The Brew Blog

The Clever Dripper might be the most underrated brewer in specialty coffee. It costs about $30, requires no pouring technique, and makes a cup roughly 90% as good as a well-executed pour-over with about 30% of the effort. Here's why, and how to brew with one.

The siphon is the most theatrical brewer in coffee — two glass chambers, a burner, water rising on vapour pressure and falling on vacuum. It produces an almost analytically clean cup. Whether you should actually own one is a different question, and the honest answer is in here.

Inverting the AeroPress eliminates the one annoying quirk of the standard method: drip-through during steeping. You get full control over contact time, which matters more than any other variable in the brew. Step by step, including the flip — the only tricky part.

Pour-over versus French press gets debated like a matter of taste. It isn't, really — it's a question of filtration. Once you understand what paper traps that metal doesn't, the choice between these two brewers becomes a lot clearer, and a lot less personal.

The moka pot makes intense, concentrated coffee — but it isn't espresso, and treating it like espresso is the fastest way to ruin a cup. This is how the device actually works, the grind and heat that suit it, and how to get the best from one without burning it.

Is AeroPress espresso actually espresso? No. Real espresso runs at 9 bar of pressure; an AeroPress manages around 0.5. But the AeroPress can produce a concentrated, low-acid base that works beautifully in milk drinks, and that's worth knowing how to make properly.