Coffee

Douwe Egbert’s BeMoved: are you prepared to dance for your coffee?

By Jude Garvey

16:25 November 3, 2009 PST

You might rely on your morning or afternoon coffee fix from the office machine to get you through the day, but are you willing to dance or jump for it? You may have to, if the "BeMoved" coffee machine concept from Douwe Egbert takes off. This machine may well be the world’s first coffee machine that is operated by movement alone. Yep, looks like you are going to expend some energy in order to get your morning hit. Read More

Hourglass coffee maker cold-brews your joe, very slowly

By Alan Brandon

22:13 September 28, 2009 PDT

If you like your coffee hot, strong, and fast, then the Hourglass coffee maker is not for you. Another topsy-turvy coffee brewer, the Hourglass uses cold water to reduce acid and improve the taste of your coffee. The catch? It takes 12 to 24 hours to brew your cup of joe. Read More

Flip-N-Drip portable coffee maker lets you brew on the trail

By Alan Brandon

03:56 September 6, 2009 PDT

The Flip-N-Drip is a lightweight, compact coffee maker from camping equipment manufacturer Brunton that makes it dead simple to brew a hot cup of joe while you’re out in the backcountry. Simply boil water in the carafe, attach the filter and mug, and flip the whole thing over. In about 10 minutes you’ll be sipping your favorite java blend. Read More

Saeco Xelsis - high-end coffee for all tastes

By Darren Quick

22:30 September 4, 2009 PDT

There’s no doubting the popularity of coffee and, like creating a fine wine, the process of perfecting that ultimate brew can be somewhat complicated. Domestic coffee machines have made the job of getting a café quality coffee at home so much easier, and now Saeco has gone that extra mile by releasing a machine that allows family members to individually tailor coffee to their tastes. The Xelsis automatic coffee machine features six personalized profiles so everyone can customize their own brew at the touch of a button. Read More

Phase change materials for the perfect cup of coffee

By Jeff Salton

17:02 August 24, 2009 PDT

You know how it is … you make or buy that perfect cup of coffee or tea only to have it go cold before you’ve finished because the phone rang or your boss interrupted your break with some urgent assignment. Well, there’s great news for coffee-lovers (and tea connoisseurs). Two German scientists have put their heads together to come up with a hot drink receptacle that keeps your beverage at the perfect drinking temperature for up to 30 minutes. Read More

Freshness valve keeps coffee at its peak

By Jeff Salton

23:53 August 9, 2009 PDT

Coffee-lovers of the world rejoice … a new coffee canister for the home that eliminates the four main causes of flavor loss in whole bean and ground coffee - CO2 gases, moisture, light and air - has been released by Friis. The company says its Coffee Savor container is the first in the world that vents away damaging trapped carbon dioxide gas created during the roasting process and also blocks out moisture, light and air to seal in flavor. Read More

Make espresso on the go with the mypressi TWIST portable brewer

By Gizmag Team

01:28 May 15, 2009 PDT

Your life is stressful enough without having to wonder where your next shot of espresso is coming from. One sure-fire solution is to take it with you, and that's where the mypressi TWIST espresso maker from Espressi Inc. comes in. The portable device uses a unique pneumatic system that operates on common compressed gas cartridges and requires no external power so you can enjoy a fresh pull of go juice wherever you can find hot water. Read More

USB cup warmer a hot little number

By Mick Webb

20:48 March 29, 2009 PDT

The humble USB device has come a long way in a short time and over the years we have seen the technology used to power a growing array of peripherals from weather stations to personal aroma diffusers, now a device that will heat things up around the office - literally - the USB cup warmer. Read More

Green printer uses coffee dregs as ink

By Noel McKeegan

17:29 February 2, 2009 PST

The paperless office is a great notion, but in reality there are still many scenarios where the printer needs to be switched on and fed with environmentally unfriendly consumables - paper and ink. Recycling and re-using paper for print jobs has become well entrenched, but the expensive and often frustrating process of replenishing the ink remains an issue for many of us. Which brings us to one of the cleverest recycling ideas to emerge from this year's Greener Gadgets competition - the RITI printer. This design concept by Jeon Hwan Ju takes your coffee or tea dregs, plus a little elbow grease, and turns them into an eco-friendly alternative to conventional ink. Read More

Coffee with a healthy spin

By Emily Clark

00:35 November 5, 2008 PST

November 5, 2008 Feng Shui Coffee combines one of the world’s most popular drinks - coffee - with natural medicinal herbs and minerals designed for maintaining health and wellness and ties it in with the ancient Chinese principles of Feng Shui. It strikes us as an odd combination, but it does involve coffee. Read More

New coffee machine joins expanded Kenwood kMix range

By Emily Clark

19:17 September 9, 2008 PDT

Kenwood has unveiled a new addition to its kMix range; the CM 020 Coffee Maker. As well as aiming to be a colorful complement to your kitchen decor, the new caffeine machine features an Opti-Temp function which uses a separately heatable hotplate to constantly maintain coffee at an optimal temperature. Read More

The De’Longhi Perfecta Living Room limited edition - Coffee-making moves to the living room

By Mike Hanlon

20:28 August 27, 2008 PDT

August 28, 2008 The coffee lifestyle is one that continues to evolve with the free thinking that comes with the technophiles who are driving the current revolution in technology – our readership and viewing statistics suggest that our readers emulate the caffeine-induced heightened awareness to emulate the ever-increasing clock speeds of our microprocessors. So it seems quite natural (at least to us) that the coffee machine would migrate from the kitchen to the living room - De’Longhi is facilitating the move with titanium, burl wood and leather look Perfecta Living Room limited edition machines that promise harmonious integration of a fully automatic espresso maker into the living environment. Read More

Smart Lid a winner at packaging awards

By Emily Clark

00:38 May 15, 2008 PDT

In 2005 Gizmag reported on an innovative way to warn caffeine-addicts when their coffee too hot to drink, by changing the color of the takeaway cup lid. The Smart Lid has now been awarded ‘Best of Show’ at the AmeriStar Award hosted by the Institute of Packaging Professionals. Read More

Real coffee around the campfire: Handpresso portable espresso maker

By Noel McKeegan

20:58 January 15, 2008 PST

January 16, 2008 The expression "roughing it" can be a little off the mark these days given the availability of increasingly high-tech camping gear designed to merge the comforts of home with the experience of the great outdoors. One definite sore point among the coffee loving travelers at Gizmag is the need to revert to the instant variety when on the trail, but French "Nomadic Espresso" specialist Handpresso may have just the solution. The Handpresso Wild is a simple, lightweight espresso maker that works without electricity and promises quality coffee with a perfect crema anywhere you can find hot water. Read More

Doggy Java: man’s best friend joins the latte set

By Emily Clark

17:17 November 15, 2007 PST

November 16, 2007 Next time you go out for gourmet coffee with your pampered pooch, fido won’t need to sit miserably under the table lapping at a tasteless bowl of water. Doggy Java is caffeine free, beef flavored “coffee” for dogs served in a Canine Cappuccino Cup with a Bonescotti Biscuit. Read More

Nespresso Lattissima with one-touch milk frother

By Mike Hanlon

May 22, 2007 Coffee is the world’s second most traded commodity, behind only oil. The short “blast” afforded by a concentrated caffeine hit has become part of the daily ritual of hundreds of millions of people, yet, as any coffee connoisseur will tell you, producing a good coffee is something that is beyond most commercial food establishments on the planet. In recent times, a range of companies have attempted to replicate the perfect coffee by producing machinery that uses standardised pods and sophisticated circuitry to get the temperaures just right every time. The leader in this single-serve coffee segment is Nestle’s Nespresso, with a range of machines we’ve written about many times (Miele's built-in Nespresso machine, Nespresso's InCar coffee machine, Nespresso's Romeo, the Nespresso Essenza, and our original assessment of the Nespresso system back in 2003) and the company’s latest innovation has been done in concert with De’Longhi, the Italian household appliance designers. The Nespresso Lattissima machine is the manifestation of the companies’ mutual vision to create a machine that would enable connoisseurs to easily prepare a latte or cappuccino of the highest quality with a one-touch milk froth function. Read More

Genes involved in coffee quality have been identified

By Mike Hanlon

February 8, 2007 The world’s caffeine addicts got some good news this week when it was announced that the genes involved in coffee quality have been identified. Since 2001, CIRAD and the Agricultural Institute of Paraná in Brazil (IAPAR) have been working on joint research into understanding the biological processes - flowering, fruit ripening, etc - that determine coffee’s distinctive characteristics. Some compounds (sugars, fats, caffeine, etc) are known to play a role in coffee quality. Their accumulation in the plant, and particularly in the beans, is a determining factor. Sucrose is considered to play a crucial role in coffee organoleptic quality, since its breakdown during roasting releases several aroma and flavour precursors.how coffee beans ripen. Using molecular biology and biochemistry techniques, they have characterized the key enzymes in the sucrose metabolism during coffee bean development. The quality of coffee makes a big difference at market, which is good news for all concerned as coffee is still the second most traded commodity in the world behind only petroleum. Read More

Melitta Smart Mill & Brew – the Intelligent Coffee Pot

By Mike Hanlon

November 17, 2006 Now here’s a must have for any self-respecting, caffeine-powered technophile – a coffee maker with real-time weather forecast information and the ability to brew a cup of coffee from either whole beans or ground coffee. The US$200 Melitta Smart Mill & Brew with MSN Direct incorporates Microsoft's Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT) and automatically detects current weather conditions, the day's forecast, probability for precipitation, and sunrise and sunset times, without the need for outdoor sensors, through MSN Direct. Read More

Nespresso InCar coffee machine concept

By Mike Hanlon

April 10, 2006 – “Design” and “innovation” were the buzz words this week as thousands converged at the Milan furniture fair Salone del Mobile. Creativity was also flowing at the Triennale, one of the primary centers for emerging trends of modern decorative and industrial arts, as the winners of the 2005 Nespresso Design Contest were announced. We love the the capsule-based single cup coffee concept which has grown remarkably over the last decade through the likes of Nespresso, Senseo, Tassimo et al. Given the compact nature of the pod-based coffee systems, Nespresso initiated a design contest encouraging European design students to explore and consider new innovations in the coffee lifestyle without boundaries—freeing themselves from traditional conceptions of coffee and coffee preparation. Students were also urged to consider how coffee rituals will evolve in the future. The results were fantastic, with the winning concept a “Nespresso Card” which holds coffee preferences for registered individuals, thus enabling them to access their favorite coffee anytime, anywhere. For our money though, the second-placed “Nespresso InCar” coffee machine aroused the most interest. Though only a concept we’ve got three people in our office alone who would buy one. The idea is that the machine fits conveniently into the centre console of a car and doubles as an armrest when travelling. Read More

The AeroPress Coffee Machine: a new concept in an ancient art

By Mike Hanlon

January 16, 2006 There’s always a better way – ALWAYS! Humans have been consuming coffee for 1200 years, the first coffee shops opened 500 years ago and coffee is the world’s second largest traded commodity, behind only oil. More than 1.5 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day with the US market for coffee machines at 20 million a year and growing. You’d think we would have already perfected the best way to produce a cup of coffee from coffee beans, but several years of research by Stanford University mechanical engineering lecturer Alan Adler (the inventor of the Aerobie flying disk which holds the world throwing record of more than a quarter mile) appear to have found a better coffee machine. Independent reviews suggest the new Aerobie AeroPress delivers the smoothest, richest, purest and fastest cup of coffee (under 30 seconds) you’re likely to find and the bonus is that the AeroPress costs just US$30. And while it might look like a French Press because both use immersion and pressure, it works quite differently. Read More

Tassimo's new micro coffee brewing architecture

By Mike Hanlon

September 5, 2005 There is ALWAYS a better way, no matter what the endeavour and it seems the capsule-based single cup brewer market comprised of Nespresso, Senseo, Illy's

E.S.E Espresso pods, the Keurig system at al, is in for a further shake-up. The pod system offers convenience, cleanliness and in a world starved of the one commodity you can never get enough of (time), a semi-automated micro system providing top quality makes infinite sense, particularly when it comes to delivering one of the world's most loved commodities. Coffee is the world’s second largest traded commodity, second only to petroleum – 1.5 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day in the world, more than half the U.S. adult population drinks coffee daily and they average 3.5 cups a day. Coffee makers constitute the largest segment in the small kitchen appliance category with over 19 million coffee makers sold every year in the U.S. But now, there’s a new system that uses a microprocessor that makes intelligent decisions for you and refines the science of coffee making enough to give it a competitive edge – using barcode scanning. The Tassimo system has two key components: the Tassimo brewing machine and proprietary Tassimo discs (T-DISCS). Through Tassimo's smart technology, developed and designed by Kraft Foods, the machine's microprocessor reads the bar code printed on the T-DISC label after it is inserted into the machine and automatically calculates the correct water quantity, brewing time and temperature to prepare the perfect beverage. Read More

The intelligent coffee drinker's mug

By Mike Hanlon

August 17, 2005 Have you ever wondered what possesses human beings to heat liquids to boiling point and then systematically pour them on the second-most-sensitive area of their body? It’s what Jolex, the inventors of the Brugo travel mug calls the “perfect temperature zone” for drinking coffee, soup, tea – the most common liquids we use in a travel mug – and it’s estimated to be between 150 degrees and 170 degrees Fahrenheit (65-75 degrees Celsius). It’s the point at which the aroma and flavour are greatest, but it’s an elusive zone and one that heated liquids are only in for a short time. By using a simple “tip and sip” motion, BRUGO transfers sip-sized amounts (one fluid ounce) of the hot beverage to the temperature control chamber, where it immediately reaches this “perfect temperature zone.” Only the liquid in the chamber is cooled and only this liquid exits the sip opening. A seal keeps the remaining coffee at its hottest and most aromatic. This inventive system eliminates the need for coffee drinkers to blow on their beverage, add ice to it, or wait for it to cool. Instead, they have immediate access to their hot beverage, and they can enjoy it longer at its peak freshness and flavour. Read More

Nespresso Romeo Review

By Mike Hanlon

August 17, 2005 Single Serve Coffee is a site devoted to the love of fine coffee and no sooner had we written up the Nespresso Essenza, which comes in at the compact-budget end of the Nespresso scale, than they came up with an actual review of the Nespresso Romeo before it launches this September. The Romeo will come in at the high end of the range for Nespresso, and utilizes the same coffee capsule loading system and is aptly named Romeo, as the coffee capsule is placed on a small balcony. Single Serve's review can be found here. Read More

Nespresso’s compact coffee-made-simple System

By Mike Hanlon

August 15, 2005 One of the greatest challenges in life is to create a coffee at home which is as good as the best coffee you can buy in your favourite coffee shop. It's a complex equation involving obtaining the right equipment, refining the technique and obtaining the freshest and best quality coffee. There's a definite affinity between computers, high-performance people and coffee - we're not sure what the common elements are but high clock speeds seems to be part of the equation and there are few technology environments where caffeine is not the staple diet. Which sort of accounts for why coffee is one of the largest cost-centres for this humble magazine - all press briefings are over coffee, we have our meetings over coffee, and we drink coffee in our spare time, sometimes so often that the entire staff can levitate by 4pm in the afternoon on a busy day. So the news that Nespresso has unveiled a new compact coffee system was significant for us. Now while Nespresso is clearly related to Nescafe, the concept behind it is at the other end of the connoisseur scale, as we have previously explained. Indeed, Nespresso is so focused on nurturing the brand’s upmarket pedigree, it has opened dozens of coffee boutiques in the world’s cultural centres selling just Nespresso-produced coffee. Read More

Create your own coffee table book

By Mike Hanlon

May 4, 2005 A new web-based service that offers personalised single-copy high-quality coffee-table books could give the humble book a new life in the digital age. Books have been the principle medium of knowledge distribution for five hundred years until the coming of the internet and the digital distribution of words, sound, images and video. With the arrival of the Digital Age, the book has lost some of its allure, being seen as low-tech in a high-tech age although it remains the most user-friendly of all mediums. In offering everybody the ability to produce a one-off or very-short-run book of premium quality at a cost-effective price, Australian-based Momento has redefined the short-run book publishing market and opened up myriad new and exciting publishing opportunities. Already the service is being used by companies, photographers and artists as short-run portfolios, as special “this is your life”gifts for loved ones and retiring employees, baby books and the overwhelming favourite … wedding albums. The coming launch of the service to professionals will also enable photographers and communications companies to offer sizes up to A3, leather binding … and professional value-added services. Read More