They've already purchased a great grinder. Obtain them something they won't be able to get for themselves
I'm a coffee veteran; I was investigating fussy brewing methods and turning my nose up at the office coffee pot long before I moved to gentrifying Brooklyn, where adherence to strict edicts over how your hot, brown flavored water can and should be prepared is tantamount to law (not really! but it's an amusing stereotype).
This, of course, means that I long ago bought all of the coffee-making necessities to keep myself consistently fueled, from an electric kettle to a burr grinder. This puts the friends and family members who have agreed to purchase me gifts in a bind: I've made my love of coffee an annoying fundamental feature of my personality, yet I'm choosy about what I'll drink and/or use to prepare my beverages. I need them to realize that I still want a lot of coffee-making crap—the lovely but unnecessary items I probably won't buy for myself—so I developed this gift guide to serve as a huge hint. Hopefully, it will be beneficial to you as well.
A personalized cup
Almost certainly, the coffee drinker in your life already has a large collection of cups. They may even have an excess of cups. This is why you shouldn't try to choose the "perfect" mug for them based on what you think you know about their design and/or pop culture preferences (apologies to the well-meaning friend who once got me a Yoda mug that I should've loved—I like Star Wars! I like coffee!—but couldn't stand the sight of).
Instead, get them a personalized mug based on an inside joke or anything from their personal lives. The secret is that even if people don't like it visually, they will have warm feelings* about it since it is personal, rendering any apparent flaws meaningless. Consider the cup in the image above. Normally, I would not have chosen such a basic mug for myself, but it was a Secret Santa present from Claire Lower, Lifehacker's senior food editor, and she chose to emblazon it with a random statement from my kid that I'd shared on Instagram: "I would probably be dead right now if I were a snail." You as well. Everyone." (He makes a nice argument, doesn't he?) It is so essential to me, and I use it frequently.
*Or, at the very least, a sense of guilt/general duty, which is frequently all I can summon these days. (However, I adore Claire's cup.)
An unreasonably expensive coffee maker
Your coffee-loving friend most likely prefers a certain brewing technique and most likely already has the essential equipment. But their stuff could undoubtedly be finer, and you can make that happen for them.
Take, for example, the gorgeous coffee dripper above, which was developed by the creator of Trunk Coffee in Japan. The above set, which the business provided me to test, retails for roughly $80 and includes the ceramic dripper, a wood tray that retains heat during brewing, and a "sensory cup," all of which fulfill the same basic tasks as the $7 plastic coffee dripper I previously had. They are, however, far more beautiful, and I would have been delighted to get them as a present.
(If your giftee prefers a different way of brewing, there are also beautiful French presses and brewing pots.)
A fantastic ice cube tray for iced coffee
During the summer, iced coffee is virtually water to me, thus I need a reliable technique to make ice in large quantities. Plastic dollar store ice cube pans are useful but prone to shattering with repeated use, and they are certainly not gift grade.
Instead, gift them a couple of W&P Design's Everyday Ice Trays ($12 each), the silicone ice cube tray Bon Appétit has pronounced "the best ice cube tray I have ever used." It's a little more expensive, but they'll remember you every time they open the freezer.
Iced coffee enthusiasts will appreciate these double-walled insulated cups
While you're at it, get them a pair of double-walled insulated drinking glasses ($30) so they can keep their cold brew cool without the glass sweating all over the place. (You may also use these for hot beverages, but who drinks hot coffee from a large glass?)
A computerized scale for accurate brewing
I'm such a coffee fanatic that I've embraced a quaint and inefficient brewing method (pour over) purely for the sake of novelty, but even I don't have a digital scale to accurately weigh out my beans to guarantee the right water-to-grind ratio. Someone should get me a digital scale. (This one is recommended by Wirecutter and costs $25 on Amazon.)
A lovely coffee filter holder
I keep my coffee filters in the crinkly plastic packets they came in. My life would be far more refined if they were kept in this gorgeous gold and glass box ($24 on Amazon), which I would proudly display on my coffee table. (I recently moved from an apartment to a house in order to have a kitchen large enough to accommodate a dedicated coffee station.)
This elegant coffee scoop
I've been putting coffee into my freshly fancified dripper with the same awful scoop that came with my detested old $7 coffee dripper, when I could have used a designer coffee scoop. Dinah Lenny of The Strategist tried a number of them and proclaimed the artistic pieces above—the Apace Living coffee scoop (two for $14)—the "Rolls Royce of coffee scoops."
Containers for their beans
I can't believe I don't have any lovely airtight containers to store my coffee in ($35 for this vented one from Fellow, highly recommended by The Spruce). Do any of my friends or relatives know who I am? Do they not care?
A brewing rod
A scoop is great, but what if you only need a few more grams of coffee to make the ideal cup? The only thing your gift recipient can hope for is that someone gives them one of these metal brewing sticks ($13). Please save them from slightly mismeasured coffee cups!
Subscription to coffee
This is probably too obvious to mention—subscription boxes are a common gift idea—but I'm included it nonetheless since I'd be overjoyed if someone gave me a monthly coffee subscription. The Strategist has some ideas for you. (Just saying, I'd accept any of them.)
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