[dropcap]F[/dropcap]ellow is a company I’ve been following for some time now. They caught my eye with their beautiful kettle over a year ago, and I’ve been eyeballing it since. This past April, at SCA’s Global Coffee Expo, I ran into the folks at Fellow and they showed me their new Fellow Stagg Dripper.
Now I’d seen a little bit of these drippers before – the new version they provided me is a little bit smaller. They have quite an intriguing style and design, being very compact and well made.
My initial reaction whenever seeing a new brewer is to ask, ‘why this over any of the other great options that are available?’
The Fellow Stagg Dripper I can best describe as a sort of a cross between Kalita Wave and Chemex – in terms of the resulting coffee that you get. So in the video, I do a lot of comparison between the Stagg and those two other brewing methods.
You’ll see my conclusion isn’t to call this dripper better or worse than any other – in fact, I think it’s a blessing to say that the brewed experience it creates is unique compared to the other options. You can, therefore, make such statements as if you really enjoy the Kalita wave but wish your cup was just a little bit smoother, then the Stagg may be perfect for you.
The physical qualities of the brewer could be more than enough to make it just right all on their own. Given that you can create a delicious and properly extracted coffee with the brewer – as you can with the Kalita, the Chemex, the Aeropress, etc – if you aren’t picky about the unique nature of the brew but would rather have something super compact, very well made, and extremely durable, the Stagg may be just right for you.
I actually really like the compact and durable nature of this brewer, along with some of the built-in features like the measuring/drip tray, and mini funnel for getting grounds into the filter.
The only real ‘drawback’ of this brewer is the price, at $60. They do give you two options. The smaller one I demonstrated is more suitable to a continuous pour drip method, whereas the larger one can produce some more immersion style brewing along with the drip. Since there are other brewing methods that make a fantastic cup of coffee at a lower price, you just need to take that out of the equation – that is, if the price is an object, look somewhere else (like a Kalita, or V60, or even an Aeropress).
You might consider the need to get their custom filters a drawback, but this is the case for most coffee brewers.
Go grab yourself a Fellow Stagg Dripper -> http://www.extractedmagazine.com/fellowstaggdripper-a