When the Goat Story team was traveling to show off its horn-shaped mug, they would bring a Chemex coffee maker everywhere they went to brew up something to pour into it. But they kept forgetting to bring the scale, which they needed to measure the grounds. “Right away, we started designing something with a built-in scale,” Anze Miklavec, the company’s CEO, told Digital Trends.
The result is the Gina, a smart coffee maker with an integrated scale that can brew three ways: pour over, immersion, and cold drip. It connects via Bluetooth to your smartphone, and the accompanying app can either offer a bare-bones approaching — showing you just the weight and acting as a timer — or it can walk novices through the steps to a perfect cup.
The scale is at the bottom of the frame; a glass carafe that holds 25 ounces of liquid sits on top, and the ceramic funnel’s flow is controlled by a copper valve. You can see some of the team’s admiration for Chemex in the design of the Gina, which is 13.6 inches tall by 16.4 inches wide and 5.3 inches deep. There’s no display on the Gina itself, so you’ll have to have your phone out to get the ratio right. Once you find it, you’ll be able to save it in the app. If you’re not quite sure where to start, the app will give you some options, taste-wise, and guide you to a better brew.
While the app’s not quite there yet, your neighborhood barista could one day sell you a bag of beans and send you the perfect ratio for the perfect cup. “We are hoping the community will recognize this feature and everyone will start using it,” said Miklavec.
Goat Story sees two audiences for the Gina: People that want to geek out and control every aspect of their coffee-making and those who just want a consistently good cup of coffee but don’t know what they’re doing. Since they started testing the Gina, the Goat Story team has realized that making small changes to the brewing process, like letting the grounds mingle with the water for an extra minute, can lead to very different results. “We encourage people to get to know coffee, to experiment,” Goat Story’s COO, Stella Korosec, said. “That’s the whole goal behind it.”
The Gina launches on Kickstarter today, with early bird prices starting at $145, which is $100 off the retail price. Worldwide shipping is expected to start in April 2017, but as with any crowdfunding campaign, it’s backer beware.
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