I fell in love with Chemex coffee on the Coffee Crawl. So I bought one (from Bunker Coffee… I love Bunker Coffee). Bunker doesn’t sell them online – but Wolff Coffee Roasters does (I’m the proud owner of a 6 Cup). Readers outside of Brisbane should check their nearest specialty coffee place.
Getting hold of the Chemex was only half the battle. Proper pourover coffee needs a special kind of kettle – a kettle that produces a slow, but sustained, flow of water for a long enough period.
Here’s Intelligentsia’s brewing guide.
Intelligentsia Chemex Brewing Guide from Intelligentsia Coffee on Vimeo.
So. I went kettle hunting. The cafe kettle of choice is the Hario Buono Kettle. Which looks like a beehive. It retails for $75 (not including postage) (from CuppaCoffee, or BeanDrinking).
It’s a nice looking kettle – and you’ll notice it looks exactly the same as the kettle in the Intelligentsia video. Because it is.
But I didn’t want to pay $75 plus postage for a pouring kettle.
I had read rumours of a cheap kettle you could find in Asia somewhere. And that oil pourers were also an option.
Peters of Kensington have some interesting looking oil pourers. This one is 250mL, and $16. I wanted slightly more capacity. And the ability to put the kettle on a stove if we’re camping or something.
So I took the search to Hong Kong. Online at least. And I found these bad boys on Homeloo.com.
This 700mL bad boy is $23 (US). It’s the one I picked.
This slightly smaller kettle is just $18 (US).
Postage on the bigger one was just $13.20. Bargain. And it pours like a charm.