Filter coffee!!! 💖 ☕ 🫘
The best coffee’s require no pressure.
That’s true. Sure, most of us love a warm, steamy, dark espresso or two in the morning to (help) get us started. But for flavor, espresso is not the best. Filter coffee allows flavors and odors to be enjoyed much better than espresso ever can. You can grap a cheap coffee maker almost anywhere, but if you’re spending $25 per bag of fresh beans, you are not doing yourself a favor!
Let’s discuss the gear that bridges the gap between “morning caffeine delivery system” and “specialty coffee experience.” We’re looking at SCA-certified brewers. Machines that actually hit and maintain the temperatures needed to extract those floral, nutty or fruity notes, and the grinders that make it all possible.
No elitism, no gatekeeping. Just better coffee.
The Brewers
The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) doesn’t hand out certifications for fun. To get that seal, a machine has to maintain a brew temperature of 92–96°C and complete the brew cycle in a specific timeframe. Most cheap supermarket machines fail this, resulting in coffee that is either sour (under-extracted) or bitter (burnt). Most importantly, your artisan specialty coffee beans are more or less wasted…
1. The Industry Icon: Moccamaster KBG Select
Handmade in the Netherlands and built like a tank, the Moccamaster is the “buy it for life” option. It’s simple, it’s colorful, and it’s remarkably consistent. The “Select” switch in the filter holder allows you to toggle the flow rate for a half-carafe or a full pot, ensuring you don’t lose quality when you’re only brewing for one.
Deep Dive: James Hoffmann’s Moccamaster KBGV Select Review
2. The Tech Darling: Fellow Aiden
The Fellow Aiden is for the person who wants pour-over quality with the push of a button. It features a dual shower head and interchangeable filter baskets (cone and flat-bottom), allowing it to adapt to whatever style of coffee you’re feeling that morning. It even has an app, because of course it does.
Deep Dive: James Hoffmann’s Fellow Aiden Review
3. The Aesthetic Champion: Ratio Four
If you want your coffee maker to look like a piece of art, the Ratio Four is it. It uses high-end materials like hand-blown glass and wood accents, mimicking the manual pour-over process (including a bloom phase) with zero effort on your part. It’s a “small batch” specialist, perfect for 1-4 cups. If you need your partner’s (design) approval, this is almost a “sure thing”!
Deep Dive: Chase Reeves’ Ratio Four Review
4. The Automation King: Xbloom Studio
The Xbloom Studio isn’t just a coffee maker; it’s a robot barista. It automates the “pour” pattern, moving the water stream across the grounds just like a professional barista would. It’s for the ultimate coffee geek who wants to experiment with recipes but doesn’t want to stand over a kettle at 7:00 AM. It also comes with a built-in grinder that just may be enough in the beginning!
Deep Dive: Lance Hedrick’s Xbloom Studio Insights
5. The Scandi-Workhorse: Wilfa Performance
Designed in Norway with input from World Barista Champion Tim Wendelboe, the Wilfa Performance features a unique removable water tank. No more pouring water from the carafe (which can contain old coffee oils, don’t do that!) back into the machine. It also has a manual flow control to dial in your extraction.
Deep Dive: James Hoffmann on Wilfa Gear
6. The Compact Choice: OXO 8-Cup
The OXO 8-Cup is my favorite for those with limited counter space. It’s SCA-certified, fast, and features a “podless” single-serve mode that uses a special basket to ensure small brews don’t turn out weak. Great for families of coffee drinkers, small offices or campus dorms. Their thermos keeps your coffee warm until after lunch!
Deep Dive: Roasty Coffee’s OXO 8-Cup Review
7. The Customizer: Sage Precision Brewer
In the US, this is the Breville Precision Brewer. In the EU, it’s called Sage. This machine gives you control over almost everything:
- bloom time,
- water temperature (to the degree), and
- flow rate.
It’s the closest you can get to a “manual” experience in an automatic machine.
Deep Dive: CoffeeBlogKev’s Sage Precision Review
8. The Budget All-Star: Bonavita Enthusiast
The Bonavita Enthusiast is the latest evolution of the legendary Bonavita line. It’s simple, it’s effective, and it’s usually the most affordable way to get into SCA-certified brewing. It has a dedicated “Bloom” button that pre-wets the grounds, essential for letting those CO2 gasses escape. Can’t go wrong here, it will improve your daily brews.
Deep Dive: ECS Coffee’s Bonavita Enthusiast Review
The Grinders
You can have a €1,000 brewer, but if you’re using a €20 blade grinder from the hardware store, your coffee will taste like sadness more often than not. You need a burr grinder for a more consistent particle size. Even the burr’s design matters more than you might think!
1. The Gold Standard: Fellow Ode Gen 2
The Ode Gen 2 is designed specifically for filter coffee (not espresso). Its 64mm flat burrs produce a remarkably clean, sweet cup. It’s quiet and fast, it’s beautiful, and it features an ionizer to reduce that annoying static mess. Though a spray of water across the beans beforehand will almost remove it entirely and keep your grinder more clean!
Deep Dive: James Hoffmann’s Ode Gen 2 Review
2. The Versatile Starter: Fellow Opus
The Opus is the Ode’s younger, more versatile sibling. It can grind for everything from coarse French Press to fine Espresso. It’s a great choice if you’re just starting out and want one machine to do it all.
Deep Dive: Lance Hedrick’s Opus Review
3. The Value King: DF54
The DF54 has taken the coffee world by storm recently. It offers premium 54mm flat burrs at a fraction of the price of competitors. It’s a “single-dose” grinder, meaning you only put in the beans you’re about to brew, keeping everything fresh.
Deep Dive: Lance Hedrick’s DF54 Review
4. The Powerhouse: DF64 Gen 2
Stepping up to the DF64 Gen 2 gets you larger 64mm burrs and a more robust build. It’s the “enthusiast’s choice” because you can easily swap the burrs later (to something like SSP burrs) to further customize your flavor profile.
Deep Dive: Lance Hedrick’s DF64 Gen 2 Review
5. The Endgame: Timemore Sculptor 078
The Sculptor 078 is widely considered the current king of filter grinders. Its “Turbo burrs” and variable RPM (you can slow down or speed up the motor) produce a cup clarity that few other grinders can match.
Deep Dive: James Hoffmann’s Sculptor Review
6. The Reliable Italian: Eureka Mignon Filtro
Eureka has been making grinders in Italy for nearly 100 years. The Filtro is their dedicated filter coffee model. It’s built like a tank, is remarkably consistent, and has that classic Italian industrial vibe.
Deep Dive: The Coffee Chronicler’s Eureka Filtro Review
The Secret Weapon — The Kruve Brewler
How do you know if your grind is “medium-coarse”? Is your “medium” the same as my “medium”? The industry relies on subjective experience and sharp eyes. Especially in the beginning, when you are starting out on this “better coffee journey”, it may be hard to judge reliably and repeatedly what’s a “medium” grind and what’s “medium-coarse“?
Enter the Kruve Brewler. It’s a simple ruler-style tool that allows you to measure your coffee grounds in microns (µm).
- The Free Version: Kruve offers a printable PDF of the Brewler. It’s not as accurate as the metal one, but it’s a great starting point for calibrating your eyes. Build up some experience and compare your friends’ grinders or pre-ground coffee from the supermarket to what you grind yourself. Perhaps you already have a great affordable coffee from a local store, but you’d like to get whole beans and enjoy fresh ground coffee instead.
- The Metal Tool: For about the price of two bags of specialty coffee, you can get the stainless steel version. It has actual holes for different micron sizes. You just slide your grounds through until you find the match. It takes the guesswork out of “dialing in.”
Deep Dive: Kruve Sifter & Tooling Review
How Much Should You Spend?
Prices fluctuate, and you’ll find different deals depending on where you live in the EU or the US, but here is a rough guide to the investment levels:
- The Entry-Level Setup:
~€300–€400 total.
Think Bonavita Enthusiast + Eureka Filtro. - The Enthusiast Setup:
~€600–€800 total.
Think Moccamaster + Fellow Ode Gen 2. - The “Endgame” Setup:
€1,000+.
Think Fellow Aiden or Xbloom + Timemore Sculptor 078.
Remember, the goal isn’t to have the most expensive gear.
It’s to have the gear that makes you look forward to your morning coffee. No pressure.
No Pressure Coffee 