I was about to add this coffee maker (excuse me: espresso maker) to the Luddite gift guide but instead I felt it deserved special mention. As a fan of pod-based coffee-makers, I love almost everything about the EA82 – except its price.
This thing is a dense block of coffee-creation goodness. Operation is simple – add some water, whole beans, and a cup. You select the type of coffee – espresso or regular – and press a button. The machine does everything from grinding the beans, heating the the milk and water, and blowing out delicious coffee with just the right top of frothy crema. → Read More
What is it? A laser cutter? A mod photo enlarger? A microscope? A tattoo remover? Nope, it’s a coffee maker, but an extremely svelte coffee maker. In fact, I imagine this little Nespresso-friendly caffeine inducer would look pretty sweet in your typical “ice hotel” or ad agency lobby.
Clearly, we’ve come a long way since days of yore when a Cuisinart was enough you get you by in the couture circuit. → Read More
All right, so the headline is kind of a stretch. Let’s just say mistakes were made, and move on, yeah? You might have heard about the Kone, a metal replacement for paper coffee filters. It’s been making waves over the last year or so, but no product is perfect (even a perforated metal cone), and they’ve made some changes to the hardware that I’m pretty excited about. → Read More
I was perusing NotCot’s roundup of non-electric coffee gear and spotted Darth Stovetop here. I talked about this old-school method of making espresso here (delicious and difficult), but in case you like your coffee and your coffee-maker black, this one from Valira might be right up your alley. At €36.50 it’s rather more than its Bialetti equivalent, and replacement parts might be hard to come by, but as the Emperor might say, that’s the price you pay for power. What are you waiting for? Ajouter au panier! → Read More
Some people love the hot coffee. Love the hot. People order their americanos “extra hot” so the baristas will put out water at higher than the 180 degrees they aim at. Madness! Personally, I have to let it cool down a bit — but ideally, you want to drink the coffee as soon as possible to get the full flavor. Enter the Coffee Joulie. → Read More
Starbucks, the coffee giant, has just launched an electronic gift card program called Starbucks Card eGifts. There’s two primary ways to top-up your (or your friends’) gift cards. The first is simplest, and that’s by going to the Starbucks Web site and telling it which e-mail address to send the funds to. Nothing too complicated there, and you can specify whether to send a predetermined amount ($5, $10, $15, or $20), or you can send however much you like. And what kind of retail program would be relevant in 2011 without Facebook integration? → Read More
When you go into a coffee shop anymore, isn’t it just full of iPads, others tabs, and coffee labs? These days, many of us aren’t looking to newspaper as a source of breaking and premium content; instead we’d rather know what conflict @kanyewest or @michaelarrington have gotten into. → Read More
Bread and circuses, friends. Bread and circuses. → Read More
According to an FCC filing, the folks at Keurig (they basically make a single serving coffee machine) could be adding RFID tags to their pods in order to allow the machine to sense the type of coffee being placed into the device. This would, in turn, allow the machine to change temperature, milk type, and whatever else the coffee requires. → Read More
Okay, it’s an egg-shaped version of the Moka Express stovetop espresso thing. So far so good. But how do you pick it up? → Read More
In the kitchen, the gadgets and objects that we use can be roughly divided into two categories: the ones that do something, and the ones that make something easier. It isn’t a judgment on their value, but a simple and fact-based division. A pan, of course, does something, as does a blender. But a Slap Chop or juicer: they don’t exactly have a purpose so much as they take something tedious or difficult and make it quicker and easier. Many people avoid the latter type, as they are often expensive, fragile, and limited in their applications. One “make something easier” device that few people forgo is the coffee maker. The familiar drip machine is found in a huge amount of homes out there, and for many, that is the only coffee they’ll make at home. Outside of Starbucks, it’s strictly machine drip. It’s so familiar that a lot of people forget that coffee makers are relative newcomers to the coffee scene, and for a fraction of the price, you can buy beautiful, authentic gear that is not only dead simple, but makes fantastic coffee. → Read More
Crowdsourcing. It’s so hot right now. Case in point, this crowdsourced spoon. It’s called the MugStir and you can pre-order three for $7.50. Developed by the Quirky community, it’s the 28th product from the crowdsourcing site. → Read More
When I first saw this, I thought to myself, “Wow, that is wonderfully stupid.” But then after remembering my days working in an actual office, it doesn’t seem quite as insane. I mean, you’ve got a computer right there in your cube. And, what, you’re going to lug a big espresso machine into the office? No! Make this DIY latte foamer with $4 worth of parts. → Read More
Go ahead and file this deal under “aggressive” as Woot.com is selling the Gevalia G90 coffee maker for just $10 plus $5 shipping. This is a pod-style coffee maker – easy cleanup, quick brew time – that normally sells elsewhere for $35 and up. → Read More
You know which sector has been aching for interactive voice command features? Coffee makers. For instance, if I were to set the timer on my own personal coffee maker, I’d have to press the timer button, select the time I want the coffee to brew, and then press the timer button again to set it. That’s two button presses with some button holding in between! → Read More
If you find yourself in the overlapping section of the Venn diagram containing people who like camping and people who like coffee, you may very well begin figuring out how you’re going to find $45 to buy Brunton’s Flip N’ Drip Coffee Maker when it comes out next February. → Read More
I bet you thought iFixit only tore apart Apple products and high-profile electronics. Not so! The Starbucks Barista is in fact not a barista but a machine that makes espresso. You could argue that’s what real baristas are as well, but we can talk about that another time. The Barista espresso machine is a good representative of the home-espresso machine world, and it isn’t some cheap piece of garbage, either. It’s got lots of real metal in there and… are those molex connectors? → Read More
Ah the Golfers Mug: such a simple idea. Drink your coffee and then lay the mug on the floor flat-side down for a little putting practice before you tackle the day ahead. → Read More
As a Seattle resident, I can confirm that people here do love coffee. But I see remarkably few people with modern espresso machines in their homes. A drip machine here, a Melitta there, and very occasionally (mainly in my apartment) a stovetop espresso maker. Still, I don’t think anyone would object to having this attractive coffee station embedded in their wall. Perhaps in the bedroom? → Read More
I looove your fashionable wrist cuff! Thanks, it doubles as a coffee sleeve! Wow, that’s incredibly weird! Thanks, I know!
If you really love coffee and you really love the environment (though not enough to bring your own mug to Starbucks) might I suggest this handmade $65 black walnut veneer wrist cuff that serves double duty as hand-protecting coffee sleeve? → Read More
