The coffee lovers in your life can be hard to shop for. We’re picky, sometimes snobby, and it’s always hard to tell what gear we have and what gear we’d want to have.
Thankfully, I’ve tested hundreds of coffee and coffee-adjacent products in my time. My guide to the best gifts for coffee lovers has some tried-and-true recommendations that would be welcome on the countertop of even the most discerning coffee snob.
The Mug of Mugs
The Mug (opens in a new window)
It’s just a mug right? Wrong! Well, yes, The Mug is a mug, but don’t mistake this mug’s elegance for simplicity. This is a drinking vessel engineered from the ground up to just get out of your way and look good doing it.
The handle is wide open for hands of all sizes, and despite being handmade out of clay it’s not an overly heavy mug. The glazed clay walls come in a variety of earth tones and seasonal colorways, and they’re thicker than your average ceramic mug to provide better insulation. It’s an elegant mug that turns any morning cup of coffee into something a bit more elevated, a tactile and elegant experience that always makes me smile.
For Broadening Horizons
Trade Coffee (opens in a new window)
We raved about Trade Coffee over on our roundup of the Best Coffee Subscriptions and for good reason. Everything that makes Trade a great choice for yourself, makes it a great choice for gifting.
Because Trade partners with many different roasters all over the US, your loved one will receive a broad selection of different coffees in their time with Trade. That’s a good thing no matter how experienced or persnickety your coffee lover is. If they’re picky and don’t like to veer too far from what they know and like, they’re sure to find new roasters who can provide those familiar flavors, maybe in new and exciting ways. If they’re a relative coffee newcomer, Trade is an excellent choice to help expand your loved one’s palate.
An All-in-One Espresso Machine
KitchenAid’s Semi Automatic espresso machine is hands down my recommendation to anyone looking to get into making cafe quality espresso at home, or anyone looking to help a loved one start doing just that. This is an espresso machine with some automated features, but mostly it just presents you with everything you need to make great coffee.
The built-in grinder is shockingly quiet, and it can grind beans for any brew method, not just espresso. The steam wand is easily one of my favorites on any espresso machine, it just takes all the guesswork out of getting a picture perfect microfoam out of your milk. You just sink the nozzle just below the surface of the milk, hit the button, and, before you know it your fridge-cold milk is transformed into polished, glossy, and foamy steamed milk.
An Elegant Little Travel Mug
I’m picky about travel mugs because I’ve had way too many of them spill all over everything in my bag. Fellow’s Carter travel mug is one of my all-time favorites because of how securely the lid fits on there, but also because it was designed to be sipped from. You won’t be sucking your coffee out of the threads around the rim of the mug because those threads are on the interior wall of the cup.
The outer edge is a smooth, curved surface which makes it a joy to drink out of. It fits right where your lip rests, no leaks, no slurping. It’s an elegant little thing. I have four in my cupboard. The only downside is they’re not dishwasher safe, but the interior ceramic coating makes them a breeze to clean.
A Stackable Tumbler
These are another of my favorite travel mug solutions. The Yeti Tumblers are small in form factor but they can accommodate a truly shocking amount of coffee. The insulated walls do a brilliant job of keeping your drinks piping hot (or ice cold), and they come with a lid you can attach or remove from the top to transform your stainless steel tumbler into a travel mug at a moment’s notice. Plus, they’re dishwasher safe.
For Coffee At Home or On the Go
AeroPress (opens in a new window)
Even though your coffee lover might already have one or more preferred methods to enjoy their favorite brews, everyone loves an AeroPress. This is a compact, hand-powered method of brewing delightfully rich coffee at home without needing a whole separate machine to do it.
Just pour in your favorite coffee grounds, soak them in some hot water, wait a few seconds and plunge. The pressure you use to push the water through the grounds pulls out layer upon layer of flavors you may have missed out on with other brew methods. It produces a strong concentrated brew similar in intensity to espresso, and can easily be diluted with hot water into one of the best cups of drip coffee you’ve ever had.
Plus, its size makes it a killer pick for traveling or hiking. An AeroPress even got me through a stint in Seattle hotels while I looked for an apartment last year.
A Beloved Countertop Staple
An iconic addition to any countertop, Fellow’s EKG Gooseneck Kettle is stylish, sleek, and heats up water from tap-cold to boiling in seconds. It’s a great kettle to have in your kitchen for all kinds of uses but the gooseneck spout is built with pourover in mind.
The long neck gives water time to cool off a little bit before it hits your grounds, and the narrow spout gives you precise control of your water flow, so you can make sure you’re wetting your grounds evenly. There’s a reason just about every cafe you walk into has a few of these sitting on the counter. It’s the pourover kettle to beat all other pourover kettles.
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