Some guys invest a lot of time in learning the arts of mixing drinks as a way to impress the ladies. But honestly, women impressed by prowess in handling alcohol are probably too easily impressed to begin with. If you really want to lay the love mojo upon your special overnight guests, its all about serving up a hot cup of awesome the morning after.
The Chemex is a brutally simple piece of laboratory quality glass in the shape of an hourglass. A folded square of paper filter sits on the top, you lay in some coffee and pour just-off-the-boil water from your kettle over the grounds, stirring the fresh coffee “bloom”. The result: a great clean brew with no mess and minimal fuss, yet you come off looking like a coffee god. A Chemex, a burr grinder, and a steady supply of good, fresh roasted coffee will take you light years further than any froufrou drip machine or dribbling coffee pods. Like any other piece of new coffee gear, spending the time figuring out your dose and grind when you unwrap the box pays off down the road.
Prices start at $30 with a variety of sizes and styles. Filters run about $7 for a pack of 100 (I’d recommend the bleached paper as imparting less of a papery taste to the cup). You can buy direct from Chemex or use the convenience of Amazon.
Been using a Chemex for years! Simple to use and produces a great cup of coffee. I got a hand blown version on Ebay for a bit more. I also have one of the tiny CM-1 for my daily use.
What separates this from the Melitta manual drip coffeemakers?
Eddie - very little. The chemex paper filters are of a different gauge but the concept is fundamentally the same. You can get a cheap plastic melitta one cup filter that will work in a similar way for just a couple of bucks.
Unlike the conventional drip machines you control the water temperature and you witness the brewing in such a way that you can troubleshoot it with successive iterations.
Tonx - yes, I know, I have one myself. Picked it up at the grocery store for about $4.
Chemex is science geek and romanticky all at the same time, but for manual drip, I prefer the Hario Drip Pot, a bit hard to come by these days, but can be found here
http://www.avenue18.ca/TEAPOT/Hario/coffee_series/paypal_pages/5111_DPW_3.htm
Cloth filter system, nice Chemex look - lets a lot more of the flavour oils come through.
Also, Bodum’s new Kona manual drip, the one with the spout and the real gold plated filter (as opposed to “gold tone” that seems to permeate a lot of permanent filters out there) looks solid.
While I don’t have one of these, I will second the notion that making a great cup of coffee the morning after does impress. I spend money on good beans and grind them fresh every morning in my Burr grinder, but just use a not-to-fancy drip coffee maker. But it seems that grinding those beans fresh gets a woman’s attention.
This makes me sad and angry because this thing is probably illegal in Texas, possession of laboratory-style glassware automatically raises suspicions of a meth lab.
My sister has a Chemex. She made a fresh pot one night as I was getting ready for the two hour drive home from her place. I drank the coffee in a giant blue plastic cup with whole milk and maple syrup. It was awesome. It was a life-changing experience.
Much better tasting than Chemex coffee or any other coffee maker - Farberware FCP240 Electric Percolator - best coffe I’ve had at home - beats chemex, braun, many other coffee makers over 25 years of coffee drinking. Makes a pot in 5 minutes; low maintenance and keeps coffee perfectly heated.
[mistakenly posted to grinder thread first - whoops, duh.]
And now I have bought a couple - I blame you Tonx!
Any thoughts on this vs. a french press? Noob wants some opinions…
D-
I have both and alternate between them. French press is unique in it’s own right, I would say they’re hard to compare. Chemex has a cleaner taste to it, obviously, and is basically easier to maintain. I like having both! Chemex seems to cool down very quickly though, whereas french press can stay warm for a while, it seems.
Electric percolator? UNBELIEVABLE!
That “whoops, duh” explains everything.
In several taste tests, the Chemex and French Press were judged to make the best tasting coffee of home brewing systems, both producing full round coffee flavor. The Chemex was reported to be for people who didn’t like the sediment mud of the French Press, though the French Press had the fullest flavor of all the brews. The Chemex had a “brighter”, less heavy flavor. The Kona system with its metal filter was said to impart a slight metallic taste to the coffee.
Chamex is really good. Have been using it for a number of years and it always produces really fresh coffee
Here is another interesting piece of news. I just heard that Gevalia coffee company has a promotion now and is giving away 3 boxes of their coffee along with a coffee mug for just $3. Sounds like an interesting offer. Read about it at the site below.
http://finecoffees.wordpress.com/