Part of Gear Patrol‘s mission is to get our hands on as many products as we can, test them and let you know what’s worth pulling your wallet out for and what’s just smoke and mirrors. Because of this, we sometimes see ourselves as experts in a product realm. When speaking about all things coffee with James McLaughlin, I did not feel this way.
The President and CEO of Intelligentsia Coffee was not thrust into his position because of a strong handshake and bright smile (though he has both). He earned the title by working at nearly every level of the coffee industry — including moving his family to Brazil to take over a coffee farm, and eventually turn that coffee farm into a respected grower of specialty coffee in a country traditionally overrun with mass-produced schlock. He served as Intelligentsia’s Director of Green Coffee, Roasting and Quality Control before becoming its frontman, and sits on the board of World Coffee Research, an enormous collaborative effort bringing scientific rigor to coffee. In other words, McLaughlin is an actual expert.
I sat down with him at Intelligentsia’s Highline Coffee Bar with a specific goal in mind — figure out which fringe coffee products that scream “Do I really need this?” are worth buying into, and which are all talk. Here, McClaughlin outlines eight pieces of coffee gear that make us ask that question, and what he thinks of them.
Do You Need a Hand Coffee Grinder?
Verdict: “I’m generally sleepy in the morning and I don’t want to stand there grinding. I mean, a hand grinder can be good and provide good, consistent grinds. We sell a Japanese one that’s excellent, and really it’s a matter of personal preference. Some people like the ritualistic, sort of manual nature of the hand grinder. To me, a good electric burr grinder gives you comparable grind quality at the push of a button. It’s more important you get a burr grinder than anything else, blade grinders make for pretty sub-par cups of coffee.”
