A Comparison of Pour Over Brewing Kettles

Every trade has its tools, and that of manual coffee-making is no exception. One of the most important tools — especially for pour-over brewing — is the kettle. As the appreciation for culinary coffee continues to grow, so does the demand for a kettle that meets the needs and demands of the at-home and professional barista. We've made an effort to offer a limited, accessible offering of kettles that fit various budgets and preferences, each kettle bringing different strengths to the table.
Price
Capacity
Weight
Slowest
Flow Rate
SKU
Advantage
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For most companies it's hard to find motivation for pushing out new products if you find yourself on top already. This is not, however, the case with La Marzocco. The Italian based espresso machine manufacturer continues to push the envelop when it comes to innovations in espresso machine technology. The newest line from La Marzocco continues their progression in the specific areas of temperature stability and pressure profiling. We've discussed the Strada Electronic Paddle version in detail in our Strada EP blog post and listing for the 2 Group Strada EP. The Strada Mechanical Paddle employs technology similar to the Mechanical Paddles on other La Marzocco models but with a few new features including individual pressure gauges, digital PID control, and dedicated group boilers.
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The Fretta Iced Coffee Brewer is Hario's answer to brewing the perfect cup of iced coffee. Hario has combined their famous V60 brewer with a decanter and plastic diffuser to assure that the coffee is quickly cooled by hitting ice immediately after the brewing process. This quick heat transition is important in conserving the flavor of the coffee. The Fretta comes with 10 size 02 paper filters. We recommend that you purchase extra filters as well. To do this select filters as an add-on from the options on the right or go to our Hario 02 filter listing. Also recommend is a pouring kettle. We offer both the Hario Buono Kettle as well as the Kalita Wave Pot Kettle in the drop-down menu on the right.
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We've looked long and hard for a scale that we can recommend for our avid manual brewing friends. The scale needed to have a high weight capacity, fast response time and precision calculations, and the ability to disable the auto-off feature to ensure the scale would not shut off mid-brew. The Jennings CJ4000 is the first scale we have offered that meets all of these requirements. With a 4000 gram capacity, accuracy to .5 gram, and the ability to disable the auto-off feature, the Jennings scale is the perfect companion to manual brewing.








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Which kettle would you pick as your favorite?
My personal all-around favorite is the electric Bonavita. It is at such a low price, heats up super fast, has a great pour-rate. I also throw a thermometer in the top and give it a couple of minutes after boiling to go down to 200 range.
We think the temperature stability, slower possible flow rate, and style give the Wave Pot our vote as the favorite, but these each have their place. The Kalita Thin Spout has the second slowest flow rate and is a tad easier to control because of its lighter weight. We'd recommend the Thin Spout over the Wave Pot if you're only brewing smaller, one to two person, batches and don't care about the style differences. The Hario Buono has the largest capacity out of all of the kettles (1.2 L / 45oz.) and it has an easy to control flow and is considerably light for its capacity. The Bonavita is quickly becoming one of our favorites because of the price, electric option, and the fact that you can fit one of our milk thermometers in through the whole in the top to get an easy temperature reading. Hope this helped!
What do you think primarily will be your uses?