Mr. Chemex (2013) | Hacker News Reader

Mr. Chemex (2013)

collectorsweekly.com

37 pointsmr_tyzic12 comments

This is a comprehensive and informative article, nice!

My one criticism is that the author really over-hypes the Chemex. A dang good coffeemaker? Sure! "The undisputed king of pour-over coffee?" Most definitely not. To call it that overlooks the somewhat ridiculous amount of care and attention today's coffee geeks put into their cup of pour-over.

The Chemex is great, but like all coffeemakers, it's appropriate for some use cases and falls flat for others. If you're looking for schmancy new device to help you make an awesome cup of pour-over, I'd recommend reading something like this guide[1] to get an overview of what's out there, and then buying something suited to the kind of coffee you like.

[1] http://prima-coffee.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-pour-over-...

That site is gorgeous. Love the icons on the top navbar.

The first comment at the bottom of the article is questioning the taste of using paper filters. I've often wondered this myself.

In Chicago, Intelligentsia is the main coffee joint and they brew pour over. There's definitely a lack of visible oil on the surface of the coffee like I get at home with my french press.

What do you guys think? French press or pour over?

I much prefer French press coffee. OTOH, the paper filter removes something that causes LDL cholesterol to increase, which at the time it was reported, was considered a bad thing.

Nice article. I very much enjoyed looking through Schlumbohm's inventions from that MoMA link. The Aeropress is mostly the modern version of the Chemex, in an innovative and affordable sense, but it's still lacking in aesthetic pleasures.

Was a bit shocked to find a Chemex brew guide from my favorite hometown roaster, Cartel Coffee Lab.

If you're ever in Phoenix/Tempe/Scottsdale, I highly recommend checking them out!

With that wooden collar you can't put it in a dishwasher. Ain't nobody got time fo dat.

The wooden collar has a leather thong around it that you can loosen. Then the collar can be removed, and the carafe washed.

However, since it's glass, you'll probably be drinking the coffee fairly shortly after it's made, and you can just rinse the chemex and be done with it.

OK, really. I know coffee fetishists can be wound a little tight, but step back and be objective. You're on Shark Tank and you're pitching the 1970's designed Chemex. It has a wooden collar and a leather thong holding it together. It has a narrow neck so even if you dismantled it and put it in a dishwasher it might still need hand-work to clean it with a bottle brush. And you're going to trust your customers to reliably take it apart and put it together. How do you think that's going to pan out.

Right.

The coffee is always cold from a Chemex at Outerlands in the Sunset in San Francisco. I watched the video in the linked article. Five minute brewing time? Cold, cold, cold. Put a cozy on that Chemex Outerlands. Your coffee is gross.

Do they pre-warm their Chemex? I use a Chemex on a daily basis at home and I always pour ~100ml hot water (200F) through the filter into the Chemex in order to both wash any loose paper particles off the filter and warm up the Chemex itself.

My brew time is closer to 3:30 though.

Pre-warm their Chemex? Who knows. And these down votes are hilarious. Anecdotes about what coffee is like from a Chemex isn't helpful?

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