A CHEMEX BREW GUIDE from Cartel Coffee Lab on Vimeo.

The Chemex

German-born chemist Peter Schlumbohm had a simple goal: invent the best coffee maker ever. After several years of testing and prototypes, the Chemex was patented in 1939. Over the ensuing decades the Chemex became an icon of design and pop culture. The Chemex is James Bond’s brew method of choice in From Russia With Love and is also featured in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, who says it “epitomizes the kitchen–as–laboratory concept—a hallmark of the interwar New Kitchen.” (They stole the words right out of our mouth.)  In more recent years it has experienced a revival amongst the craft coffee movement, valued for its ergonomic elegance and the clean, balanced cup it produces.

Cartel Coffee

Out of a plethora of instructional videos on the interwebs, Cartel Coffee Lab in Tempe, Arizona has one of our favorites. This shop is always one of my first destinations whenever I fly back to the Grand Canyon State to visit my family (full review here) and this is the only coffee video I have seen with a No Country For Old Men allusion. So strap on your boots, grab a kettle, and start brewing!