Our Technivorm Moccamaster (with glass carafe) arrived a day after we ordered it from
Terroir Coffee, complete with 12 oz. of
Matalapa, La Libertad, El Salvador, a box of Filtropa #4 filters, George Howell's recommendations for brewing, and a genuine George Howell Coffee Company scoop. We have been experimenting with the Technivorm for a few days and have concluded that Howell's proportions (water to coffee in the ration of 17:1, that is, 17 oz. water to 1 oz. coffee) suits our taste. If you are using the Technivorm markings for cups, it translates to about 7 grams of coffee per cup. The GHCC scoop holds about 14 grams.
The TV certainly makes great coffee but we found that our $25 KitchenAid 4-cupper does an equally fine job. The TV excels in its flexibility for tweaking the brew and its ability to make extra-strength coffee. I did that by accident the first time that I tried the TV and it was a revelation. My wife had her usual amount at breakfast and spent the rest of the day totally wired. We both loved the taste (it's as rich as espresso with more depth) but we won't do this too often because we're afraid that our heart rates will go into overdrive. If you're interested, the proportions were 22 oz. of water to 28 grams coffee, added to an empty TV, no residual water. Set the TV for the slow percolation rate. Interestingly, that is the same as our usual coffee via the KitchenAid but it came out totally different with the TV, most likely because the TV doesn't pass all the water through the coffee, keeping some in the water reservoir.
We are especially happy to have a maker that can brew amounts of coffee greater than 4 cups because we need that when we have company. Our previous 8-cupper (a freebie courtesy of Gevalia and made by Melitta) did a poor job. So, the TV is not
flawless (dkmarsh take note
) but it is an excellent machine.
