, the development of knowledge and sensory skills is available at every passionate coffee freak’s fingertips. Packed in an elegant, wooden box, like it was meant to become a splendid gift!
