Grocery Outlet, a US nationwide discount grocery chain that specializes in discounted products from overproduction runs.
A surprisingly diverse selection of coffee is usually available, and lets me sample different varieties, some even in whole bean.
Some that I’ve tried near its “best by” date has been decent.
Their house brand has been pretty good.
Lots of websites seem to have M2’s cone burrs, and matching ring burrs in stock.
And also the paddle wheel.
You don’t have to buy it directly from Baratza.
Here’s an Italian company that sells food grade filter paper: https://www.polsinelli.it/en/filter-paper-disc-ø-200-100-pieces-P3276.htm
Before you say “it’s not the same”, you have to understand that you’re moving to an entirely different non-Chemex product anyway, so you’re going to have to experiment with what products work for you as well.
You could try googling for “chemex compatible filters” then carefully looking for where the products come from.
Here’s one that says “from Canada” on the box, and “Canadian pulp” in the description.
~~https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D8BFP4C3~~
But where was it actually made?
Doesn’t say
Never mind. It’s made by the parent company of NutriBullet, Alchemy Worldwide, which is American.
Refillable K pods worked great for me, until I tried French press which tasted so much better.
Now my jaded taste buds say even fp tastes weak compared to aeropress, cucumella and moka pot.
From what I have heard, the Italians use milk/cream to cut the bitterness of their espresso and moka pots.
I kind of hate the bitterness that I get out of my moka pot, so I can believe that.
Otherwise, I find that a well brewed coffee (French press, aeropress, cucumella, moka pot) is so rich in oils, that they really don’t need anymore fat.
Something like instant tho… Needs creamer desperately.
But sweetener… I hate coffee without sweetener.
I managed to get a used Baratza Encore off Craigslist relatively cheap for $100, and there were other good choices that I could have gone with.
As for K cups, it’s the gateway drug, but I sort of quickly moved on. A lot of people started there, so much respect to their marketing department, if not so much their product development and quality assurance.
And the environmental cost of all that plastic…
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Blooming coffee grounds does have some effect on the final brew. https://www.seriouseats.com/the-hows-and-whys-of-blooming-coffee
But in a French press, I just fill it up to my mark, wait a few seconds, and swirl the grounds around to get rid of the CO2 bubbles.
It’s not good coffee unless there’s a bowel movement soon afterwards.
You forgot the hand-forged carbon steel burr manual grinder, set on 3.275 clicks.
Calibrated weekly to produce grounds within 10% of the required micron distribution.
The water compressed by half in step 4.
She must be using a high quality french press!
They both give very different brews, don’t take up much space (looks at siphon brewer), and are relatively affordable, and easy to find used or new.
Having both a moka and a cucumella, I like the brew from my cucumella more.
It’s strong, but not quite moka pot strong.
The brew tastes sweet, but not moka pot burnt, and it has a little viscosity to it, but doesn’t cling to the walls of my mug like a moka pot brew.
I also like having a little volume to my morning coffee. The volume from my little 1-2 cup moka pot just feels disappointing and over too quickly.
I also like the process of brewing from my cucumella better. The moka pot just seems fussy, because it actually requires boiling the water in the moka pot itself, and if you use the James Hoffman/Wired Gourmet on-and-off burner technique to reduce the burned flavor, it’s just too much work.
Whereas I can just add pre-boiled water to my cucumella, flip it over, and it’s done dripping in about 1-2 minutes.
In the longer term, there are no gaskets to replace on cucumellas, so less operating costs and worries later too.
Cleaning my moka pot feels like a chore: Mainly trying to get that filter funnel out of the bottom is awfully fiddly. I’m working on pushing in the sides of the funnel so my fingers have someplace to lever it out.
Also a video of someone using this thing: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=676437633208177
I do have to say that the filter cap doesn’t look that secure, and would be easy to get out of shape.
The article mentions that Fellow has a coffee subscription that comes with pre-configured brewing profiles that are probably delivered via their proprietary app for the Aiden.
“AI” is just buzzwordy in the Aiden’s case. It’s not going to sniff your beans for you.
“App programmable” would be more accurate.
I couldn’t hear it in the video, but imagine if you’re working with this every day, and hearing the scraping sound and feeling it through your fingers.
I think a big part of the Aeropress’s appeal is how satisfying it is in both tactile and audio senses.
When you twist tight the cap on a AP classic, it feels satisfyingly tight, and you instinctively know that it’s sealed.
Which reminds me that James briefly commented on how hot the metal cap was after brewing.
Another un-satisfying thing about the AP Premium.
I guess it processes scraped data from whatever beans you ask it to brew.
I don’t own a Fellow Aiden, but I asked ChatGPT the following:
what’s the best way to brew 100% togolese washed
Which is a bag of grounds that I picked up at Grocery Outlet last week
and it came back with:
Here's a precision-engineered pour-over recipe tailored for 100% Togolese washed coffee, designed for the Fellow Aiden brewer. This profile emphasizes the coffee's bright acidity, floral and citrus notes, and medium body.
Title: Togolese Clarity
Core Brew Settings:
Ratio: 16.5
Bloom Ratio: 2.5
Bloom Time: 45 seconds
Bloom Temperature: 94°C
THE KOPI LUWAK (LUWAK COFFEE)
Single Serve Pulse Settings:
Number of Pulses: 3
Time Between Pulses: 20 seconds
Pulse Temperatures: 95°C, 93°C, 91°C
Grind Settings:
Ode Gen2: 4.2
Opus: 5.2
Ode+SSP: 3.2
Microns: ~750μm
acoffeeseoul.com+4Coffee Is My Fuel For The Day!+4THE KOPI LUWAK (LUWAK COFFEE)+4
Batch Brew Pulse Settings:
Number of Pulses: 4
Time Between Pulses: 30 seconds
Pulse Temperatures: 94°C, 92°C, 90°C, 90°C
Grind Settings:
Ode Gen2: 6.2
Opus: 7.2
Ode+SSP: 6.0
Microns: ~950μm
acoffeeseoul.com+11Wikipedia+11Coffee Is My Fuel For The Day!+11
Explanation:
Ratio & Bloom: A 16.5:1 ratio balances strength and clarity, while a 2.5 bloom ratio with a 45-second bloom time at 94°C helps highlight the coffee's bright acidity and floral notes.
Pulse Strategy: The step-down pulse temperatures (95°C to 91°C) in single serve and (94°C to 90°C) in batch brew prevent over-extraction, preserving the coffee's delicate flavors.
Grind Settings: Medium-fine grind sizes (~750μm for single serve and ~950μm for batch) are optimal for washed coffees, ensuring even extraction and clarity.
Would you like to generate a brew.link for this recipe?
Of course, I said yes, and it asked to be connected to a pre-created ChatGPT prompt, “brew-link-generator” which must be the coding part to generate instructions for the brewer’s API.
However that works, because as I said before I don’t have a Fellow Aiden.
James didn’t like the metal-on-glass grating sound when tightening the cap either.
GroceOut is not that fancy.
It’s mostly blends, with some store brands and national brand runs (Starbucks, Dunkin’, etc,) that are almost expired.
I saw some Korean pre-brewed in laminated bags that were probably intended for restaurant use.
Every now and they they get some single origin. I’ve seen random Ugandan, Mexican, but nothing that would be considered terribly expensive like Kona, Blue Mountain, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, or stuff like that.
It’s stuff that the wholesalers are trying to get rid of cheaply before it expires.
That stuff isn’t bad at all, most of the time.
Just don’t buy the obvious cheap instant, and it’s fine.