The Story of Two Inventors...

You may be asking, "who are these guys behind The Coffee Catcher?"  Well, here's a little introduction to John and Nate and the history behind the latest evolution of French Press coffee:

"The story of the Coffee Catcher is one of two friends with a passion for coffee and problem solving, who eventually put their interests together and discovered a business.

"

It began in 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand where John and his wife were living in a great apartment with bad water pressure. Disposing of the grounds from his French Press in the kitchen sink wasn’t possible, so John resorted to dumping his grounds, teaspoon by teaspoon, into the trash. Back in Seattle, Washington, his friend Nate’s solution was quicker and nastier — head for the bathroom and send 'em down the toilet. All of them loved the full bodied punch of french press coffee, but the morning ritual was losing its charm.

"John started dreaming of a better way to clean out his grounds, and sent some initial scribbles to Nate. Nate loved the idea but promptly pooh-poohed John's design. Eight weeks later, after days of sketching and Skype conversations and weeks of managing prototype development in a basement, the Coffee Catcher was born."

Really, we like to think of this whole story as the start of a revolution - a finely-roasted, aromatic, and full-bodied revolution that perks up everyone's French Press ritual.

read more about John and Nate...  

The Press Pot (a.k.a. The French Press)

Here's a nice article on www.coffeegeek.com that includes a little bit of history, a little bit of "why Press Pots are the best", and a little bit of "how-to" on making your perfect Press Pot brew:

"The ubiquitous press pot. It's everywhere. It's seemingly easy to use, right? Well, yes, but a little understanding of the device, how it works, and maybe a bit about the history of the product will get you using yours better. If you want some of the richest coffee you can get, a press pot can deliver. What may surprise most is that you can also get a relatively clean brew from it as well, if you have the right tools and prep everything correctly...." read more...

enjoying a nice cuppa' locally roasted

Coffee Catcher Chronicler, Nate, attended a private cupping at Seattle Coffee Works this afternoon.  Sebastian (the owner of Seattle Coffee Works) did an excellent job of roasting the beans!

The lineup included 12 coffees, mostly from Indonesia.  The Bali Kintanami was outstanding: a strong floral bouquet that just overwhelmed the senses.  Another favorite was the earthy, spicy Mandheling Rona Bhakti.

Ah, what an excellent way to spend a winter, Seattle day.

Coffee Catcher Pre-Orders

As if the arrival of a smoother French Press experience wasn't exciting enough, now you can pre-order your Coffee Catcher now on the product website.

With such a rich history of coffee excellence, it's a shame that the French Press also has a long history of broken carafes and really ugly coffee-cleanup experiences.  But, that's all changing now, as the stainless steel Coffee Catcher cleans up the experience without altering the exquisite flavor we love.

Pre-order your smoother French Press experience today!

coffee Tweets, round two

We simply can't resist sharing these coffee mentions coming through the Tweet vine:

• I've been saving so much $ with a French press andcoffee beans. Now, I just need someone 2 exercise for me.
  
  
• just created a coffee timer app so I know when the french press is done!
  
  
• Ah, coffee, stuff of the gods.  I do so love myfrench press.
  
  
• having coffee in my lovely French press, handpainted bone china demitasse...aristocratic but poor...Starbucks cannot touch me! style my dears
  
  
• made french press coffee for the first time ever.  Wow, this is good!  This is even using 2 month old groundcoffee.  Auto drip FTL.
  
  
• Fire up the french press and begin the invocations - COFFEE!  COFFEE!

late nights + a coffee cupping = a much needed boost

We - Nate and John the Coffee Catcher Chroniclers - were up until 7:00am this morning working on business plan and strategy for a Coffee Catcher proposal tomorrow afternoon.

As John puts it, "We're on space station time."

But, we'll get nicely wired at a coffee cupping this evening, so who knows how we'll sleep tonight...

in honor of our new Twitter feed

In honor of our new Coffee Catcher Twitter Feed, we're posting some of the French Press Tweets seen today: 

• Wonderful news (at least for me) my coffee pot broke this morning.  That means I get French Press.  Mmm.  Simple tastes best.
  

• Haha! I broke my full size Frenchpress recently...this single serving press is torture!
  
  
• arghghg i broke the damn frenchpress...which means i got to go to target today
  
  
• GRRR! I broke the carafe to my coffee maker. Thank god, I still have my French press to make coffee in.  Crisis averted.  Good morning!
  
  
• argh i just broke the glass part of my frenchpress. it was my bestest friend
  

• My xbox truly seems dead, same week as I brokemy French press.  Bad week for my addictions.
  

Hmmmm, The Chroniclers wonder how many of these carafes were broken while removing the coffee grounds...

Why French Press Makes Better Coffee

We came across the blog, weeklyroast.com, which is written by the CEO of a start-up coffee roasting company.  Naturally, his post, "Why French Press Makes Better Coffee" caught our attention.

In the post he echoes several of the reasons we love the French Press.  Here are some highlights from the many good points he details:

"The french press gives you more control over the brewing process. You get to choose how hot you want the water to be when you pour it in....With french press, you’re in total control over water temperature and its contact with your ground coffee beans.

"Using a french press...essential oils [from the coffee beans]...make it into your cup. After the coarse ground coffee is steeped in hot water, the plunger that is slowly pushed down has a metal mesh small enough to catch most of the coarse coffee grounds, yet big enough to allow the coffee oils to pass through and ultimately make it into your cup.

"Most experts would agree that the french press is one of, if not the best way to taste the subtle differences in roast profiles in coffees from around the world."

 In addition, Ken, the coffee CEO goes on to pinpoint the drawbacks of using a French Press:

"A few drawbacks to the french press method are the cleanup involved and the sediment that’s left in the bottom of your cup."

(Both of these problems are solved with the Coffee Catcher...)

We firmly agree with Ken when he says,

"French press coffee may be a bit more work than other brewing styles, but the resulting cup is worth it."

Fact is, the flavor yielded by a properly-managed French Press experience is nonpareil.  We love the ritual of the Press and are so excited to be part of an evolution of the French Press experience.

other uses for the Coffee Catcher hook

We are having way too much fun testing the Coffee Catcher since the final product sample arrived.  In fact, we've discovered a few additional, handy uses for the Catcher's hook:

1. It's pretty decent at fishing stray coffee beans out of a catch under the rim of our hand crank coffee grinder.
   
   
2. If the button on your Le Chef food processor breaks off, the Catcher hook is perfectly sized to push the catch ad makes the machine run.  As Charity, Nate's wife says, "I consider this a fully working appliance with the addition of the Coffee Catcher hook."

a little addiction addition

 

Thank you to Power of Basics for putting together this slick banner