Today, I am forced to retire the OXO BREW digital pour over kettle. After an incredible 14,450 cycles of heating water in it, since April 5, 2018. Yes, that may cycles, because it gets used around 5 times a day, every single day. And I'm not retiring it because it finally failed. Nope, still works great. I'm retiring it because I stupidly knocked it off the counter, and the handle broke. I've tried to crazy glue it a few times, with no luck. WHAT A WORK HORSE of a product. This is one of many reasons why I firmly believe this is the best pour over kettle on the market, ever. Sadly, it looks like it MIGHT be discontinued; not currently listed on Amazon. We reviewed it years back. Here's the slightly hacked url (sorry for the /. in the middle, remove the slash when cutting and pasting) https://coffeegeek./com/reviews/fullreview/oxo-brew-pour-over-kettle/

Note to self: stop reading Reddit commentary in the coffee related groups. There is *so much flex and 'look at me, I'm an expert, go f**k yourself if you think different'* crap in those subs - talking the espresso group especially, but also pour over, aeropress, and even offshoot groups like flairespresso. A lot of what's posted is factually wrong too. For instance, when a new product comes out, based on just watching a few youtube vids or reading what others have said in reddit, people who have zero experience or hands on with a product will go on and on and on about the product and how much suckage it has (or if they're fanboys, the opposite). All from 100% anonymous, unknown entities (other than posting a lot of crap to reddit). Just. so. incredibly. frustrating.

Manual coffee grinders have come a long way since the Porlex Mini days. Our Best Manual Grinders of 2025 guide is live on CoffeeGeek./com (sorry for the weird link), featuring compact travel grinders, espresso dial-in champs, and everyday workhorses. Every grinder tested, reviewed, or owned by CoffeeGeek staff. Ready to see which made the cut? Visit our front page today to read all about it! #coffee #espresso #coffeegeek

A grinder that feels like it was honed from a single billet of solid aluminum by Jony Ive himself, in some ultra-secret underground coffee and espresso design lab. The Option-O Lagom Casa. - 65mm Mizen conical burrs - Low RPMs - Auto Off - Supreme particle distribution - Quiet. - One touch op.

So here's some inside baseball. First photo is my setup shot for the Best Manual Grinders guide. I actually did a half dozen layouts, but settled on this. Took the shot and really studied it. - spacing too tight - fingerprint smudges - handle positions - front lighting needed improvement - dof needed more (1st shot was f8, went to f11) Corrected all of that, set my background lighting, and got the final photo (2nd shot) which I ended up only having to do a couple minutes' post processing on.

It's coming. Very soon.

We have a really cool long form interview with seven time (!!!!) Canadian Barista champion, Benjamin Put up on CoffeeGeek's front page right now - CoffeeGeek./com (sorry for the non link). Well worth the read for insight into a fella who has dominated the Canadian and world barista scene for nearly 14 year now.

A commentary about the current tariff situation in the United States, and the impact the Trump Taxes are now having on small makers and creators in the specialty coffee arena.

ahh the joys of coffee geekery and being a photographer. I realised late this evening I don't have a suitable "hero" image for the MHW-3Bomber F74 Navigator for our upcoming First Look. But I've been heavily using the grinder for nearly 45 days now, so it's "dusty". 2 hour deep clean later, toothbrushes and hyper USB dusters involved, + 1hr setting up the shot, I got the images.