Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to labor over your Chemex recipe to be a “coffee person.” Coffee people are everywhere — all it takes is an unabiding love of hot water drawn through a pile of ground-up beans. From a $9 stocking stuffer to the best damn drip brewer you can buy, here are 25 ideas to help you shop for everyone from your buddy who spends hours sweating their water-to-coffee ratio to your dad, who is only in it for the caffeine.
1. Urnex Coffee Machine Cleaner
Price: $9
From: amazon.com
A stocking stuffer, no doubt. Gear Patrol does not recommend buying a loved one a pack of coffee machine cleaners and calling it a holiday. Urnex is the only brand trusted by craft coffee cafés. Thankfully, it’s cheap as hell.
2. Counter Culture Single-Serve
Price: $10
From: counterculturecoffee.com
Coffee, but make it tea. The North Carolina-based roaster has made its mark supporting specialty cafés by training baristas, creating exceptional and reliable coffee. Drop a bag of a Counter Culture blend on an airplane and feel slightly better about your flight.
3. Trade Coffee Custom Subsription
Price: $15+ per bag
From: drinktrade.com
You know the giftee wants to get into coffee, but they don’t know exactly how. Send them this quiz (or fill it out for them) and order a few rounds of the suggested coffees it spits out. Once they’ve settled on what they want, they can set up recurring orders through the same program. It’s a little like Tinder for coffee.
4. Cigar City Brewing Cubano Espresso
Price: Varies
From: cigarcitybrewing.com
Mix your uppers with your downers, right? Cigar City, available in most states, makes an absolutely wicked espresso beer with coffee from a local Tampa roaster.
5. Voilà Instant Coffee
Price: $16
From: voila.coffee
Hands down the best instant coffee you can buy. If you or someone you know travels frequently, buy a Discovery Box and call it a day.
Gear Patrol Magazine Subscription
Price: $39
From: store.gearpatrol.com
Gear Patrol Magazine is a deep dive into product culture. Inside each issue, you’ll find seasonal buying guides, rich maker profiles and long-form dispatches from the front lines of product design. Get four print magazines — delivered quarterly — with an annual subscription.
6. SCA Coffee Flavor Wheel Poster
Price: $20
From: store.sca.coffee
This is one of those if you know, you know gifts. You get this for the person who knows the Gold Cup Standard inside and out. If you, or they, have never heard of that, keep scrolling.
7. The World Atlas of Coffee
Price: $27
From: amazon.com
James Hoffmann is a former World Barista Champion, roaster owner, coffee consultant and, most recently, a successful Youtuber. More importantly, he knows more about the past, present and future of coffee than most human beings, and his writing is clever enough to make reading fun.
8. Elemental Beverage Co. Snapchilled Coffee
Price: $30
From: elementalbeverage.co
Cold brew coffee versus iced coffee is not a discussion of better and worse — they’re just different. Cold brew coffee lovers herald the style’s chocolatey, rich and sweet flavors — Elemental Beverage Co. is the opposite of this. Expect canned coffee with all the brightness and acidity of a pour-over.
9. Fellow Atmos Canisters
Price: $30+
From: amazon.com
Fellow’s little coffee canisters are simple to use and nice to look at. Dump beans in them, push the lid on and twist until you see a little green circle on the top. When twisting, you are literally sucking oxygen from the container, creating a space for beans to sit and not slowly stale.
10. Aeropress Go Travel Coffee Brewer
Price: $32
From: aeropress.com
Aeropress was considered the greatest travel coffee brewer of all time before the travel-sized version of it came out. This year’s new Travel Brewer uses the exact same manual brew dynamics, it just comes in a tidier package.
11. Old Elk Nooku Bourbon Cream
Price: ~$35
From: totalwine.com
Made in Colorado, Nooku cream is America does Bailey’s in the best way possible. It may be difficult to track down outside of its home state and larger cities, but it’s well worth a trip to the liquor store to check.
12. Kinto Travel Tumbler
Price: $35
From: needsupply.com
Not all travel tumblers need to be enormous. You do not need an 8-cup tumbler. This gorgeous little Kinto product keeps things warm for hours and doesn’t take up too much space in a briefcase.
13. Heath Ceramics Large Mug
Price: $37
From: heathceramics.com
An extra-large mug that isn’t kitchy. Imagine that? Heath Ceramics are the American pottery old guard, and their smartly crafted mug is perfect for those who drink a lot of coffee.
14. Coldwave Chiller
Price: $40
From: amazon.com
This weird little device is the fastest way to make hot coffee cold without watering it down. Freeze the insert, dump a pot in the carafe and drop the icey block inside. Ice cold in 90 seconds.
15. Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast Stout Kit
Price: $48
From: brooklynbrewshop.com
Learn the basics of brewing beer with one of the world’s most respected breweries. Pair the resulting beer with brunch, bacon and toast. Take a nap afterward.
16. Yield Design Co. Glass French Press
Price: $85
From: yielddesign.co
Most French presses are cheap, plasticky things you hide under your countertop. Why? It’s the only brew method that’s meant to be done in front of guests at a table. Yield Design’s glass presses take the look of the French press more seriously.
17. Leverpresso
Price: $99
From: amazon.com
A South Korean-designed portable espresso maker capable of applying nine bars of pressure and pulling shots in under three minutes. This is about as small and light an espresso maker as there is — get it for outdoorsy friends.
18. Bonavita Interurban Kettle
Price: $119
From: amazon.com
The only thing holding Bonavita’s well-priced, high-powered kettles back were their grandmotherly looks. The Interurban series changes that.
19. FrankOne Cold Brewer
Price: $120
From: frankdepaula.com
The pitch: the quickest cold brew in the world. The FrankOne brewer mirrors the viscocity and total dissolved solid (TDS) levels of proper cold brew coffee — which typically takes up to 18 hours to brew — in 5 or 6 minutes. It brews excellent hot coffee, too.
20. Ember Travel Mug 2.0
Price: $180
From: ember.com
Ember’s battery-powered travel mug is for the person on the road a lot. It’s got a feature that allows you to pick a temperature and it’ll hold it there for up to three hours. Plus, the updated model comes with a nifty touch-based interface instead to adjust settings.
21. Acaia Scale Lunar
Price: $225
From: amazon.com
Watch competitive baristas at work (yes, they exist) and you will, without a shadow of a doubt, see a handful of Acaia’s scales. Beyond the basic timing and weighing duties, they record all sorts of historical brew data, allowing the user to recall what they made yesterday and identify why it was good (or bad). Get this for serious pour-over coffee enthusiasts.
22. Baratza Virtuoso+
Price: $249
From: amazon.com
A clever update to what was already considered the best home coffee grinder money could buy. The Virtuoso+, a followup to the standard Virtuoso, allows users to grind the exact amount of coffee from grind-to-grind thanks to a simple timer. And yes, it comes with Baratza’s staple steel burrs, exceptional customer service and replaceable parts (should you need them).
23. Breville Precision Brewer
Price: $299
From: amazon.com
Our pick for the best coffee maker you can buy isn’t cheap, but it’s in a category all its own. It brews faster than anything while remaining the most consistent brewer we’ve tested. It’s also the only brewer that allows extensive customization of the brew cycle beyond simple “dark” or “light” options. If you want to get someone a great drip brewer, this is it.
24. Caldera Coffee Table
Price: $375
From: dimshome.com
Afraid to get coffee gear for your coffee lover? Go coffee adjacent. Dims.’s (the period is always there) Caldera table is a nice blend of Eastern and Scandinavian design principles that doesn’t look like every wood coffee table out there.
25. Counter Culture Home Brewing Classes
Price: Varies
From: counterculturecoffee.com
Price may vary on location and what specific classes you enroll in, but for those hoping to learn how professionals make a cup of joe, there is no better class. Counter Culture trains more professional baristas than any company in the US. Check out their site to check if there’s a center near you.
Ratio Eight Coffee Maker
Price: $495
From: store.gearpatrol.com
Ratio is smarter than your average coffee maker. Beneath the stylish exterior is precise brewing science, automated. Ratio delivers water at or near the optimum temperature of 200 degrees for perfect pour-over taste with the touch of a single button.
