Written for friends getting into filter coffee. It’s the first of three — gear, then tasting, then brewing.

Gear is an interesting topic. At our level, it doesn’t really change the taste of the coffee but depending on what you buy, it can change how you brew. There are four key things to think about when it comes to gear.

• Scale
• Grinder
• Brewer
• Kettle

I’ll recommend brands for all four but depending on how you actually want to brew, you don’t need to get a gooseneck kettle (the thin long spout one) just yet. They take up space and hold less water than a regular kettle. Keep that in mind if you’re looking to replace your current kettle with one.

*Gooseneck kettle by Brewista*

Top brands

There are a few brands on the market but the top 3 right now are:

• Hario (japanese and is a staple every where)
• Fellow (the most premium-ish one)
• Timemore (Taiwanese, quite good and copies a lot of the style from Fellow)

There is no one brand for every piece though, so still would mix and match.

Scale

Okay, this is extremely simple. Just pick one. Really doesn’t matter which one. They all do the same thing. Only thing different is the aesthetics and battery (like coin or rechargeable). But even the coin battery scales last a few years, so the difference really is just aesthetics.

What all beginners use, it’s also the scale I gave to mum — the Hario Drip Scale.

What I use: the Acaia Pearl.

What I recommend: the Timemore Black Mirror.

Heard good things about the Hario Polaris.

But they are all really the same. I would have bought the Timemore scale because it’s 100+ instead of the 200+ that I paid, but it hadn’t come out then.

Grinder (the most important piece)

If there was something to throw money at, it would be a grinder. It’s the most important piece to coffee. There is a lot of technical talk about it online but the key piece is that a good grinder produces uniform sizes at any ranges. So if you’re grinding fines, you should really only see fines and if you’re grinding coarse, you should only see coarse grounds.

All grinders perform better at the coarse level, which is why it’s easier and cheaper to find a grinder that does filter coffee well but much harder to find one that does filter and espresso well.

Okay, so there are two camps here and it really depends how much money you want to spend.

Camp 1: manual grinders

These take up very little space. Because they are just a cylinder and a handle. I am just going to focus on filter coffee grinders for now, but I’ll put in some models that can do both.

A good starter grinder — at like $59, it produces pretty good tasting coffee: the Hario Slim.

The one up from there, and it’s a considerable jump in both price and quality at $200+: the 1Zpresso J.

Then the one I have: the Kinu M47 Classic, which I think is the best hand grinder for filter coffee you can get. But for the same-ish price I would get the Comandante C40 MK4 if you wanted to do espresso too.

Camp 2: machine grinders

Okay, machine grinders go up in price by a lot. Also, there are more factors to consider now. Speed, weight, size, noise, on top of all the normal quality factors like grind size and stuff.

The Baratza Encore is a great one. It was my first grinder (I think mum has it now) and some people think it’s the best value for money for a filter coffee grinder. Does not do espresso though.

A jump up from there would be the Fellow Ode. This is actually the grinder I want to get next but haven’t found a use case for it yet. It does espresso too — well, some people argue that it doesn’t do it well, but for your machine I don’t think it matters.

My dream grinder is the Niche Zero. It’s small and produces amazing grinds for both filter and espresso. But it’s 1479aud.

And just to show you, the Option-O Lagom P64 is like the creme of the creme for any home machine grinder.

What I’d recommend

Okay, so depending on how much you want to spend and the size of things. I would spend on a decent hand grinder that kinda does espresso but focuses on filter coffee. So that would be the 1Zpresso J.

But if you’re looking for a machine that does both, the minimum standard I say is the Fellow Ode.

And if you’re happy with the espresso grinder you already have (I wouldn’t be if I were you), then you can just get the Baratza Encore first, just to test things out.

This reddit thread kinda explains why I wouldn’t settle for a built-in grinder.

Brewers

Okay, we come to probably the most talked about thing on the internet out there because there are millions of these. Since you’re just starting out, I recommend the classic plastic V60.

Might be tempted to buy the glass or ceramic one. Don’t. They suck because they are really bad at providing uniform heat when you’re brewing. You need to spend a really long time pre-heating them if you don’t want them to suck up all the heat while you’re brewing. The metal one is good though, but it’s expensive and does the same thing as the plastic one.

Okay, I would stop there in terms of brewers because it gets pretty overwhelming. But I’ll mention a few more because they are kinda special.

Gooseneck kettle-less brewers

These are brewers that you don’t need a gooseneck kettle for. These are all dump and pour brewers. Dump your grinds, pour hot water over them, wait a bit and you’re done.

Aeropress

The Aeropress is plain awesome. Recommend you to get one just because it’s so easy to use and very versatile too. Lets you play around with a lot of brew methods. They even have an XL version now, that lets you brew for two people.

French press

Most french presses suck because their mesh is not fine enough to filter out the coffee grounds. But these are good — they tend to be >100aud though. The great thing about french presses is that they produce great coffee for little effort. Also helps to produce coffee in bulk for very little effort.

• Fellow Clara
• Espro P6 — this is the one I have
• The BIRD by Weber — the one I want, but it’s >600aud

Clever dripper

The Clever Dripper is probably the most V60-like coffee you can get with no gooseneck kettle. I haven’t played with it but I do have something similar and it’s actually amazing.

Really good for those tea like coffees.

Kettles

Okay, similarly to scales. It doesn’t quite matter which one you get as long as it has the gooseneck. But the one feature I like is temperature control — that’s been useful for tea as well.

But if none of that appeals to you, you can get a stovetop one like the Hario Buono.

And on the electric side, you have way more options. If I was looking at getting a new kettle, the Brewista Artisan might be the one I get.

This is what I have: the Fellow Stagg EKG.

Conversely, you can keep your kettle and pour it into something like the Timemore Fish Pro.

Read next

Once you have something to brew with, the next thing is knowing what you’re tasting: How to Cup and Taste Coffee.