Blue Bottle Coffee Dripper

Blue Bottle sells a ceramic dripper that looks nearly identical to the Japanese Kalita Wave except it has a flat bottom with 3 small holes instead of 1 large 1. Brew time difference between the 2 is about 30 seconds. Ceramic is thick and heavy and retains heat better than the metal Kalita, meaning the water stays at temperature longer as it passes through the grounds. Blue Bottle packages it in a plain brown box with minimal text. Instructions inside are a single card with a ratio (1:16 coffee to water) and a brewing time (3.5 minutes) and nothing else. The company started in Oakland in 2002 as a single cart at a farmers market. It's one of the few branded products they make besides the coffee itself. That the dripper is priced at $22, which puts it right between the $12 plastic V60 and the $40 ceramic Chemex, and that positioning is deliberate. Flat bottom makes the extraction more even and forgiving than a cone dripper, so you get a consistent cup even if your pouring technique is imperfect. Blue Bottle understood that most people who buy a dripper aren't experts and designed accordingly, sacrificing some control for reliability.