Gear Review: Kinto Slow Coffee Style Brewer
Kinto's ceramic brewer needs focus and care to use, but delivers delicate flavor and good results.
Story and photos by @lendlklein
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So many brewers, so little time! Our resident brewing geek tries out Kinto’s ceramic Slow Brewer.
Box Contents:
• Ceramic Coffee Brewer
• Instruction manual with brewing parameters
Review Points:
• Materials, Look and Feel, Built
• Brewing Experience
One look at this brewer, and it’s obvious that it’s not for beginners. It is made of ceramic, it has a big hole, its ridges have an unusual geometry (thin to thick) and do not extend to the edge of the hole, and it has no handle.
Materials, look and feel, built
The ceramic feels premium and has weight to it, adding depth to the brewing experience.
The ceramic material means that you have to be careful in handling it. Preheat before use, to better control the heat exchange between water and the brewer.
Personally, I wish this brewer had a handle. I preheat ceramics over steam, and it can get really hot. A handle keeps my fingers from touching extremely hot material, and the brewer safe from being accidentally dropped.
With its big hole, this will not hold any water. All water that passes through the coffee bed immediately drips down, and can be prone to underextraction. On the flip side, this also allows it to extract delicate flavors as it does not restrict the flow of water.
This brewer needs experienced hands to use it properly. It employs a 01 V60-type (or other brand) paper filter, which I used here. It may also work with a Kalita 155 filter, but I did not have one to test.
Brewing Experience
I used medium-coarse grounds for this brewer (26 clicks on the Comandante). The coffee I used is on the brink of dark roast, hence the grind size.
As you can observe, the filter can be neatly positioned, and naturally sticks to the top edge once wet. This may very slightly (barely noticeable) slow down water flow, as the air beneath the brewer can only escape on the seamed side of the filter.
Underneath the brewer, the ridges do not go beyond the edge where the hole the starts. I believe this also acts as flow control “mechanism” as the air escaping from beneath will be slowed down by the wet paper filter (as lentioend esrlier). Knowing these parameters helped me understand how to brew with it.
The slurry that came out from the brew. To compensate for the fast water flow, I poured very slowly, with three circular pours including the brew.
- Recipe:
• 1:15 ratio
• 15 grams in, 225 grams of water out
• Brew time clocked in at 2:25
The result? I got a delicate sweetness and hints of dark chocolate with the brew, with less body and bitterness. Other similar big-holed brewers like the V60 can extract a similar sweetness, to varying degrees.
Verdict
If you’re an advanced coffee brewer looking for a more challenging dripper, get this. I enjoyed brewing with it even with its cons, and was satisfied with the sweet brew I got even from an onset dark roast.
If you’re a newbie, you need to understand the parameters and practise your pouring to get the most out of this brewer.
P.S. “Slow Style” refers not to water flow, but to taking time to enjoy brewing and savorimg your coffee. Which I did.
Thank you to @kinto.ph for lending us the brewer, available via their IG page and online shop.
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