Coffee is the lifeblood of the bleary-eyed workaday masses, so there's no shortage of high-tech ways to get a daily caffeine hit. Smart coffee machines can automatically brew a cup first thing in the morning for those who can't function without it, give tips and recipes through an app or grind a fresh cup of joe on the go in a travel mug. With an eye on those who may need a technological leg-up to boost their coffee snobbery, Goat Story is launching Gina, allowing users to brew three different types of coffee in one appliance, with guidance from an app and Bluetooth-connected scales.
At first glance, Gina looks like a classy, albeit basic, coffee brewer. Coffee grounds and water go in the ceramic funnel at the top, and the aromatic pick-me-up comes out the bottom to fill a glass jug. But in the middle lies Gina's secret sauce: an unassuming copper valve, which Goat Story says is designed to give amateur baristas the chance to experiment with different brewing techniques in the one device.
By adjusting that valve, Gina can make pour-over, immersion and cold drip coffee, brews which often require their own dedicated machines. For a standard pour-over coffee, the valve can be left fully open while hot water is poured over the grounds. With immersion, the valve stays closed to let the grounds soak for a while before letting it through, which reportedly makes for a sharper taste and richer body. Cold drip requires an extra glass pitcher full of coffee grounds placed under the valve, which is set to slowly drip cold water over a few hours.
Pour-over and immersion are regular bedfellows, but cold drip usually takes a different setup. If this isn't the first time all three have been thrown together, it's certainly not a common feature.
To give aspiring coffee aficionados the confidence to try new brews, the Gina app (for iOS and Android) guides users through the whole process, calculating the exact amount of coffee or water needed for each style with the help of a Bluetooth-connected set of scales in the base of the unit. For the time-heavy cold drip, it will notify you when it's ready, and if an experiment works out particularly well, users can save a recipe for later or share it through Gina's online community.
Goat Story have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund Gina's production, which is aiming to hit US$50,000. Super Early Bird pledges start at $145 for a unit in either a white, black or stainless steel finish, or for those who take their coffee really, really seriously, a gold-plated model is offered for a pledge of $550.
The company expects to ship Gina in April 2017, if all goes as planned. You can watch the pitch video below.
Source: Goat Story
