It’s 2024 Holiday Gift Guide Season here at Sprudge—stay tuned for a new gift guide each week as we hurtle towards the holidays. Up first, a very nerdy guide from Sprudge Managing Editor Zac Cadwalader.
I am one of the absolute worst people in the world to try to buy gifts for. My interests are often esoteric and when I get into something, I do so obsessively, thus even knowing what sort of thing I would actually like requires a non-trivial understanding of some niche or other. Combine that with the fact that I live frugally enough that, when I do find something on the fat part of the pricing bell curve that I like, I have enough disposable income to buy it, and it makes me damn near impossible to shop for; even if you did somehow stumble upon a great gift idea for me, the chances are it is prohibitively expensive.
And as an admittedly difficult giftee, I understand all too well the plight of the thoughtful and well-meaning but generally lost at sea gifter. You truly want to give that special someone something they will not only treasure but actually use. And who wants to waste their time and money on something that goes unappreciated?
The world of coffee fanaticism, it turns out, is chock full of Worst People To Buy Gifts For. (There are dozens of us. DOZENS!) But that doesn’t mean good gifts don’t exist. They’re out there, if you know where to look. So for this gift-giving season, I’ve put together a list of deeply nerdy coffee gift ideas for your favorite home barista at a range of price points. Some of the items are high-minded versions of traditional coffeemaking equipment, others are the sort of thing a coffee person would want but may never buy for themselves (this is the best type of gift, in my humble opinion). You may not know exactly what the hell any of these things do, but you don’t have to. The person you’re buying for certainly will and will love them—and you for it.
Nanofoamer Pro
Making really good espresso at home has never been easier, or cheaper. With products like the Flair manual espresso maker and a host of AeroPress attachments that allow it to function admirably as pressure brewer, making espresso-like beverage no longer necessarily requires an espresso-like machine, at least to get started. But cafe-quality steamed milk, on the other hand, that’s a bit of a taller order. There are hacks, sure. You can microwave the milk and use a wand-like stirring device to create a froth, but it doesn’t quite get the same velvety microfoam texture one would find from a good old fashioned steamwand.
That’s where the Nanafoamer Pro comes in. The electric-powered pitcher by Subminimal heats, steams, and folds milk, creating luscious, silky milk for espresso drinks, all in a tiny countertop footprint with a modern aesthetic.
And while you’re there, Subminimal has just released a new digital dosing tool, the Subscale, that combines a cup and a scale into one package. Now, I’ve never actually felt like I needed my cup to also measure the weight of the coffee, but it’s very nerdy and I really, really want it.
The Nanofoamer Pro retails for $159.99 and can be purchased via Subminimal’s website.
Automatic Coffee Brewer
Whether we want to admit it or not, the automatic coffee machine is a must-have piece of equipment. I love making my morning pour-over, but when there’s company over, I’m not trying to bust out brew after brew like I churning my way through the afternoon rush. A good automatic coffee maker is a godsend. There are a few things that make for a good coffee maker. They have to be able to heat water to around 205°F, they have to be easy to use (so easy an in-law can do it), it needs to have a thermal carafe as opposed to a heating element, and it must look good.
There’s a secondary and perhaps more subjective consideration: I want a flat-bottom brewer. While my main squeeze is a conical brewer, the Chemex, for this large-format coffee making, I want a solid, consistent cup, and that’s where flat-bottom coffee makers have an edge.
So for me, the Ratio 6 hits all the marks. It brings water to an appropriate temperature (and even has a rubber collar to trap in more heat for use with lighter roasts, which handle higher temps a little better), is a one-button wonder, has a thermal carafe, and it looks great on the counter in a modern coffee aesthetic sort of way. And it’s a flat bottom brewer. It’s also the Goldilocks of the Ratio line. The Ratio 8 looks more elegant but comes with a higher price point whereas the 4 doesn’t have the capacity I want in an automatic machine.
Now, if you don’t really care about conical versus flat bottom brewing or your aesthetic is more midcentury, then the Moccamaster by Technivorm is the easy choice. It’s an iconic brewer, and it’s hard to beat the easy of use of the KBGT model. And it comes an array of colors (18 in fact, if you don’t mind a glass carafe instead of a thermal).
The Ratio 6 and the Moccamaster KBGT retail for $359 and $349, respectively, and are available via the Ratio and Moccamaster websites.
Kimera Milk Pitcher by Slow Pour Supply
There’s something pleasing about pouring latte art. It’s not just a doodle on the top of your cappuccino. For the home barista, it’s an indication that you understand the technique required to both properly fold and pour milk. And no one thinks as deeply about latte art as Slow Pour Supply‘s Anita Tam, who helped bring back the US Latte Art Championship. So when Tam creates a milk pitcher, you can go ahead and assume it is purpose built.
And that’s exactly what the Kimera is. Featuring a patented triple spout design, the handle-less Kimera is the omni-tool capable of handling all pour types, from thick slowsettas to precision linework. It sets a new standard in latte art pitchers
The Kimera retails for $88 and is available via Slow Pour Supply.
Handblown Chemex
I may be biased, but there is no greater way to start the day than by manually brewing your own coffee. Making a pour-over is meditative, a quiet moment to one’s self before the rigors of daily life take hold (this goes double if you have kids). Thus the brewer you choose needs to be equally considered.
There are sensual elements that heighten the experience beyond simply creating hot caffeine. Texture, material, weight, how it was made, all these things enrich the process. These are the tools of craftsmanship.
I’ve written many gift guides over the years, and pretty much all of them include a Chemex. And so too shall this one. The handblown Chemex is both art and function. While the standard Chemex are made to be lightweight, the handblown version has heft. And if you hold it up to the light, you can see the slight striations in the glass, indications that this wasn’t machined but made by hand. It adds a certain reverence and weight to the ceremony.
Handblown Chemexes come in a range of sizes, from three-cup to 13-cup, but the sweet spot, I think, is the five-cup. It’s big enough to make coffee for multiple folks but not quite as unwieldy as the 13. Perfect to use and cherish everyday.
The five-cup handblown Chemex retails for $122.50 and is available for purchase via Chemex’s website.
Lotus Water Mineralization Drops
Other than the grinder, the most important part of coffee making is the water (it does make up 98% of your brewed coffee after all). And while one might think that the purest water, least adulterated would be the best for coffee making, the truth is that you actually want select minerals in fairly exacting proportions to bring out the most from your cup. Magnesium, sodium, potassium, calcium, all are important to making coffee. Now, in what ratios depends on a host of other factors: is it filter or espresso, what is the roast level, what sort of things are you trying to bring out? Thus there is no one-size-fits-all answer.
But with Lotus Water Mineralization Drops, you have full control over your water. Each 2oz vial is a mineral concentrate—of magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and potassium bicarbonate—that you can add in precise quantities to purified water to create a tailored water solution to fit your brewing needs.
The Lotus Coffee Water Brew Kit retails for $60 and is available for purchase via Lotus’s website.
Acaia Ion Beam
Ok I know this one is weird but just go with me. When coffee bounces around inside a grinder and rubs against the burrs, it creates static, and this static can cause some of the coffee grounds to get stuck inside the grinder. In the coffee industry, it’s known as grind retention and it’s not a good thing. Eventually, that static dissipates and those grinds have to go somewhere, either directly onto the countertop, or worse for home brewers, into the next day’s cup. Thus eliminating that static ensures not only that you get the exact same amount of coffee out of the grinder as you put in, but that it’s the exact same coffee, not the dregs of the day prior.
Acaia, makers of the industry-leading Pearl scale, have created a novel solution to the problem of static cling: shoot some ions at it. The Ion Beam is an industrial strength ion generator that, when pointed at the chute, zaps away static cling, allowing the freshly ground coffee to safely exit the grinder. Speaking as a coffee nerd, it’s the sort of thing I would maybe not ever buy myself but desperately wish that I had.
The Ion Beam is currently sold out on Acaia’s website, but retailers like The Basic Barista have units available for $192.
The Buck Portafilter by Weber Workshops
Weber Workshops put out some of the coolest, weirdest coffee equipment on the planet. (I really wanted to put the Moonraker on this list but I couldn’t bring myself to include a $475 dispersion tool/fidget spinner, no matter how badass it is.) And while their products are often jaw-dropping in their design, they are incredibly thought out. This is perhaps most true of The Buck, Weber’s elegant rethink of the portafilter.
Like with all of the brand’s products, The Buck looks really damn cool, but what makes it so noteworthy the thoughtfulness of its design. Most portafilters require you hang the handle off the edge while tamping, but The Buck sits perfectly flat against the counter. It’s a small detail but can completely change the workflow when making espresso.
The Buck portafilter with teak handle retails for $180 (the $150 rubber handle variation is currently sold out) and is available via Weber’s website.
Coffee Apparel
Sometimes all you need is a good t-shirt. Gear is great, but even at the (relative) low end, it can come with a steeper price tag. But apparel, that’s something far more approachable. And it’s something a coffee person can never have too much of. Now, as far as gifting goes, it’s probably best to shop at the favorite shop or roaster of the person you are buying for. And while I won’t be much help in the way of figuring out who that is, there are generally beloved brands that have pretty much cornered the market of cool coffee apparel.
One of those brands is Onyx Coffee Lab. The Arkansas-based roaster is constantly releasing new designs for shirts, hats, sweats, socks, bags, jerseys, even biking kits. They even just dropped a holiday-themed collaboration with The Peanuts.
While not as prodigious as Onyx, Memphis’s Cxffee Black have created some of the most easily recognizable designs in coffee apparel. Simple yet bold, their clothing feels both classic but very much of the moment. And if you’re looking to lean even more heavily into streetwear, Portland’s Deadstock Coffee is worth checking out. Before opening a coffee shop and roaster, founder Ian Williams was a shoe designer at Nike and has put the same attention to detail into their merch.
Cezve/Ibrik
If there is one under-appreciated style of coffee preparation in this world, it is Turkish coffee. While popular in Middle Eastern and Arab countries, the rest of the world has only a passing familiarity with Turkish coffee, but it’s one of my absolute favorite preparations, and it’s an experience I cherish any time I get to drink. It’s thick and sweet and making it is an art. It’s less about hitting precise numbers on a scale or a timer and more about being present in the process, interacting with the brew until it ready to be served.
Turkish coffee is made over a heat source—could be anything from heated sand to a butane burner to stovetop—in a long-handled pot called a cezve or ibrik, and some of the most beautiful ibriks available right now come from Turkey via New Orleans company STC (or Specialty Turkish Coffee). Created by World Cezve/Ibrik Champion Turgay Yildizli, STC’s Pro line of cezves feature gorgeous hammered copper and thoughtful design elements that combine form and function for a timeless piece of brewing equipment. If you’re looking to impress someone with a post-dinner coffee, Turkish coffee is the move and the STC Pro is the gear.
The STC Pro ranges from $82 to $102, depending on size and plating options. They can be purchased via STC’s website.
Fancy Coffee Subscription
When it comes to gifting, a good ole bag of coffee is always a win. But what if instead of just one bag, it was multiple bags, curated by experts? And what if those bags were truly special coffees? There are a host of great coffee subscriptions out there and even more exquisite coffees, but for an extra special gift, how about a subscription of some of the best and most experimental coffees on the planet?
For this there are two options. The Masterpiece Subscription by The Barn in Berlin is a monthly selection of “high-scoring rarities,” scoring 90 points and above by expert coffee evaluators. Done in an omni-roast style—meaning it is suitable for both espresso and filter coffee—the Masterpiece Subscription will range form 100g to 200g per bag, depending on the price paid for the green coffee.
If you are looking for something more multi-roaster in nature, the Rareglow subscription by Dayglow is the way to go. Coming in 100g increments, these coffees are “the rarest and most compelling we can find,” and will feature both their own roast as well as a curated selection of international roasters that tend to lean toward lighter roast levels.
Both subscriptions are auto-renewing and you can cancel anytime, meaning you can choose exactly how long you the gift lasts.
The Masterpiece Subscription by The Barn and Rareglow by Dayglow retail for €33 and $35, respectively, and can be purchased via their websites.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
Join us each week for continuing 2024 Holiday Gift Guides on Sprudge. Happy gifting!
