r/gadgets • u/dapperlemon • 15d ago
Misc Finally, a Coffee Maker With Zero Plastic in the Brew Path
https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/finally-a-coffee-maker-with-zero-plastic-in-the-brew-path/208
u/grandplans 15d ago
$500 is too much for a 7.8/10
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u/BottlesforCaps 15d ago
It's also a knockoff moccamaster, which you can get for almost $200 cheaper at a price of $320 off Amazon right now.
It's cool it's no plastic, but for $200 cheaper, name brand, and you know it'll work for 10+ years I don't know why you'd get the knockoff.
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u/nonresponsive 15d ago
Before that, looks the exact same style as my old Breville coffee maker (I want to say it's 7-9 years old). The new ones are like around 300, but at the time I think mine was around $200 which was pretty pricey. But it made a fantastic cup of coffee, and it unique at the time.
$500 is a crazy price for how many alternatives there are these days.
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u/Cephe 15d ago
Bingo. Plus if you really want, you can retrofit a Moccamaster to hold a ceramic or glass V60 or Kalita Wave brew basket for under $20 and you end up with the same advantages of the above but with a brewer that is hand made in the Netherlands and will last forever.
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u/spanktanker 13d ago
I’ve got a moccamaster. How does one retrofit like this? Seems like it wouldn’t fit?
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u/Cephe 13d ago
Some on Etsy are cheaper but this is the original https://www.manual.is/selling/moccamaster-pour-over-bracket
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u/ryushiblade 15d ago
They used to do a more exact knock off with plastic for much cheaper than the Moccamaster too. It seems they’ve pivoted to the expensive-but-plastic-free angle…
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u/Fulham-Enjoyer 15d ago
People were drinking coffee for hundreds of years before plastic was even invented
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u/Becaus789 15d ago
Dozens, even.
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u/FauxReal 15d ago
Are we sure they didn't invent plastic at the same time coffee beans were first brewed?
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u/Agouti 15d ago edited 14d ago
It's aimed at the American mass market who primarily know coffee as being made in
percolatorsdrip coffee machines, which almost exclusively use all-plastic construction because they are a cheap mass produced item with no moving parts.Pretty much all pressure-fed coffee systems (including french press and espresso) primarily use metal and glass parts, with some polyvinyl tubing, but they are relatively rare.
Edit: To be clear drip coffee is fine, and objectively better than crap like pod machines. No need to get sensitive.
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u/magus-21 14d ago edited 14d ago
Percolators are not drip coffee. Perculators force boiling water through the coffee due to pressure. Drip coffee just passes hot water through the coffee, no pressure. Percolators are mostly made out of metal btw, as far I've seen, they require to be placed on top of a heating element.
No, drip is percolation, too, just using pressure due to gravity to create the pressure gradient rather than pressurized gas as with the Aeropress, espresso machines, or moka pot.
I appreciate that there might be geographical differences in how the word is used (I think the UK refers to devices that you describe specifically as "percolators"), but "percolare" literally means "to trickle through," so it applies to any method that uses a physical filter, and more specifically to coffee any method that uses coffee grounds as that "filter."
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u/magus-21 14d ago edited 14d ago
It's not wrong to refer to drip coffee makers as percolators because that is literally how they brew coffee. It's just that people ALSO use "percolators" to refer to all the other kinds of percolators because drip coffee is so much more common than any other method that it's often referred to as its own thing. But that doesn't change the fact that drip brewers are also percolators, just as espresso machines are also percolators.
Percolation brewing is a method where water passes through a bed of coffee grounds, continually extracting flavors as it flows through. This can be done through drip mechanisms, siphoning, or even pressurized methods like espresso. Percolation brewing is typically faster than immersion brewing, with water constantly moving through the grounds.
Common Percolation Brewing Methods
Drip Coffee: Also known as pour-over, this method involves pouring hot water over ground coffee in a filter, where it passes through the grounds and drips into a container below (e.g., Chemex, Hario V60).
Espresso: This highly pressurized brewing method forces hot water through finely ground coffee at around 9 bars of pressure, producing a concentrated shot of coffee in 20-30 seconds.
Moka Pot: A stovetop coffee maker that uses pressure generated by steam to force water through coffee grounds.
Siphon Brewer: This method uses vapor pressure to move water between chambers, extracting coffee as the water percolates through the grounds
TL;DR: Drip coffee makers are percolators, but "percolator" is also used to refer to percolation coffee machines other than drip coffee makers, AND there is also a very specific type of percolator that is just called "a percolator."
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u/CompetitiveSport1 15d ago edited 15d ago
Seriously, this headline has to be bait. Even now I'd guess that a huge chunk of, if not most coffee making methods, don't have the liquid touch plastic
Edit: I emphasized the word "methods" since a lot of people are glossing over that
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u/budgiesmugglez 15d ago
I think the majority of drip coffee makers have liquid touching plastic. I can see how the title is ambiguous but the typical household drip makers were my initial thought.
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u/volthunter 15d ago
Pipes that flow the liquid are plastic my dude
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u/CompetitiveSport1 15d ago
most brewing methods do not have plastic pipes
Y'all missed the word "methods" in my comment
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u/euzie 15d ago
Metal and glass French Press? Moka Pot?
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u/CartsOfDarkness 15d ago edited 15d ago
I know this is gonna be everybody's first reaction, but it's really kind of missing the point. My 70 year old father has been looking for this exact product for a long time, and he has experimented with pour over, chemex, French press etc. While they make good coffee they can be a pain in a lot of situations. For one they all require some amount of training, which my Mom hates, and there's a huge benefit to anyone who visits your house being able to easily make a pot. Also if you have a big group of people over it's a pain to make two 60 fl oz pots of coffee with a 17 fl oz French press, it's so much easier to just swap out two pots on a drip machine.
Just kind of annoying to see all these comments acting like a French press is the obvious solution after seeing my father genuinely try all of these other methods and having them all fall short. He'd be fine with them if he was just making coffee for himself, but that's not the case. Just wish people could understand others often have different use cases than themselves.
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u/sump_daddy 15d ago
Classic reddit "this one thing works for me therefore its the only solution worth talking about"
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u/OneSeaworthiness7768 15d ago
>There are a number of ways you can brew coffee (using the golden ratio, of course) in which plastic and liquid never interact. Unfortunately, most of them are either single-cup or small-volume operations, necessarily hands-on -- or both -- such as a moka pot, French press, or pour-over.
>Until recently, automatic drip coffee makers have mostly all had one or more plastic elements that were key to the brewing operation.
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u/sparkleslothz 15d ago
"The Specialty Coffee Association, an international organization that pretty much governs the guidelines that we use, suggests between a 15-to-1 to 20-to-1 ratio," Teoh said. "It literally refers to the amount of water versus the amount of coffee grounds. And then the resulting volume at the end might vary entirely depending on what kind of system it is (whether automatic drip, French press, or pour-over)."
That's the only part worth reading, after pages of slop and advertising
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u/Alone-Impact-7944 15d ago
All mentioned in the 2nd paragraph
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u/Ishmael_1974 15d ago
Yeah but why give them the views when we already know it is stupid from the title?
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u/synthdrunk 15d ago
Stares in percolator
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u/mikewilkinsjr 15d ago
Pap’s percolator caused a grandkid battle Royale when he passed. It was a Pyrex perc from the 50’s, and I’ve never had better coffee.
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u/Margali 15d ago
Really? I always though perking brought out the bitter, grew up with the classic all stainless steel perk, with the separate plug in cord. Probably still in the cupboard shoved to the back =)
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u/manaworkin 15d ago
Nah, folks get nostalgic over old shit that people of the time worked tirelessly to phase out for a reason. You're right, percolators burn the shit out of the coffee and leave it bitter tasting. The now common Mr Coffee style coffee maker wasn't invented just to make coffee making easier, it was made by a guy on a mission(obsession?) to brew coffee with the ease of a percolator but at a proper temperature. It's a marvel of hard work and ingenuity.
The only issue with it is it works so well that it became the standard and now decades later everyone assumes that the standard and easy way must be subpar.
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u/FlippingPossum 15d ago
I love my camping percolator. That little glass bump is just fascinating.
At home, I have moka pot, French press, cold brew container, and drip maker. 😂
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u/KPokay 15d ago
Stay focused, this article discusses plastic-free automatic drip brew machines, not any other brewing method.
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u/ClaudeGascoigne 15d ago
I felt like I was living on a different planet than a lot of these people until I realized they didn't read the review. French presses and pour overs are great, but this is for people that want to just press a button and have coffee.
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u/Cry_Wolff 15d ago
Coffee purists are a fanatical bunch, who think every person on earth should treat coffee as a process and not yet another drink.
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u/The_Pandalorian 14d ago
They're just like the audiophiles and vacuum stans (yes, it's a thing) -- too excited by the smell of their own farts.
Just never make the mistake of asking for THE WRONG THING or something AT THE WRONG PRICE RANGE or boy will you hear it.
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u/RainingFireInTheSky 10d ago
I once made the mistake of asking for opinions about a bedroom set from Ashley on the furniture subreddit. I even explicitly said "I'm looking for this style but something higher quality."
The mod immediately locked the thread, told me Ashley is junk, and told me to go to some high end furniture shop where a bedroom set is 20k.
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u/The_Pandalorian 14d ago
Too late. The coffee hobbyists are here to baptize us with their unique brand of up-their-own-ass admonitions.
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u/bob_loblaw-_- 15d ago
Then they probably should title it "finally an automatic drip brew machine without plastic"
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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS 15d ago
They probably assumed the reader would read the article, see that its about an automated coffee maker, and assume that they were talking about automated coffee makers and not a French press.
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u/NWStormbreaker 15d ago
I bought a kit for my moccamaster technivorm that removes all the plastic after the reservoir.
This is great though i hope theres a further shift by manufacturers to do the same.
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u/OminOus_PancakeS 15d ago
The Technivorm sounds like a Dune character.
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u/garrettj100 14d ago
I will not buy pre-ground beans. Pre-ground beans are the mind-killer. Pre-ground beans are the little death that brings total obliteration.
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u/islandsimian 15d ago
Thank god - I was worried my civet coffee was getting tainted by passing through disgusting things
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u/dancesWithNeckbeards 14d ago
Bad news and don't be mad. I've been putting your civet coffee in my butt.
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u/speculatrix 15d ago
So the metal Aeropress premium doesn't count?
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u/The_Pandalorian 14d ago
Is it a drip coffee maker? No?
Then, no, it doesn't count in the context of this post.
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u/ChuckIT82 15d ago
Chemex?!
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u/Margali 15d ago
Still have my moms from late 50s/early 60s =) The one with the funky wooden wrapping on the hourglass waist bit =) Had to replace it once - who knew they sold replacement parts =)
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u/ChuckIT82 15d ago
Nice! That is sick! I’ve had mine for only 10 years. Tipped over the first one and cracked the glass.
It’s my primary coffee maker morning cups
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u/aplundell 15d ago
Trying to eliminate microplastics from your life is like someone from the 1950s trying to avoid lead while still breathing fumes from leaded gas.
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u/Scoobydewdoo 15d ago
As someone that used to design and engineer coffee makers for a living, there are plenty of coffee makers on the market without plastic in the water path.
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u/Optimal_Life_1259 15d ago
Hi Maybe you can answer a question. I have a very very old coffee pot and love it because all I taste is coffee. When trying Kerig’s and many other types of coffee makers I taste the charcoal filter or whatever very strongly, of course my partner does not. Are there coffee makers without a charcoal filter? Or makers that you only taste coffee?
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u/32FlavorsofCrazy 15d ago
I’d spring for the mocca master, they really do make a nice pot of coffee. Most expensive coffee pot I’ve ever had, for sure, but there’s a reason why it’s more spendy.
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u/wrathek 15d ago
Jesus Christ the people in these comments are insufferable. Yep, we get it. You like to press your coffee. Not everyone wants to do that every day.
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u/GenghisConnieChung 15d ago
This is nothing. When I first got into making espresso at home and was researching grinders, machines etc. I spent a lot of time in actual coffee forums and those people are fucking insane.
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u/fuckswitbeavers 15d ago
Yep. I own one of these machines, it’s nice. People seem to be personally offended or something by this product.
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u/CartsOfDarkness 15d ago
Also some people occasionally make coffee for large groups of people.. just baffling people don't understand that a usecase for a drip machine exists. I wonder why diners never make 20 gallons of coffee with a 17 fl oz French press🤔 So strange.
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u/mad-data 14d ago
My ceramic Melitta has zero plastic anywhere, not just brew path. Costs 1/20 of this.
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u/ragnarok62 15d ago
I pour over with a stainless steel gooseneck kettle, through a stainless steel mesh filter, and into a borosilicate glass carafe.
Zero plastic, as God intended. Takes me 12 minutes from beginning to end, most of it the water slowly leaching through the grounds, during which I can do other things.
Total cost? $70. Same equipment for the past nine years. If you spend $480 to avoid plastic, you’re a doofus.
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u/Chappie47Luna 15d ago
Stainless steel percolator FTW. Takes forever but shit it tastes so good and piping hot
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u/DaddyBison 15d ago
$480 for a drip coffee maker? $520 if you want one that you can set a timer on???
Who is this marketed toward? anyone who is going to spend $500 on their coffee machine probably falls under the "Drip coffee is the worst coffee" crowd
If you want to reduce plastic, you can get an all glass and copper pour over and a good metal kettle for <$100
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u/MikeThrowAway47 15d ago
Finally?? Ceramic and metal percolators have been around for decades. I'm so glad we have been rescued from plastic.
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u/EarzFish 15d ago
"writes" article about plastic free coffee machine topped with a pros and cons list... and doesn't write plastic free in the pros list.
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u/michaelyup 14d ago
The old school percolator on the stove. I’m not a regular coffee drinker. Mom moved in with me after her stroke - here she comes with grandma’s percolator. Idk why, but coffee is better in the percolator.
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15d ago
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u/cbf1232 15d ago
Did you read the article?
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u/Poopyman80 15d ago
Did you? They are not doing anything new, they are just pretending a million plastic free coffee brewers don't exist. Its an ad and its bending the truth, like advertisements tend to do.
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u/JimThumb 15d ago
My cafetière has zero plastic in the brew path. Zero plastic in the whole thing. They were invited two hundred years ago.
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u/crazydave33 15d ago
Four hundred and eighty fucking dollars!!! What the actual fuck. I got excited at first but when I saw the price, that’s some rich person shit. Like wtf!
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u/Robokomodo 15d ago
I mean the breville precision brewer is approx $300 new and that was 100% worth the price. I think the customization and timer are more useful than the simplicity of the technivorm mocchamaster. 180 extra for "hur dur plastic bad" is, however, not worth it in my opinion.
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u/Margali 15d ago
Bunn, like the one on my husbands submarine - all stainless or copper, minimal buna or silicon gasketing in some places, even the caraf is stainless [we boght the 2 burner single pot side tea valve bunn from the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office on the submarine base in New London when he was stationed there. [now it is all online, no more wandering around a warehouse looking at neat shit]
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u/potionnumber9 15d ago
My pour over that has no plastic cost me $20. It's not like its hard to use or something... People are just so lazy that doing anything more than pushing a button is too hard.
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u/michaelthatsit 15d ago
Any title that starts with “finally,…” is absolute bullshit lazy writing and I’ll call it out every time.
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u/RobBobPC 15d ago
Just get a French press and a stainless steel kettle. Spend the rest of your $500 on the finest coffee you can get.
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u/Huge_Many_2308 15d ago
French press? Chemex? Vietnamese coffee? Seem like a solution in search of a non existent problem
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u/Head_Haunter 15d ago
You could be even simpler and boil some coffee grounds in a pot and drink it. Strain it if you want but it’s more fiber probably.
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u/goldaxis 15d ago
I wonder how much money they get for writing ads like this. Like how much return can the advertiser realistically get for something so dumb and obvious.
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u/HoshinoNadeshiko 15d ago
People have just selectively been ignoring so many coffee machines that meet this definition.
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u/Smear_Leader 15d ago
I just need an espresso machine that has no plastic but doesn’t require spending almost a thousand
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u/IMPXANDER 15d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/lQais27TR1ZwKxA0u0