Acaia Lunar Espresso Scale

Good coffee doesn’t happen by accident. When it comes to quality, precision is critical. Nowhere is this more evident than espresso. Even a half gram difference in dose or yield can have a marked effect on flavor. For espresso, we’re big fans of the American Weigh Sc-2Kg. It’s small, cheap, fast, and accurate, but it has one Achille’s heel: even a small amount of moisture will destroy it. I’ve seen many a barista ruin a scale with a careless steam wand purge or a sloppy pouring technique. But the latest product from coffee tech start-up Acaia promises to be a “barista-proof” scale. In addition to being waterproof, the Lunar offers rapid, tenth of a gram accuracy and syncs via bluetooth to a new app called Brewmaster, which offers a streamlined system for recording shot times and flow rates. The program can sync with multiple devices allowing even the busiest cafés to track their consistency and accuracy. If the success of their Acaia Pearl scale is any indicator, we expect the Lunar is going to be a big hit.

PUSH tamper

It’s never been easier to find a boutique café brewing a well known coffee roaster with good equipment. And yet being served an excellent shot of espresso is still far too rare. In our experience, it’s usually the barista’s fault, and the most common culprit is an unlevel tamp. PUSH is an exciting new tamper from the UK’s Clockwork Espresso. The simple but genius design of the PUSH offers an ergonomic design that produces a perfectly level tamp each time. UK Barista Champion Maxwell Colona-Dashwood recently used one while reaching the finals of the World Barista Championship.

La Marzocco Linea Mini

For almost 30 years, baristas have looked to the La Marzocco Linea for its dependable quality and its timeless design. We’ve even met baristas who named their child after this café classic. A new consumer version dubbed the Linea Mini is collecting awards and eliciting home barista euphoria around the world. Normally, we would steer the vast majority of people away from trying to make espresso at home. But the Linea Mini’s temperature control and separate boiler for the steam wand offer a level of espresso quality usually found only in a café. The MRSP of $4,500 is a significant leap from most consumer machines, but still much cheaper than most industrial single-group espresso machines. We just hope La Marzocco is looking for some coffee bloggers to test one out.

STC Pro Cezve

You need some Turkish coffee in your life. You won’t find a more proper copper coffee pot than the professional cezve from master artisans Soy. Soy translates as “ancestry” or “lineage”, a testament to the company’s commitment to tradition and craftsmanship. This solid piece of copper and silver was designed in collaboration with World Cezve Champion Turgay Yıldızlı and is handmade just outside Istanbul’s famed Grand Bazaar. Thanks to Specialty Turkish Coffee, this beauty is now available in the United States. We can say without hesitation that it’s the most gorgeous piece of coffee making equipment we own.