Bill Nye is a national treasure. As The Science Guy, Nye bestowed a love of and curiosity for science upon the world’s children every Saturday morning (and is no doubt the beneficiary of ‘90’s nostalgia hit the modern Millennial fiends for). More recently, Nye has championed evidence-based notions of gender fluidity, human-caused climate change, and the scientific incoherence of racism. In short, Nye seems like a pretty rad dude.
And as it turns out, he’s also a pretty big fan of coffee. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Nye recounts his home coffee setup—along with some other stuff that isn’t coffee so I kinda blanked on it, but you can read it all here if you are so inclined—including not one, not two, but three different coffee makers. So in deference to America’s Great Pop Scientist, we’re taking a look at Bill Nye’s actually mostly good coffee setup.
Chemex
The Chemex is a frankly unsurprising part of Nye’s coffee arsenal. The coffee brewer created by fellow scientist, chemist Dr. Peter Schlumbohm, the Chemex “was a big ritual for my father,” Nye tells the WSJ. But with its iconic shape and ability to produce hyper-clean tasting coffee thanks to the thick paper filters, the Chemex needs no familial ties to be appreciated for its greatness. American made and easy to clean, it’s an obvious choice.
Want to learn how to make really good coffee with the Chemex? Check our our Chemex brew guide!
Technivorm
Nye considers the Technivorm automatic coffee maker to be the best on the market right now, and honestly, he might be right. An SCA-certified brewer, the Technivorm Moccamaster remains largely unchanged in the roughly half-century since the Dutch-designed brewer debuted. “[The water] comes out of nine holes like a showerhead… and the lid is rocking. It has the funnel-shaped tube that goes down so the evaporation is greatly reduced,” Nye explains.
When it comes to non-pour-over home coffee brewing, the Technivorm is a favorite at Sprudge. And it looks great on your countertop!
Check out staff writer Karina Hof’s visit to the Technivorm headquarters in Amerongen.
Nespresso
Well, they can’t all be winners. Even science gets things wrong from time to time, but hey, that’s how we learn, right? According to Nye, the Nespresso make coffee that is “pretty good but not the same jolt as a real espresso.” Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some very good coffee produced by a Nespresso, but that was more in spite of it than due to it. And there are even industrious coffee folks working to bring the pod machine into the specialty space.
Still, the real issue with pods is the sheer amount of waste they produce. Many companies are beginning to create recyclable and compostable pods to combat the tons and tons of pod waste that make their way to landfills each year. As a climate change champion, a Nespresso machine is a weird choice for Nye. And besides, if he wants something closer to espresso, why not just use an AeroPress?
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
