All my items are hand picked, I buy what I like. The items are also checked, cleaned, tested described to my best knowledge after serious research. I do not waste time on uninteresting pieces. You won’t find stupid flaws like crack, burn marks, deep scratches or parts missing. Condition will be described in detail and shown in pictures. Coffee items are mostly sold as a collectable but should be able to preform their function (unless otherwise stated). Feel free to roam around and if you have any questions or concerns, just send me a short message. Do keep in mind that most items are pretty unique and I do not often come across the same item twice.
Coffee makers and accessories, some history
Brewing coffee has been done since the discovery of the coffee bean itself somewhere around the 15th century. Since the late 17th there were dedicated coffee houses in Western Europe to be found in Holland, England, and Germany. Italy is also well known for their coffee culture and introduced now common coffee types with Italian names like espresso and cappuccino to the world. After coffee drinking was established, people wanted to be able to mimic the coffee ritual at coffee shops in their own home.
For this purpose many small coffee makers were developed from filter coffee to percolators, from different seizes of espresso and cappuccino cups to wall mounted hand grinders and small electric coffee grinders. The older designs are often still produced since the power and simplicity to last a lifetime. In addition many designers made the same items much more beautiful and appealing to they eyes, making coffee makers and their accessories an addition to any kitchen, to be used and displayed. Vintage coffee items are therefor highly collectable as well. I personally am a great fan of any coffee items featured in the Star Trek series like the black La Cupola designed by Aldo Rossi for Alessi in 1988, to the Morinox half black plastic – half polished steel coffee cups used by Captain Archer and Captain Picards Bodum tea glasses with black handle.
What is what in coffee country?
When finding your way to the best cup of coffee you may encounter many new and interesting things with their own terminology. To make things a little easier, I will try summon up a few here to have you easier navigate the items you can find here. My personal preference is hand grinder coffee (medium fine/course) for a filter coffee machine or Moka pot.
Coffee cup: any vessel you can sever coffee in, being sized (small to big), ristretto, espresso, americano, cappuccino, latte or mug even. Cups can be made of ceramic, plastic, metal or combinations, with or without saucer to put it on.
Coffee maker: any device that helps in brewing coffee, using water and ground coffee. This can be a percolator, durobor, French press, Napoletana, Lever espresso machine, etc.
Durobor: a type of filter coffee made in 1 large cup, so a single cup coffee maker. Brand name became synonym for the coffee maker style.
French press: A often glass or metal container with plunger where coffee is brewed by pressing down and mixing (medium) coursely grounded coffee and hot water.
Filter coffee: Made by pouring hot water over (medium) coarsely grounded coffee, by hand or electric.
Grind: What you get after grinding beans. How course or finely ground your coffee bean need to be, depend on your coffee making process. Espresso needs the finest grind. Medium grounded coffee is good for most ways to make coffee. The fresher the grind the better so always grind your beans just before making coffee and alway grind your own beans.
Grinder: not an app but often a hand job. The grinder is used to manually or electronically grind coffee bean to be able to be used in the coffee making proces. Most older hand grinders do not grind fine enough for espresso but are great for most other coffee maker types.
Moka / Mocha Pot: another name for a Percolator, the Bialtti brand is also often used as synonym for the percolator where the 6 sided percolator made by Bialetti is often used for depicting the moka pot and is called the Bialetti Moka.
Napoletana: aka Flip pot, the worst watery coffee made in the most risky way…only liked in poor Napoli, hence the name.
Percolator: a metal (aluminum or stainless steel) coffee maker you can put directly over a heat source. They contain coffee and water and make strong coffee with medium course ground all wrapped in one. Aluminum has always been best for it heats and cools the fastest but does not work on electric stoves. They come in many sizes (2 cups, 3 cups up to 8 or 10 cups) where the cup sizes are about a full espresso cup.
Coffee brands from around the world
Beside the brands above, you can find coffee cups by brands like Illy, GB, Bodum, Morinox and Casalinghi. There will be Percolators, filter coffee maker and mocha pots by Bialetti, Alessi, Guido Bergna, Zanzibar, Braun, LaPavoni, Cona, Presso / ROK, Siemens Porsche design, Durobor and Melitta. You can find grinders by Peter Dienes, KyM, Peugeot, PeDe / DeVe, Zassenhaus and various other small yet interesting quality brands.