Author: ArtistryCoffeeThoughts

Posted on

The baby of PourOver makers has a good style

Cafe Stal coffee maker

The Cafe Stal is a lovely little coffee maker and really good value too. It has almost 600ml capacity in the brewing and serving vessel which also features a stainless steel removable pourover filter. The heat resistant glassware is really simple and a delightful compact size. It has an acrylic neck for helping with your serving.

You simply add your ground coffee to the mesh filter which sits in the top section of the pourover vessel. Slowly wet the coffee grounds and let the coffee ‘bloom’ for 30s to 45s, then pour hot water very slowly in spiral or zig-zag motions over the ground coffee for a couple of minutes or so.

The coffee grounds will release their flavour as both aroma while your making the coffee and as the coffee itself which collects in the lower part of the vessel.

Once you’re done, remove the steel mesh, and sit down with a friend to enjoy your coffee – or on your own for a double dose of caffeine! You can later discard the grounds for compost, rinse the steel mesh and the vessel well and it’s ready for use again.

As an introduction to PourOver coffee making this device would serve really well – as it already has a steel mesh filter and is like a tiny version of a Chemex which feels like the granddaddy of pourover makers!

See more about the Café Stal from Rayware here.

Cafe Stal from Rayware
Cafe Stal showing mesh filter and glass chamber
Posted on

A simple solution to having great coffee wherever you go.

Kalita Kantan

Do you ever go a way for a few days and get really disappointed with the quality of coffee that you can make for yourself to start your day? Our new stock of Kalita Kantan single cup filters could provide an answer!

There’s 30 in a pack and they’re easily transportable so you can have a way to rely on your coffee wherever you go. They come folded flat – you just pop them into the shape below and put them on top of your mug – scoop some ground coffee into the filter area and pour water slowly through the coffee grounds. They will fit most mugs, but not the very largest. Simple, quick and compact.

Perhaps you want a fun way for guests at and event to enjoy their coffee – how about a sample coffee pack and a Kantan filter to let them enjoy a bit of handbrew coffee making in their places.

Kalita Kantan on top of a mug
Ready for use – Kalita Kantan in situ atop a coffee mug

 

Posted on

The Hario V60 Ceramic set a PourOver standard

Hario V60 Ceramic Dripper

To be fair, most of our products are favourite in some way or other – we love handbrew coffee techniques and like to keep trying all the different methods we can get our hands on.

One of the simple, relaxing, first ways that we embraced handbrew coffee was with the Hario V60 – it’s a ceramic conical device that sits atop a mug or jug. Into it you place a paper filter (which you can wet to remove any paper taste that you might otherwise detect). Into the paper filter you place ground coffee to a medium coarse grind.

Simply pour a small amount (perhaps 40g) of hot water onto the coffee grounds and let them swell, or ‘bloom’ for half a minute or so. This gives the coffee grounds the chance to wet through and ensures more coffee flavour is extracted.

Then in slow swirls continue pouring water onto the coffee and allow it to drip through to the mug or vessel below – take your time in this and enjoy the process.

You’ll achieve a more delicate flavour of coffee and slow down a little while you’re at it!

V60 from Hariohttp://www.artistrycoffee.co.uk/shop/proddetail.php?prod=D0021 is synonymous with handbrew coffee making and this simple well-designed piece of coffee making kit is a standard – literally setting the standard against which other pour-over devices have to measure up to gain worthy credentials.

Posted on

Hario’s Drip In Server could be one of the best value handbrew coffee products

Hario Drip In Coffee Server

The Drip-In Server from Hario is a great combination item – it is a drip filter coffee maker, it is a coffee server too – stylishly serving up your favourite beverage! You can also use it for Cold Brew coffee.

If you’ve heard of the lovely classic Chemex pour-over coffee maker, we think of this as a value version – but it’s still quality as it’s made by Hario and has good pedigree as part of the V60 family of products.

As a glass serving jug with cup measures on the side, the Hario Drip-In Server looks good and sits well on a coffee or dining table.

This device can also make your coffee too – using the drip-filter method with ground coffee placed in V60 filters, of 02 size, in a plastic removable V60 frame which rests on the top of the glass server jug. Hot water is then poured-over the coffee grounds at a slow pace – first allowing the coffee to swell (or bloom) and then refilling the V60 frame and allowing the coffee to slowly drip through.

A plastic lid helps the brewing process and a stylish black handle robustly adorns the side of the server.

The Hario Drip-In Server is also great for pour-over-ice coffee making – to the process described above but with ice already placed in the jug – which the coffee pours over, cooling as it goes.

This device from the Hario V60 family is a really versatile coffee maker. If you also consider its the equivalent of a Range Server with a V60 drip filter in-built and it can serve 4 people easily you can see why we think it’s one of the best value handbrew coffee devices.

You can also find it featured as a key part of the Artistry Coffee The Drip Filter Kit.

Posted on

The classic Hario Mini Mill hamd coffee grinder.

Hario Mini Mill hand coffee grinder available at artistrycoffee.co.uk

Great for lovers of coffee – the #Hario Mini Mill Slim Grinder is a compact hand coffee grinder.

It has adjustable burrs to enable you to control the grind size that you need – very fine grind for Espresso coffee makers, to coarse grind for Cafetiere or French Press coffee makers.

It’s easy to use – simply pop your choice of coffee beans in the top mini-hopper affix the lid and grind handle and turn the handle. The ground coffee gathers in the plastic chamber below – the Mini Mill has capacity for two cups worth of ground coffee.

Hario have their origins in Japan – they design and making top quality handbrew coffee equipment. Find out more on artistrycoffee.co.uk.

It also has a bigger cousin: the Hario Skerton which is a coffee maker with more capacity in both the top hopper and the chamber below (this time made of glass): Find out more on our main website.

Posted on

Colour, design, and an expression of ecofriendly individuality.

ecoffee cup wide range promo

The ecoffee story could be one of colour, of design, of environmental concern, of practicality, of individuality. In fact it’s all of these.

The wide range of patterns and designs make the ecoffee cup a colourful attractive cup which can be a little expression of individuality every time you have a coffee.

The ecoffee cups available at artistrycoffee.co.uk are reusable takeaway coffee cups. They could give you a discount on your next takeaway coffee from your favourite coffee shop as increasing numbers are offering discounts if you use your own cup rather than a throwaway cup. So everytime you use your own cup you could be making a positive difference to both your wallet and the environment.

The problem with a lot of own cups is that they can affect the taste – giving a hint of plastic or metallic taste – or are heavy (ceramic cups). The ecoffee cup is light and durable, yet has none of these taste effects as it is naturally sterile bamboo fibre.

The problem of waste from takeaway cups has now reached the news headlines on more than one occasion and the government is considering a surcharge on their use, so the ecoffee cup can represent your own response to this issue. A thin plastic coating is present in most takeaway cups, which is very difficult to separate in normal recycling operations, so the sad story is that despite most of us thinking for many years that we were recycling – we weren’t! The cups have generally ended up in landfill. Using your own cup puts you in control and ensures you’re not contributing negatively to this issue.

The ecoffee cup is made from naturally organic bamboo fibre combined with a non-GMO corn starch and a resin binder. The lid and sleeve are food grade silicone. Bamboo is fast growing, quickly renewable and sustainable. It doesn’t require any pesticides or chemicals and absorbs a third more CO2 than an equivalent area of hardwood trees.

An ecoffee cup can last indefinitely if you take care of it, but the cup is naturally biodegradable at the end of its lifetime and the silicone lid and sleeve recyclable with kerbside recycling.

It’s not insulated, but will keep a drink warmer for longer than a takeaway cup.

The ecoffee cup is suitable for vegans as it contains no tallow or other animal products.

So why not take a look at the fabulous range of ecoffee cups at artistrycoffee.co.uk and see what suits your style!

Posted on

The AeroPress :: One of our favourites for great coffee!!

AeroPress Series 5

One of our favourite products is the AeroPress that helped start our journey into handbrew coffee equipment and techniques.

It’s a straightforward easy to use product that creates great tasting coffee.

The AeroPress is possibly the simplest, most consistent, easy, and cost-effective way to make espresso-based drinks at home… without crazily expensive equipment!

The AeroPress is an amazing coffee maker – if you’re used to instant coffee the AeroPress will be an eye opener, as it barely takes more time than making instant coffee, yet tastes many, many, many times better!

The AeroPress is essentially two plastic tubes that fit together – one that you put the coffee and water into, and one that you use to push the water under pressure through the coffee. So the AeroPress creates the ability to get close to an espresso coffee with a simple, easy to use, portable, coffee-maker which is almost self-cleaning too.

(Of course espresso is used as the base for most coffee-shop coffees – so the AeroPress can also be a gateway to americanos – by adding more hot water, lattes or cappuccinos -by adding frothed milk (see our Cappuccino Kit including an AeroPress and a milk frother), and more…. )

The AeroPress is a great coffee maker and can fit with a very outdoors based life, as it’s so portable. It can be used on holiday, at the beach, on picnics, at work, as well as in the kitchen or at home.

There are increasingly opportunities to have your coffee shop coffee made with an AeroPress too. Many baristas do take this product really seriously – and World AeroPress Championships take place every year!

If you’d like to find out more about how the AeroPress was invented (by the guy who created the Frisbee!) then see here