Review: Flow Control Filter for Aeropress

 The aeropress is still my favorite coffee maker. Rather than use the "inverted" method, I always use the filter upright, but immediately pop the syringe onto the top after filling the barrel with coffee. By doing so, you still get some leaks coming off the bottom of the aeropress, but it's limited to just a minute or so. Then after an appropriate brewing time I push the syring all the way to the bottom.

The problem with this is if you are pressing into a small capacity cup, you may over-estimate the amount of water needed and then you end up overflowing the cup. Aeropress recently introduced the Flow Control Filter, which solves that problem. There is absolutely no drip whatseover when you pour water into the barrel. However, when you press down on the syringe it immediately opens up the valve and you get standard flow.

I didn't expect this to change the flavor of my brew but it does. It's a much stronger brew now, and I have to adjust how much time I leave the coffee brewing as a result. This results in much shorter brew time. The filter is expensive but it's multi-use and  looks so sturdy it ought to outlast the standard brewer basket.

Recommended.

Review: Veken Temperature Control Kettle

 The Veken Kettle was $17 on Prime Day, and I've been looking for a temperature control kettle for a while but never could justify the $60+ the gooseneck kettles (which are ideal for pour over coffee) cost. Being able to get the kettle to turn off precisely at 195F is pretty useful for making coffee in the morning. Not only does it just get to temperature fast, your coffee tastes much better without over-extraction.

The downside of the kettle is that the sides aren't transparent so you can't easily see how much water is in the kettle as you're filling it. On the other hand, after a few tries you'll get a feel for how much water you did put in. The kettle is no longer available on Amazon, but I'm sure you can find reasonable clones. For the price savings over the $65 kettles it's well worth the purchase.

Timemore C3 Coffee Grinder

 I bought the C3 Coffee Grinder as a travel grinder, and it turned out that I never brought it on any trips for the 3 months I've had it. I did end up using it at home for single cup aeropress use. Compared to any previous handgrinders I've had it's pretty smooth. The defect is that grounds tend to stick to the upper part of the grinder, but the kit comes with a brush to brush those grounds into your aeropress. Various folks tout this grinder for camping, but unless you're car camping I think the additional weight of the grinder would be prohibitive.

What I do like about it is that it grinds very nicely and is quite quiet. That means I used it far more than I expected, even when I'm not traveling. Recommended.

Review: Takeya Cold Brew Ice Coffee Maker

I tried StarBucks cold brew once and wasn't impressed. It felt like an excuse to serve you watered down coffee by dumping lots of ice in coffee. But with the summer heat, I decided that it was a good idea to try making it myself just in case it actually was good.

The Takeya pitcher looked good, and reviewed as easy to clean, and didn't break the bank. The filter is huge, and takes up a huge amount of coffee. You then fill the carafe with water and then shove it in your refrigerator for 24 hours, remove the filter, dump the grounds, and then you have concentrated coffee to dilute with ice and/or milk for the next few days.

The instructions said to swirl the pitcher occasionally while it is steeping. The nice thing about this design is that because it fits in the door of the refrigerator, you don't even have to do that. Over a 24 hour period, people will open and close the refrigerator door often enough to do the swirling for you.

The filter is a pain to clean, mostly because the bottom of it is solid plastic, rather than filter, so you cannot backflush it to clear the filter. The taste is great: even Xiaoqin, who usually dislikes coffee, enjoyed drinking it. The hard part is metering yourself so that you're not consuming too much coffee, because it's so drinkable.

And then I tried cold brew with Vanilla ice cream. It has to be tasted to be believed. The cold brew gives the Vanilla a caramel flavor that's quite unbelievable. I introduced the decaf'd version to my kids and they wanted nothing else for an entire week.

Recommended. And be prepared for your coffee consumption to go up dramatically after a purchase.

4 Starbucks Coffee Beans Reviews

I tend to buy coffee beans when they're discounted at Costco, Target, or Amazon rather than be picky about coffee. As a result, I end up getting to sample various beans. There was a recent rash of deals, so I tried out 4 types. I'll provide capsule reviews below:

• Breakfast Blend: Surprisingly good. Not bitter, relatively easy to drink. A bit oily.
• Veranda Blend: After various over-roasted American-style coffee beans, this one's great. Not bitter, not oily, with a faint chocolate aroma. Recommended. It's a pity it's so hard to find lightly roasted coffees on sale.
• Starbucks House Blend: Over-roasted and oily. Fairly neutral taste. Unremarkable.
• Yukon Organic Blend: Bitter. Oily. Not Recommended.

So far, I've yet to find anything really better than Magnum Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee. It's fairly cheap from Costco (cheaper than any of the above when they're not on sale), and not oily.

Review: Airscape Coffee container

I'm too lazy to grind coffee, so tend to buy Costco's Peet's pre-ground coffee at 36 ounces for $13. But I don't drink more than one cup a day, so I need a way to keep it fresh. I bought an Airscape 64oz container hoping to be able to just drop the entire bag in there and keep it fresh.

To my horror, Costco's coffee is sold by weight, while Airscape's containers are measured by volume. So I actually needed more than 2 Airscape containers if I wanted to store that much, though if I opened the bag and made a few cups of coffee I could get away with just 2.

The coffee container comes in various different colors, and 2 lids. An inner lid pushes down and has a one-way valve eliminating all the air from inside the container, and the outer lid keeps everything inside while still letting you see how much coffee you have left. As a design it looks great. In practice, when you push down on the inner lid, the valve let's some of the coffee grind out along with the air, so if you push down too quickly you can get a fine mist of coffee around the can.

As far as freshness goes, it's great. I'd keep looking for a better solution, however, since I think the inability to let air out without also letting coffee out is a problem. In practice, I think people actually just use these to store beans, which would have that problem. But I'm still too lazy to grind my own coffee. Do people actually think it's worth it to do so?