I’m going to be honest, if you asked me last week whether the world needs another coffee dripper my answer would have been a resounding no. Between the Hario V60, Kalita Wave, Beehive, Melita, and even this collapsable silicon thingy, there’s more than enough products on the market. But then I saw this Kickstarter campaign and realized how wrong I was.
The December Dripper was design by specialty coffee luminaries Nick Cho and Youngmin Lee. Cho, amongst many other things, came up with the now global Brewers Cup competition and introduced the seminal Kalita Wave dripper to the US market. The December Dripper picks up where the Kalita Wave’s flat bottom geometry left off. The main improvement of the December Dripper compared to other brew devices is the ability to adjust the flow rate of the dripper without changing your grind. This allows the user to have unprecedented control over their recipe, not to mention more versatility with different batch sizes.
We’ve been burned on more than a few coffee Kickstarter projects, so we don’t back this one lightly. Ostensibly, the December Dripper will allow the user to combine the best characteristics of drippers like the NotNuetral Gino or Kalita Wave, with immersion brewers like the Clever. We, of course, withhold our final opinion until we can test the product for ourselves, but the genius of the concept plus our faith in Nick Cho means we’ll be throwing our own money into the hat. Thankfully, the projected shipping date of the December Dripper is actually in June.
Wow! Great article and this dropper looks as cool as it hopefully functions. Adding more variables to the brew gives us more options. With an adjustable grinder, a Kruve with multiple sieves, and a dripper with adjustable flow rate, the possibilities are truly endless.
Pretty great article! I would definitely consider owning a December Dripper in the near future. Thanks for all the details on the product. Check out my blog at the website listed and let me know what you think.
Hey- just curious now that you’ve had the December for a while, what your thoughts are on it? Is it worth an upgrade from my Kalita for it?
I quite like my December Dripper, but I doubt you’ll see a significant difference from your Kalita Wave.
Thanks for the quick reply- one other question. I’m interested in an upgrade on my Virtuoso. Hand grinders hurt my wrists(although I’ve only used cheap ones). I have a VST- is it worth a grinder upgrade or should I just trust the #s from the VST in terms of dialing in? I tend to drink mostly scandavian roasters ie Drop, Coffee Collective etc or their American counterparts like Sey Coffee.
If you have the budget the Vario or Forte are flat burr grinders from Baratza that will definitely improve your extractions