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How can I make ridiculously good coffee at my desk?
August 20, 2012 12:48 PM   Subscribe


We've recently changed our offices at work and are sort of starting fresh. When I first started here I as one of 5 coffee drinkers, but now I'm more or less the only one, so we got rid of our old and gross Mr. Coffee. I'm sick of buying coffee from one of the nearby coffee shops (Peets or some small local ones), because the coffee isn't that great for the money.

Last year at home we decided to stop wasting our time at home on bad coffee. We ditched the blade grinder and drip coffee maker in favour of a burr grinder and Chemex, and the coffee is good! The problem is that it's not always convenient to bring a cup to work, and I really like it fresh. How can I relatively easily make pour-over coffee at my desk? I don't have a ton of space, but I'd like a hot water kettle, brewer, and maybe a hand grinder. I was thinking about maybe a Clever Coffee, but I'm open to suggestions. I'd like not to spend more than $100 all told. Part of this is to have awesome coffee and part of this is to have a sort of ridiculous set up at work to really make a cup of coffee a ritual and not an after thought. I am something of a coffee snob, so getting good beans isn't really an issue.
Hot water, coffee, french press. Best cup of coffee you'll ever drink.

I use a Hario ceramic pour-over filter holder thing (on phone, can't link,sorry!) when I want a cup at a non-standard time. It somehow makes the shitty Folgers/Hills Bros office coffee taste much better.

French press is what I'm using (to the envy of all who are drinking the sludge which comes out of the office coffee pot).

Added bonus - your office will smell fab.


A thousand times, this.


I also used an Aeropress for awhile, but it's a little too fussy for me. The coffee is good, but I wasn't wild about having to lay in a supply of the little filters. So: French press all the way.


-Hand grinder.
-Low flow kettle, electric.
-Really good coffee (too many options to link. your profile suggests you're in the bay area? Try sightglass, or Four Barrel)

You'll probably get some coffee converts out of a setup like this.
posted by furnace.heart at 1:00 PM on August 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

I loves my aeropress for work, it's easy to clean up and makes a nice cup.

Nth-ing the Aeropress. Yes, it's fussy but the coffee is great and the cleanup isn't bad at all. Great for making iced coffee, too, if you like that.


I have a French Press at my desk and I always get comments about how good the coffee smells. A pourover might be a good choice, too, but I like not having to tend to the coffee - just pour in hot water and wait a few minutes.




Yeah, a french press is great. I had a tiny one that you could also use as a cup to sip from. Have a bag of coffee on your desk, pour in some hot water if you've got one of those water dispensers in your office, and voila!

+1 French press! So easy, so good!

I have both an AeroPress and a french press (although neither at work). I'm the only person who drinks coffee at my house, and I use the AeroPress every day, saving the french press for when someone's over who also wants coffee. (And a big coffee maker for when my parents come.)


If you're ok with using a filter every day, the AeroPress is super-easy to clean: just pop out the little disk of grounds and filter into a trash can. For me, the french press is much harder to clean, because I don't have a garbage disposal, so I have to rinse the french press in the sink, and then clean the sink.


Both a french press and an AeroPress are pretty inexpensive.

Not sure what to tell you about a grinding setup. I have a Bodum Bistro burr grinder and like it well enough, although the beans on top don't go down into the machine as well as I would like (because I use french roast coffee), but that seems rather extravagant (and loud) for a work setup.

Of course, if you want to spring for a kettle, you could use a Melitta cone, but I like the AeroPress better, and it's less work. And it brews up fast.

I own a Clever Coffee Dripper and it does a great job. I think in turns of bang for the buck, it's hard to beat. It's also fairly low effort and easy to clean, something I cannot say of hand grinding or french presses. My local coffee shops uses them as well and sells them for $14.

The only downsides are that it isn't terribly tough and it can leak if the rubber stopper isn't perfectly seated. I would not make coffee on my desk with one due to the risk of a leak.

Just use a French press. It's easy and tasty.

One big thing regardless of the method that works best for you
- use filtered water. This makes a huge taste difference.

Aeropress or French press. I have a few unconventional high performance low-fuss tips for the aeropress. MeMail me if you're interested.



Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll look at the aeropress. To all the french press people - I have one, it's fine, but it's not pour-over. I really like the taste and clarity of that style of brewing.









* Hario V60 Coffee Dripper. I use the Glass kind with the plastic bottom.

* Use filtered water. Temp 192 - 205 deg F. (below boiling point of 212deg)



Then last winter a bunch of us pitched in and bought a Keurig machine -- which I use with my own (good!) coffee grounds and a reusable filter cup. I only use a couple of tablespoons per cup, so I can splurge like crazy and still be thrifty.



Grindripper. Grinder and pour over in one.

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