Do you dream of a bucolic morning in a light-soaked kitchen, waiting patiently as perfectly heated water gently seeps through single-origin coffee in a pour-over coffee maker? Do you need steaming mugs of joe produced on demand like a drip coffee maker while you tackle a mountain of emails, but you also demand better coffee than your average percolator can produce? And are you looking to beat the summer heat with a stellar cold brew coffee that’s as simple to make as plain old filter coffee?
Balmuda The Brew — by the makers of the TikTok-famous steam-infusing toaster — does all those things.
Balmuda The Brew?is a semiautomated take on pour-over coffee, the process wherein precisely heated water is “poured over” fresh ground coffee and allowed to slowly drip through a conical vessel into a mug or carafe below. While artisanal pour-over takes some skill and attention and a bit of associated gear — a pour-over funnel or self-contained pour-over coffee maker, an electric kettle and a precision kitchen scale — Balmuda The Brew does everything but grind the coffee. (So you’ll need to already own or pick up a coffee grinder.)
To find out if Balmuda The Brew really delivers on its promise to combine automatic drip convenience with craft pour-over quality, we spent a month testing the machine and sampling the range of drinks it produced to see if it deserves a place on your kitchen counter.
Balmuda The Brew brings automation — and fantastic results — to pour-over coffee, producing balanced, enjoyable hot and iced coffees. It’s pricey, but if you demand perfection and you’re willing to pay for it, it’s worth a try.
What we liked about it
Great-tasting pour-over coffee at the push of a button (well, 4 pushes)
Balmuda The Brew demystifies the pour-over process. You don’t need to weigh coffee, measure water or heat water to a particular temperature. Instead, you simply use the provided scoop to measure coffee grounds into a paper filter, lock the dripper into place and fill the detachable water reservoir appropriately using the clearly indicated, easily readable fill marks. After that, you select a size (small, medium or large) and brewing mode (you can choose two intensities for hot coffee — regular or strong — or iced coffee) and start the process. That’s it — great coffee in four button pushes.
Balmuda The Brew consistently made beautifully rounded coffee. Bright fruit notes shone through, as did more subtle floral undertones. And temperatures were right on target. Our coffee was hot without being scalding, as you sometimes experience with cheaper automatic drip coffee makers. The strong setting gave coffee a bit more body to stand up to milk and sugar, while regular did the trick if you take your coffee black.
A note here on grind size: The manufacturer recommended a fine coffee grind, but we preferred a medium grind, which got us a full-bodied cup without bitterness.
Great iced coffee in a flash
The sleek Balmuda the Brew produced silky, full-bodied iced coffee that’s perfect for summertime. The iced setting makes a slightly more concentrated brew (thanks to using less water) that you flash chill by adding ice cubes to the carafe. A small iced coffee calls for 1.5 ounces of ice to be swirled in the carafe before pouring it into a glass with ice. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, that’s roughly five ice cubes from a fridge dispenser.
Simple to clean
The compact machine has only a few parts, so it’s much easier to clean than a traditional automatic drip coffee machine. A small bit of water remains in the reservoir after the brewing cycle, so be sure to pour that out and let it air-dry after each use, and while everything has to be hand-washed, it’s very little effort. Even the small carafe is simple to rinse and wipe down with a soft cloth.
What we didn’t like about it
Only makes a single coffee at a time
Balmuda The Brew may perform better than its rivals, but it is a true single-serve coffee maker. We were able to squeeze two small coffees out of the large setting — nice for that first cup or an afternoon jolt of caffeine — but if you’ve got more than one coffee drinker in the house, you’re each making your own cup. That could get old quickly if your mornings are always a rush.
Also, a small coffee is only 4 ounces and the large clocks in at 12 ounces. So if you’re a Starbucks regular, you might feel like the large is really more of a small. Likewise, the stainless steel carafe, while well insulated, is smaller than you might think. It’s a personal-size carafe, roughly the size of a syrup dispenser you’d find at a diner.
It’s very, very expensive
Balmuda The Brew makes a great cup of coffee, but it comes with an ultra–premium price tag, especially considering you can put together a pretty great manual pour-over setup for less than $100. And it’s pretty bare-bones at that price — you can’t program it ahead of time or use it to store coffee beans. And if you want foam, you’ll have to purchase a milk frother. This Zulay model is a solid, inexpensive option.
While you don’t need an electric kettle because the machine heats the water to 187 degrees Fahrenheit, you’ll need to own a separate coffee grinder and buy paper coffee filters (cone-shaped No. 2 filters fit). While we’ve found several good coffee grinders that are affordable, they can be expensive, too. (Though if you’re willing to spend the money on the Balmuda, this may not be a concern.)
It produces plenty of steam
Balmuda The Brew produces a fair bit of steam during the preheating process. The compact machine easily fits on the counter, but you wouldn’t want to use it under a cabinet, and understandably, the manual recommends you place the machine at least 4 inches from the wall — typical guidance for electric kettles, espresso machines and similar devices.
Bottom line
Balmuda The Brew occupies a unique spot in the coffee universe. It offers easy — if expensive — access to the world of craft pour-over coffee. It’s really for serious coffee enthusiasts, those who already own a good grinder, maybe already have a great espresso machine and want equally good pour-over coffee from a similarly interesting device. Its ability to make great iced coffee is also a real bonus in warm weather, though you’ll have to decide if it’s worth the price of admission.
Fans of manual pour-over setups might argue that you’re missing out on the ritual of preparation, but the consistency and ease of Balmuda The Brew override that romantic notion pretty quickly. If you’re serious about your coffee hobby and want the taste of great pour-over without all the effort, Balmuda The Brew is worth a look.
