Holiday Gift Guide for Coffee Lovers ($50-$500)
Coffee Gifts $50-$500
Need a gift for that coffee nerd in your life? We’ve compiled a few of our favorite products into three gift guides. Check out our Gifts Under $50 Guide too. This second guide offers gift ideas that will cost you less than $500 and even includes some espresso preparation tools!
Baratza Encore Grinder ($140)
As we’ve said before, for making great coffee at home, buying a serious coffee grinder is probably the most impactful purchase you can make. If you’re looking for a game changer to someone’s coffee set up, the Encore is a great introductory grinder. We have carried them at the shop for years, but we also do special orders for any of Baratza’s grinders.
If they’re looking for a step beyond the Baratza Encore, or the recipient is planning on using it for espresso, we love the Baratza Sette 270. Check out Baratza’s other offerings here, and reach out if you’re interested in special ordering a specific grinder.
A Fellow Products Stagg Trifecta: XF Dripper + Carafe + EKG KETTLE ($266)
Our ideal pour over set up is a the Fellow Stagg series: the XF dripper with the glass carafe (above), and the EKG Electric Kettle (below). We wrote about what makes these items special in this blog post a while back, and about Fellow Products themselves in this post. Not only are these items beautiful, but they’re extremely functional and exactly what a coffee nerd needs on their kitchen counter.
Might be a good idea to budget an extra $9 for some coffee filters as well. The dripper comes with only 15 to start.
Flair Signature Espresso Maker with Pressure Kit ($239)
This is a fun entry into the espresso game. We consider it the next step after the Aeropress/Prismo set up and a solid way to make great espresso at home. It’s a simple set up where the user heats the water externally, applies the pressure manually, and is fully disassembled for easy cleaning. As you can imagine, the simplicity removes a lot of the parts that make a real espresso machine costly.
There are lower cost Flair Espresso Machines, but we suggest going for the Signature with the pressure gauge to increase consistency. There is also a “Pro” version that has a larger basket for dosing more coffee per shot.
Technivorm Moccamaster KBT Coffee Brewer ($309)
Maybe an automated brewer doesn’t seem like the right thing to get a coffee nerd, and depending on the person, it might not be the right gift. Someone whose love for coffee is centered on the ritual, the experience, of making their own coffee will probably not use this often. But there are lots of us out there who occasionally need a lot of coffee, conveniently. That’s where automated home brewers come in.
Technivorm Moccamaster is one of the Specialty Coffee Association’s certified home brewers. In fact, at one time, they were the only ones certified by the association. The certification is based on consistency of time, volume and extraction uniformity as well as the ability for the coffee slurry to reach certain temperatures during the brew process.
All that to say, this is one great brewer company. There are lots of brewers we could recommend from Technivorm, but our experience has primarily been with the KBT. It has our stamp of approval.
The Saint Anthony New Levy Tamper ($149)
This is a great gift for someone who would consider themselves a beginner or intermediate home barista. To make great espresso, you need a perfectly flat bed of coffee to start with. The New Levy Tamp uses a ledge that will sit flush with the sides of the filter basket when you tamp espresso. This, paired with good redistribution, will ensure that your coffee bed is never uneven as it starts to extract.
Important note: make sure you know the size of the filter basket that will be used with this tamp before purchasing. While most commercial machines will use a 58.3mm tamper, it’s not uncommon to see home machines with much smaller requirements.
Acaia Pearl ($140)
The gold standard of coffee scales. We’ve used these scales at the shop since the beginning. And, as we approach our five year anniversary, we’re still using the same ones we started with. They’re sturdy, they’re accurate and super responsive, and they are rechargeable.
The Acaia scales have timers built in, an auto tare function, and they’re easy to switch between grams and ounces. They also have the ability to connect to your phone via bluetooth for a remote control function.
One thing to note, the Pearl might be a little big to fit on most espresso machines, so going a little smaller would be good if you’re buying for a more espresso-focused home barista. Pearl’s little brother is called the Lunar. Definitely worth taking a look at.
Coffee ($50+)
As we wrote in our Under $50 Gift Guide, fresh coffee is what every home barista needs. We recommend planning your purchase as close to giving the gift as possible -- bearing in mind your shipping time if ordering online. Freshness is key when it comes to specialty coffee!
If you’re willing to spend a little bit more on coffee, you could give someone a particularly outstanding coffee like this Panama La Valentina from George Howell selling for $69 for 4oz of coffee. It will be an amazing experience for a coffee lover that might not get it for themselves. If it is sold out, check out another one of George Howell’s Limited Roasts , this Colombian Gesha from Methodical Coffee or this Mexico Finca Chelin - Tres Geishas from Archetype Coffee.
We have written about these three roasters on the blog if you’re interested in learning more about them: Archetype, George Howell, Methodical.
These are all limited time offerings, so I can’t guarantee that these exact coffees will be available exactly when you need them. I encourage you to reach out directly to the roasters themselves to plan your purchase if you’re concerned.
HAPPY GIFTING!
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