Coffee Gear That Is (and Isn't) Worth the Money

Coffee gear marketing is a masterclass in making extraction sound like aerospace engineering. After a year of side-by-side testing, the hierarchy of what matters is refreshingly short.

Worth it: fresh beans, a burr grinder, and a scale. These three do ninety per cent of the work of any cup you will ever drink. The kettle with the gooseneck, the fancy dripper, the distribution tools - all refinements, none transformations.

Not worth it at home: anything that promises café espresso for under two hundred euros. That money buys a lot of genuinely excellent filter coffee instead.