What are the products that every coffee lover needs? These are the must haves for any home brewing setup. Welcome to the Throttle and Roast podcast. I'm your host, Niels Meersschaert. In this episode, I'll be covering products that every coffee lover needs. Now, if you love artisanal coffee and want to brew it at home, there are two items that I think are must haves. Reg of your preferred style of making coffee, and the first of those is a burr grinder. And many of you might have something like a blade grinder. You know, some of some of the ones that are very common for doing this that are fairly cheap. But a burr grinder is really, really critical to maximizing the quality of your coffee done at home. And the reason for that is that a burr grinder will support you being able to define what the grind size is, and that's going to let you support different types of recipes, whether it's cold brew or espresso. So you can go from ultrafine all the way to very coarse grind in terms of the grind size. The second benefit of a burr grinder is it gives a consistent grind size, and if you have a consistent grind size, then the extraction that you're going to have from your grinds is going to be much more consistent then if you'll have varying sizes into there. So to me, a burr grinder is an absolute must have Now the second one actually pairs with this quite effectively and that is a scale. Now you might be thinking, Oh, I've got something that I can just measure. It's a teaspoon of coffee grinds and that's fine. But really the way that most recipes are sort of designed is for comparing weights and your balances of weights of the grinds to the weights of the water. And the reason for that is that when you actually grind, different grind sizes may not settle quite the same within some sort of a volume measurement. And therefore you're going to have inconsistent results So the best thing you can possibly do is get yourself a scale. And I would recommend to keep it simple, get a metric scale. And the idea there is that remember, one milliliter of water is one gram. So this makes it super, super easy to be able to do that. the other thing that's really critical is you want to have a scale that allows to zero out the weight with something on top of it. So you might have, for example, a vessel into which you're putting your beans before you grind them in your burr grinder. You put that onto the scale. You zero it out, and now you put your beans inside of there and you measure to whatever the recipe calls for. Let's say it's a pour over. Maybe it's 18 grams, so you're going to put in 18 grams of of raw beans, but you want to have that where it was zeroed out. Gonna make your life a lot, lot simpler rather than having to calculate how heavy the particular vessel was that you were dealing with. This also helps you after the brew. So, for example, if you let's say you have a cup, you've put your maybe like a pour over vessel on top of it and you put on your grinds, well, now you want to be able to put in only the amount of water that's necessary, so you're going to zero it out with all the grinds, with all the vessels, everything sitting on there. And now you can begin pouring your water into there. I would also strongly suggest looking at getting a scale that has a timer on it and the beauty of scales that are designed with these timers is that when they're zeroed out, as I mentioned earlier, and then you set the timer, they will then begin the timing at the moment, the weight begins to change. This is awesome because now when you're actually putting together your brew, you can do for example, a pour over might say, Hey, put in, you know, 60 grams of water and then wait 10 seconds while you can look at the clock and you can see exactly what it is where you know that you have to wait a certain period of time for how long you want it to bloom. All of this is possible from the moment you begin pouring until the timing. Now, for me personally, the one I actually have is by a company called Timemore, and it's not a super expensive one You can recharge it with the USB C So it's very simple. It gives you a little indicator in terms of what the battery capacity still is remaining. that to me, the the two basics, a burr grinder and a scale. So let's talk about some of the brewers that you might want to add to your collection to really expand the repertoire of the kind of coffee that you can brew at home. And there's a few that I'm going to bring up here that I think are not super expensive and therefore they're worthwhile for everyone to have in their collection. So the first one I'll start with is the Aeropress Now, the Aeropress is one of the most popular brewers that are out there. It's a pretty simple device. It's made of plastic and typically comes with paper filters. But there's also a couple of metal ones available if you don't want to replace filters all the time. And it's a kind of an interesting mixture because it's both an immersion and a pressure brewer. No, not quite espresso pressure, of course, but it does combine a little bit of those aspects. So you could think of it almost like a French press. But instead of the filter being moved down, it's a sealed gasket that pushes the coffee now forced through the filter, and that's where you get a little bit of a pressure that's coming through. Now they make this in three different sizes. You know, the original that they have will produce a full mug of coffee and it costs typically less than $30. They also have one that's a much larger one. This is they call it the XL, and they can make a couple of cups in one go. And it also includes a plastic carafe and it usually runs around $40. So if you need to make coffee in the morning for you and your significant other, this might be a good option to be able to put together with an AEROPRESS. Now, the other thing that they have and this is something that will probably fit in for some of the motorcyclists here is the Aeropress go. And this is a little bit smaller than the standard size and it includes the cup, everything nests inside of the cup and it's about $45. And I love this one for camping because what you can do is you can take that one unit with you. And now I have a cup to be able to hold my coffee in. I've got all the brewing capabilities right into there. It makes it super, super simple and it includes things such as a little measuring scoop. So if you don't have that scale when you're out camping, you can use a scoop is a good approximation and it has a little bit of a stirrer as well. So super, super easy for you to do. Now, one add on that you can do for an aeropress that I actually really like to use is they have this instead of using the standard flow control that that comes with it, which is just basically a little grate that goes over your filter and has a number of holes in it. They have on that they call the Flow Control cap. So what this one has is it has a little bit of a nozzle that will restrict the flow of the coffee through there. And the advantage of this is that typically when you're making an aeropress, you're putting the device on top of your cup and then all of the water is on top. So just gravity is actually going to naturally want it to start to pass through the filter and you could start to get a little bit of earlier dropping before you're actually ready to go. So the nice thing with this Flow control cup is it does restrict the movement until you actually start applying pressure, which then will allow it to go through the valve and come through. So it's not super cheap compared to the brewer at being about $25. if you aeropress a lot, to me it's actually a worthwhile endeavor. So that's the aeropress. Now, another one that is pretty common, and it's probably the one I use the most often, certainly for brewing at home is the Hario v60. Now this is a classic drip brewer. So if you think of a typical funnel that you might be used to seeing and you're going to put in some cone shaped filters into there, that's really what the Hario v60 is. These are available in a variety of materials, whether it's plastic or glass, even some ceramic ones. And even they have one that's called the Hario switch, which is what I actually own. And this one lets you do both pour overs and immersion brews in one brewer. It's a little bit more expensive, Most of the plastic ones will usually be less than $20, but any of the variations, including the switch, are all going to be less than$50. So it's it's super easy to be able to leverage into there. Now, if you remember from our episode that we talked about cold versus iced versus hot brews, I did mention how I've become a real big fan of cold brews in recent years. In fact, the cold brew coffee maker that I own actually the Oxo Compact Cold Brew coffee maker. And this is another great, great device. It's very simplistic. It's just a a large vessel with a screw on filter that you would out on to the bottom of it. And that then filter also has a little bit of a plunger valve similar to that flow control cap that we talked about for the AEROPRESS. And what this does is it will not do until there's enough pressure that's pushing down from the carafe underneath it, which will then open the valve and allow the coffee to come through. And this brewer is only. It's less than $40. if you've always wanted to try cold brew at home but thought it was going to be too ridiculous in terms of a price. This is an amazing, amazing way to do it. Now, I will warn you, cold brew is not the same as doing a hot brew. So whether it's the Aeropress or the V 60. Typically any sort of a hot coffee brewer you can be from starting to grind your beans to sipping coffee within about 5 minutes. Cold brews are much, much longer. They're typically an overnight affair, but this is a nice way to be able to do that and gives you an other sort of variation of coffee that you can try out at home. Now, one of the other really critical things to ensuring that you have good quality coffee at home is making sure that you have good beans. Now, you might like the beans at your local roaster, but it never hurts to try something new. Maybe try a different origin like the sweet beans from Ethiopia or a different roaster. And I think these are some really great ways to do it. Now, I'm a big fan of a couple of roasters that are relatively close to me within the New York area. One of them is Coffee Brothers, and this is based in New York City, and they have a wide selection of beans, plus a lot of coffee equipment, including espresso machines. My personal favorites are they're single origin, Ethiopian and single origin Kenyan roasts. They are pricey because anything that's single origin will be there, but they're absolutely delicious. The one downside and this is probably something that people are realizing going on a little bit more globally, is there is sometimes a little bit of an availability problem You know, so many more people are getting excited about coffees that you don't always have them. So some of the sometimes those particular brew roasts are not in stock. And what I fall back to is a couple of other ones is they have a light roast blend that's also a really good option. And I've really been enjoying their cold brew coffee blend with that Oxo that I mentioned earlier, as well as there are espresso blends that I use with my what Wacaco Picopresso. So these are really amazing and I'll throw a link in the show notes for you to take a look at a Coffee Brothers. Another one that I can suggest as if you want to support a fellow motorcyclist. Check out the James Port Medium roast beans from North Fork Moto. Now North Fork Moto is a motorcycle clothing and accessory boutique as well as a coffee fan, and they are based in the North Fork of Long Island in New York. And I really enjoyed the James Port beans, both in pour overs as well as in cold brews, so they can be used with several different brewing styles and I'll put a link for them also into the show notes. Now there's also some accessories that I think are pretty good for any sort of a coffee lover. If you've ever read any of the coffee ride articles on the Take of Coffee website, you know that I prefer it when a coffee shop serves their coffee in a ceramic mug as opposed to a paper cup. First off, it holds the temperature more consistently. The experience to me just feels better in there. And and I'm also a big fan of this for at home. So I always have a nice ceramic mug. Now I've got a lot of different ceramic mugs, but one of the ones that I actually really like to use a lot is from Le Creuset. This is their stoneware mug. It's a nice 14 ounce size, really good quality. It retains the heat in there very nicely. So you're not going to suddenly find that your cup is making your coffee go cold way too quickly. So I really like it. There's a variety of colors that are available into it. So whatever decor you have, you can find one that works. Now, of course, many of us will make some coffee at home and maybe we're going to take this on the road with us. Maybe we're going to go and get out onto, you know, into our car. Maybe we're going on a road trip. Maybe we have to go to work, whatever it is. And there's two options that I use for these travel mugs. The first is a Nissan Thermos beverage bottle with a built in cup. And this is what I use on the bike. And the beauty of this is because it already has the built in cup, I can then very easily, you know, pull over to the side of the road, take out the thermos, pour myself a little bit of coffee, and I've got just a nice, beautiful experience and I can sip it very easily just as I'm on the road. And the beauty is because it seals up a little bit more tightly, even if it's rattling around and like a top case or in a backpack or a pannier, you're not going to worry about spilling any sort of water or coffee into there. Now, the second one that I use is one by contigo. And the beauty of the one from Contigo is that it actually has a built in sipper. So you just push a little button and it opens it up. You can now take a sip and then it'll seal it back up and also includes a little bit of a lock so you can keep it from accidentally opening. But given it's sort of more of a plastic construction as opposed to the metal, I tend not to like to have that one bouncing around in a top case. I have an aluminum top case on all my BMW GS so I like to use the aluminum one, but that's the that's the two options that I'd say from a travel mug perspective. Now, another accessory that I think is really helpful if you're brewing at home is a coffee canister. Now, what do I mean by a coffee canister? Well, this is essentially a vessel into which you can put your beans to keep them as fresh as possible for as long as possible. Now, the one I use is from Planetary Designs. They call it the air scape. And what it does is, as you put, there's a little bit of a plunger inside. And as you do it, it actually has a release valve So you essentially create a near vacuum for your beans to avoid them getting stale over time. And they're available in a few different sizes so you can figure out what works best for you So if you get new beans every week or every month, this will allow you to still have the beans being fresh. I also want to talk about a few bonus items that you might want to consider adding into your your collection. They're not required, but they can certainly add to the experience. So the first one that I'll talk about is a pour over kettle. Now, if I if you're using something like the V 60 that I mentioned, yes, you could use a standard kettle that you can just heat up and then dump the water in, but you won't be able to control the flow. You might not be able to get it as precise in terms of the amount of water that you're putting in. And this is where a pour over kettle can really be helpful. And they'll typically have a very thin gooseneck, and that allows for very fine control of exactly how much water you're going to be pouring in. the other beauty is it's an electric kettle, so it can heat up incredibly quickly. I mean, you can go from relatively cold water to fully boiling within a minute or two. So it's super, super easy. But it also allows you to set precise temperature. So you may not want to have all the way to boiling. Maybe you want it at 94 degrees Celsius or 96 degrees Celsius or 89 degrees Celsius. And these all can be set to that. So you can actually have it heat up to the point that you need. Now, there's two brands that I think are pretty good for this. One is Stagg, which is probably the one most people think of, is the image in their mind for these pour over electric kettles. They're very good, but they are a little bit more pricey. And then the second one is actually by the same brands that makes the scale that I have, and that's Timemore. And this one's a little bit more cost effective. Usually under about $100, but a really nice kettle that you can actually use for, especially for pour overs to make it really easy. And just the speed of an electric kettle versus something you have to throw onto a stove. I just find it very, very convenient to have its own dedicated kettle for that. Now, I mentioned a little bit earlier that when I go camping I'll typically bring that Aeropress Go. And there's another one that also bring with me camping and that is the Wacaco Picopresso. So now it's a little bit of a mouthful when you try to say that quickly, but this is actually really cool because this allows you to have proper espresso on the go. And essentially what it is, is it's a small size. It's it's a few inches by a few inches, very compact. You can fit it into a backpack without any any qualms. You can even fit it into a large jacket pocket. That's how compact it is. And it is smaller, of course, than a dedicated espresso machine. But there's a couple of caveats that you need to be aware of. This is a hand pump, so it's not going to have any sort of electric pump to be able to create the pressure that you need. You do it with a hand pump into there. And there's also no heating element in it. So you need to hit the water external of the brewer and then pop it in. But that helps make it very compact. It helps make it very simple. It is more expensive than most of the other items in this list at about $130. So unless you're absolutely need to have espresso on the go, this might not be a good option for you. But I like it to take with me and it's so compact that it's easy enough to bring when I'm going camping a lot of fun and even to just do at home. If you don't want to spend the money that a fully dedicated espresso machine will cost in terms of money, plus also counter space that it's going to use. Now, the third one is just an absolutely classic design, and that is the Bialetti moka pot. Whether you have a gas stove or a induction stove, there are moka pots that can work for you. It's not quite espresso, so it doesn't have as much pressure as you would have of nine bars in espresso. But it is stronger than a typical drip coffee and actually a little bit stronger than you would get out of the aeropress. So it does kind of almost split the difference between a drip coffee and an espresso in terms of its its strength in the in the mouthfeel, you can typically get them for less than $50. So it's not a very expensive option, but just a beautiful thing to add into your collection, not dramatically different than some of the others. So, you know, use your judgment, but I actually really enjoy your mine. I hope this has been helpful. You know, we've talked about a lot of the various options that are out there of things that can really just step up your game for home brewing. A couple of things that'll be really critical for you to have, such as having the scale, such as having the burr grinder. We also talked about a few brewers that might be a good option, such as the Aeropress, the Hario V 60, a cold brew coffee maker like the one from OXO. We talked about some good beans that you might want to add on whether you get them from Coffee Brothers or North Fork Moto, which are two roasters that are near me that I'm really a big fan of, or you find a roaster that's nearby to you. I think getting some good beans is really critical. And then some of the accessories we talked about the ceramic mug, we talked about some travel mugs, talked about coffee canisters that you can actually use to store your coffee and of course, some bonus items. You know, the pour over kettle, the Picopresso, which is the portable espresso maker and the Bialetti moka pot, of course. So I hope that this has been helpful to give you some tips on how you can brew artisanal coffee at home. And if you'd like to actually learn a little bit more about some of these items and even some recipes that we have, we actually have an article on the website that talks about how to amp up your artisanal brewing at home. And I'll add that into the show notes for the link, but I'd really love to hear from you. What do you think of this list? Is there something that you think I might have missed? What is your favorite coffee product? What is the thing that you find your is your go to all the time. Just text the show from the link in the show notes and I'll share your thoughts in a future episode. Thank you so much for joining And if you love listening to this podcast, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Podchaser, or or your favorite podcast listening app.