I am not a coffee nut, but got one of these serendipitously as a present and can attest it makes a good cup of coffee. Here's some facts (maybe obvious to others) I found out after the fact that I wish I had known a long time ago:
1. If you've never owned an electric kettle, you may not know that they will boil water in mere seconds (!) and are a key part in making an Aeropress practical. (And they're cheap: http://goo.gl/8dVnP2)
2. If you ever get heartburn and drink coffee, you MUST buy one of these ASAP, it will help immensely. Fast-brewed coffees have very low acidity, so you should treat yourself with aeropress (or Starbucks Clover coffee, another fast-brewed method) if you have this problem... you will probably feel better.
3. That said, these things brew a coffee that is like a hybrid between espresso and drip coffee, so if that sounds bad/good to you, you'll feel about the coffee you get from this the same way.
4. An aeropress is the easiest to clean kitchen appliance I've ever owned. You will NOT think to yourself "boy this coffeemaker could probably use a thorough cleaning" every time you want a cup of coffee... no such anxiety with this device.
Wait, what? Electric kettles aren't in every house there? That's insane! Here in Australia, it's like the one thing EVERYONE has. Hell, even hotel rooms usually contain a microwave and a kettle even if they have absolutely nothing else.
Maybe it's the fact that in the US, you have 120V/10A max, so your kettles are 1200W peak and therefore take twice as long as ours at 240V/10A and thus 2400W? I don't know. I just find that staggering that someone could not have an electric kettle.
As an aside, it's always been amazing to me that the 'standard' coffee you buy here is espresso, everyhwere, whereas the standard there to my knowledge is usually drip or french press. That in itself (that entire nations can have substantially different ways of making 'coffee') is pretty incredible to me.
All that said, the whole 'makes 5 or 6 cups minimum' problem is the one I've always faced with making coffee at home. I might actually pick one of these things up if it really does solve that and really deliver something that's more towards espresso rather than drip/press.
I have used an AeroPress for years. I also own a $1400 domestic espresso machine and a $700 grinder. These days I'm using one of those Hario pour over cones as my espresso alternative.
The AeroPress is good. But it's not close to espresso at all. If you over dose and are prepared to push very slowly for a long time, you can get some espresso like flavours out of it, but this can take a while.
That said the AeroPress is really worth it. The filters are truly reusable. I still have not gone through my original pack of filters that I got with mine several years ago.
I have a cheap domestic espresso machine, and agree: aeropressed coffee is nowhere near espresso. I find it pretty close to what "Italian" coffee kettles do (this: http://ravistationery.com/images/office%20automation/morphy%...) albeit milder, not as acid or sour as this one. I have not used it much, but I like having my Aeropress, even though it requires quite more coffee than other types of machines.
In the UK, too, almost everyone has an electric kettle. The last one I had there drew 3kW (although strangely I couldn't find such a kettle for sale here in China, which also runs on 220-240V).
I don't have one, and don't know anyone who has one. In fact, I've never seen one in an actual home. We don't drink tea the way Britain and other former British possessions do.
(in my case I don't drink a lot of hot tea, but I do drink a lot of iced tea, and a worthwhile amount of that is larger than what most kettles can do -- I typically brew a gallon or more at a time)
First time I ever even saw* one was when I was in my 30's and it was at a job I had. I saw a similar thread here on HN where some brits though it was old fashion and barbaric to use a kettle on the stovetop. Well, I grew up with those, though I don't own one myself. I just heat a cup of water in the microwave.
* - or conciously aware of seeing it. I might have seen it and it was just background noise.
You probably hadn't seen one. When my parents retired and began wintering in Arizona, they couldn't help noticing that their neighbours were fascinated by this strange something like a hot pot, but just for water thing they brought with them. It was just like a kettle, but you plugged it in! That was only twenty years ago. So at the very least, there were regions of the US in which the electric kettle was virtually unknown, while here in Canada one was at least as likely to have an electric kettle as, say, a pair of shoes.
Most asian households have one, super convenient for tea, cup noodles, etc. I use one that is more of a boiler/pot so it keeps water always at the right temperature.
I'm pretty sure it is because of the 120V. Most circuits are actually rated for 15A, but it's possible that kettles sold here draw lower currents. Anyway, that's going to heat water a lot slower than on 240V.
I've never seen an electric kettle in anyone's home, but almost everyone I know does have a stovetop kettle.
Most new circuits are rated 15A and up. Older residential installations still have tons of 10As. I just had a new service put in, before that everything was 10A except for the a couple in my basement workshop.
Actually most European countries are 230V not 240V (though that was the standard in some countries previously (like the UK who dropped it for easier compatibility with continental systems (back in 93))).
Prior to harmonisation Europe was mostly 220V so 230v was the average of the two common systems (in reality because of tolerances there are big overlaps).
Electric kettles are definitely popular, but I don't think it makes such a difference compared to a decent standard kettle [0].
Boiling one or two cups of water won't take too long (30 sec ? 1min) on a gas or IH stove, it's easier to clean, no electric components, no maintenance, you can roughly adjust the temperature you want (i.e some teas are best at ~80°C), and it works with a gas burner during black outs.
[0] for home use of course. I don't see any way an hotel could provide a classic kettle without a full kitchen corner.
Exactly, it's also more accurate, as you know the water will be consistently just below 100C as you pour it on the pasta. I set my timer to 7.5 minutes to get a perfect al dente, just slightly undercooked so it can still absorb some of the sauce you mix it with.
Yep, the stats in the US heavily favor coffee since around the time of the revolution. In certain places, it was unpatriotic to drink hot tea. About 85% of tea is iced in the US[1].
>Wait, what? Electric kettles aren't in every house there? That's insane! Here in Australia, it's like the one thing EVERYONE has. Hell, even hotel rooms usually contain a microwave and a kettle even if they have absolutely nothing else.
I remember once I watched a friend's cats while he was on extended vacation back home in China.
You try very hard to be accommodating when someone capable of covering your pager shift asks for a favor, because you know the currency in which that favor is to be repaid. Besides, he was senior to me (in terms of skill) and got me the job in the first place, so I kinda owed him at the outset. But it's almost always worth it to put in a lot of effort to have more than one person who can cover your pager feel like they owe you. But still, I'll totally clean out your cat's liter box if I think I can get you to cover my pager.
Anyhow, the weird thing was that he had like six electric kettles scattered throughout his house; and most of them were in 'sleep mode' - they were still on and plugged in and ready to dispense water fairly quickly. I guess the idea was that they were heavily insulated, so it didn't take a lot to keep the water warm?
Being me, I unplugged them all.
I've considered a kettle for myself, but the kettles I've used, mostly in ersatz office situations, all took a pretty long time to warm up from 'cold' - and all of them were nasty, because some asshole decided to put tea (or something) directly in the kettle.
What I find funny is that I bought one of those fancy super-automatic espresso machines of craigslist; You know, one of those brushed-aluminum deals where you pour whole beans in the top and just press a button? It doesn't take that long to warm up, and it's on a 5-15r (15 amps of 120v) - I know the reservoir on this thing is room-temperature, and it's pretty quick to warm up. Much faster than any kettle I've tried.
It makes pretty good espresso, too. Not as good as, say, chromatic coffee, or even B2 in san jose, but it beats the heck out of starbucks, and I don't have to put on pants. It does require periodic work, which I don't mind. I like working on mechanical things. Just don't make me do it in the morning, you know? As for effort expended to get my coffee? it's gotta be even easier than the aeropress. Expensive, though. I think I paid $300 for mine, and it's about 4x that new.
>You fill normal kettles at the time you use them, and you only fill them with the water you need.
But my espresso machine, it's got a pretty big (room temperature) reservoir, and only heats up the water as-needed. I mean, I probably have to fill it every second day, and that's with two people using it, and using the steamer.
Especially when my performance is impaired due to withdrawal, it seems a reasonable optimization to save the 'fill the damn thing up, but not too much' step.
>I am surprised that kettles don't have a think skin of insulation. I sometimes wonder how much energy could be saved by micro-enhancements like that.
All the electric kettles I've seen did have very thick insulation; it looked like they were intended to be left on or in standby all the time.
Not for tea. There is a substantial difference in flavour if the water isnt boiling. It's one of the shocking things a british person experiences in america, handed tea made with a microwave. It really is quite disgusting in comparison.
I think it's more that no one ever actually boils it. They microwave it to drinking temperature. I'm not sure it would be safe to boil it in a microwave, the water would go everywhere.
Microwaves don't always superheat water. I find that when I'm making an individual cup of tea, it gets superheated far less than half the time, and even when it does it doesn't react violently enough to the introduction of the tea bag to be a concern.
Yeah, 240 sounds really convenient. But are you scared of it? How dangerous is it to get hit with that kind if voltage? Is everything over there GFIed?
> are you scared of it? How dangerous is it to get hit with that kind if voltage?
it really depends on what body part touches it, and where the electricity wants to go (ground). the longer the path, the more dangerous it is.
I got hit once, from a broken electric kettle, in fact :) I had accidentally dropped the thing, some plastic bit had broken off and exposed some metal strip that was bent out of shape (in the base part, that the kettle part gets power from). Let's attribute it to not having had my morning coffee yet, when I figured hey let's bend that bit back to where it should be, not realizing the thing was still plugged in.
It hurt. It felt literally as quite a shock. But it was just my arm. A jolt, like when you're holding a stick and someone hits that stick with another stick really hard. Except a bit harder than that. I remember feeling quite shaken afterwards, could be adrenaline, could be my nerves being all agitated, I dunno.
After a few minutes I was fine again.
Guess I was lucky, maybe?
The very same day I got a new electric kettle (the cheapest ones are just €10), because really for me it's in indispensable kitchen tool, like the microwave or a chef's knife.
It helps that European plugs are all better designed - it's impossible to touch live prongs by mistake while plugging a device in (which has happened to me in the US).
In the UK (exclusively, I think), the sockets have gates - in [1] you'll see that there's a lever in the top hole - that pushes down the plastic covers in the bottom hole allowing the pins to be inserted. The earth plug is longer than the live and neutral plugs, meaning that you cannot electrocute yourself with a plug unless you really try. At the same time, plugs [2] typically have plastic guards around most of the pins, such that no electricity can be flowing through the pins while it's exposed.
Of course, it was all for nothing when as a kid I put a braddle or something in the top hole and then mucked around with the bottom hole. Also, I imagine that the foot injuries you get in the UK are also greater because the plugs typically face up (although I've only seen someone actually impale their foot on a holiday in America). But yes, we have the safest sockets in the world according to my old schoolteacher.
ever since we have an induction stove, we're technically "e-kettle free". so I could state the contrary: "what? you still own and use an e-kettle?" ...
I think most/all people in North America have electric kettles. With HN, you're probably dealing with a particular demographic (recent college graduates) that would have a lower adoption.
California for 16 years - I've been in a lot of houses, old and new, but I've never seen an electric kettle. Lots of stove top kettles though, some with whistles, some without. Also, In Canada (British Columbia) I've seen a few in hotel rooms, but never seen them in houses. Stove Top kettles are very popular there though, particularly with older homes.
Grew up in North Carolina, and I've never seen an electric kettle in anyone's home, ever. The only place I've seen one (besides Target, Wal-mart, etc.) is in the break-room of the building where our local hackerspace is. And sadly, it broke recently, so now we need a new one!
Having been exposed to them now, and even more so after reading this article, I do plan to buy myself an electric kettle though.
FWIW, everyone I know has always heated water in a saucepan or kettle on the stovetop.
I'm originally from Missouri (wife as well), Mom's from Wisconson, Dad's from Boston, currently living in the Seattle area. Nope, never even saw one until I was in my low to mid 30s. We used stove top kettles.
However, dorm rooms often do allow them (heats up water for ramen), but it isn't universal, and I'm imagining most kids are like "WTF is this," looks it up and learns about it for the firs time.
I agree with try. To me, cold-brew coffee generally tastes a lot like "semi-instant" machine coffee (made from paste/syrup -- probably essentially cold brew+added hot water) -- and it is absolutely different from other kinds of brewing methods. I think it tastes rather awful -- but whatever one prefers...
I got one of those electric kettle you linked. It is made of plastic - the boiled water smells, tastes like plastic. This is not just the first time, even after a dozen times it tastes the same, and it is horrible.
I don't know anything about aeropress, but it is not a good idea to buy a plastic electric kettle. stainless steel ones are better.
It's just your kettle that's bad. An electric kettle made of plastic should not impart any flavour on the water. I have used a bunch, never had a problem (and I consider myself highly sensitive in that regard).
1. If you've never owned an electric kettle, you may not know that they will boil water in mere seconds (!) and are a key part in making an Aeropress practical. (And they're cheap: http://goo.gl/8dVnP2)
2. If you ever get heartburn and drink coffee, you MUST buy one of these ASAP, it will help immensely. Fast-brewed coffees have very low acidity, so you should treat yourself with aeropress (or Starbucks Clover coffee, another fast-brewed method) if you have this problem... you will probably feel better.
3. That said, these things brew a coffee that is like a hybrid between espresso and drip coffee, so if that sounds bad/good to you, you'll feel about the coffee you get from this the same way.
4. An aeropress is the easiest to clean kitchen appliance I've ever owned. You will NOT think to yourself "boy this coffeemaker could probably use a thorough cleaning" every time you want a cup of coffee... no such anxiety with this device.