The
abundance of coffee makers (and samples) made it easy to stay caffeinated at
the International Home + Housewares Show held by the International Housewares Association
which took place from March 10 to 13 at Chicago’s McCormick Place. In this
article, I will highlight celebrity baristas and speedy cold brew coffee.
Celebrity baristas
Celebrity chefs such as Cat Cora, Emeril Lagasse, Ming Tsai, and
Rick Bayless are a big presence at the show as they demonstrate their culinary
skills at the cooking theater and welcome attendees at vendor booths. This
year, there was a bigger presence of baristas at the show as coffee maker
companies seek to position their coffee makers as producing barista-quality,
craft coffee, just like at their favorite specialty coffee shop.
Brim
U.S. Brewers Cup Finalist Blair Smith demonstrated Sensio Inc’s
new Brim line of manual and electric coffee makers as the brand’s resident
coffee expert and ambassador. Some of you may remember Brim as a General Foods decaffeinated
coffee brand and its “Fill it to the rim with…Brim” TV slogan from the 1960s-80s
before it disappeared from shelves. Brim’s new owner has reimagined Brim as a
craft coffee brand with the collection including a
pour over coffee kit with 30-ounce glass decanter, smart valve cold brew
coffeemaker with patented integrated smart valve, an automatic 8-cup pour over
coffeemaker with brew pulse technology, and a conical burr grinder.
Gourmia
Coffee Masters NYC Champion Erika Vonie prepared cortados, espressos,
pour over coffee, and more at the Gourmia booth. Gourmia showed its Gourmia
GCM3350 IoT (Internet of Technology) coffee maker, “the world’s first automatic
pour-over coffee maker can be integrated with both Google Home and Amazon Alexa”.
The company has “created a unique planetary pouring
pattern, perfected the blooming process, and mastered the temperature control”
to replicate a barista’s expertise for the home kitchen. Erika and I chatted
about specialty coffee while Eric Grimm made unicorn coffee and activated
charcoal coffee using coffee from Counter Culture for me.
Hario
Japanese barista Hiroshi Sawada, World Latte Art champion, did not
appear at the Hario booth but I am hoping that Hario invites him to the show
next year. I had the pleasure of meeting Sawada at the grand opening of his
Sawada coffee shop (in collaboration with Hogsalt Hospitality) in Chicago. Hario
is best known for its Hario V60 coffee drippers. They also showed siphon coffee
makers, cold brew coffee bottles, and cold brew tea bottles at the show.
KitchenAid
Andreas Willhoff, Director of Education for Halfwit Coffee
Roasters, General Manager of The Wormhole Coffee, and co-author of Craft Coffee: A
Manual, demonstrated KitchenAid’s line of craft coffee makers including new
Precision Gooseneck Kettles that have a gooseneck spout and three flow-rate
settings and a brew range thermometer in the lid along with a Precision French Press
that comes with an integrated scale & timer and a larger size Cold Brew
Coffee Maker.
Nespresso
Brian Leonard, “Barista Brian”, has created latte art for
celebrities at events such as the Sundance Film Festival and Toronto Film
Festival. At the Housewares Show, Brian created
custom latte art at the Nespresso booth with an overhead camera capturing his
every move. The company showcased its new De’Longhi Lattissima One Single-Serve Cappuccino and
Latte Nespresso Machine and offered a digital tour of its coffee production
process through virtual reality headsets.
Speedy cold
brew coffee
Americans are embracing cold brew coffee as it provides a
smoother, less bitter taste than traditional iced coffee that is made from hot-brewed
coffee. But not everyone likes the idea
of steeping ground coffee beans in water for 12+ hours. A number of exhibitors
showcased cold brew coffee makers that reduce the brewing time to under an
hour.
Cuisinart’s Automatic Cold Brew Coffeemaker uses
spinning action to extract flavor from coffee grounds and make cold brew coffee in
about 25 – 45 minutes. The machine makes 7 cups of cold brew coffee, with a
choice of three settings – mild (25 minutes), medium (35 minutes) and bold (45
minutes). Gourmia‘s GCM 6800 Cold Brew Coffee Maker claims that its new cold
brew coffee machine can “vacuum cold brew in just 2 minutes”. Storebound’s Dash
Rapid Cold Brew System has a brewing time of 5 minutes. The machine uses
ColdBoil technology to make 42 ounces of cold brew.
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