Sorry, But I Do Not Love the Chemex

If you’ve browsed any of our coffee coverage, you know that we take our brew pretty seriously. From pour-overs to espresso machines, and from bean roast to brew strength, we have strong opinions about it all. This week, it’s all things coffee at Wirecutter.

Pour-over purists love the Chemex coffee dripper. It brews a bright and clean-tasting cup of joe. It’s chic and minimalist. It’s also labor-intensive, non-insulated, extremely breakable, and a pain to clean. Simply put, the Chemex is too high maintenance for my daily life. I don’t need a coffee maker that’s on display at the MoMA. I need one that brews a pot while I shower and comes equipped with an insulated carafe that keeps coffee hot well into the afternoon.

I can almost hear the devoted Chemex connoisseurs clutching their coffee-stained pearls as I write this—but hear me out. I love a good cup of coffee, and my kitchen countertop proves it. My home setup includes an espresso machine, an electric gooseneck kettle, a burr grinder, and my beloved Moccamaster. (My Wirecutter colleagues don’t share my enthusiasm for the Technivorm Moccamaster because they — justifiably — think there are cheaper options that do as good a job, but I like what I like!) It’s a veritable shrine for my devotion to caffeine. Unlike the Chemex, all of these tools help me make great coffee with less effort.

I’ve made delicious coffee in the Chemex, but the active steps required to get there are too much for my early morning mental faculties. I scoff at the idea of shuffling into my kitchen bleary-eyed and pulling out a gram scale and Thermapen to ensure the precise ratios and temperature needed to execute a perfect pour-over cup. Coffee is my morning medicine, not my passion. And I simply won’t sacrifice ease of use to get a marginally better brew than I would from my automatic dripper.

And for one person, it just doesn’t make sense. I like to brew one large pot in the morning and sip hot coffee throughout the day, something that’s especially important if I’m working from home or having a lazy Sunday. But because the Chemex isn’t insulated, three-quarters of the pot turns cold well before noon. Unless I resign myself to swilling room-temperature coffee all afternoon (gross) or reheating each cup in the microwave (not ideal), I have to brew one cup at a time if I want my third or fourth cup to be as hot as the first. That’s a lot of effort and coffee filters.

Oh, yes, the filters. The Chemex requires special filters (they’re literally just pieces of paper folded into quarters) that you’ll probably have to order online. Standard filters won’t do, and I don’t know about you, but unless I’m at Whole Foods, I never see the Chemex ones sitting next to the #4 Melitta cones at the supermarket.

Finally, let’s talk about cleaning the Chemex carafe. It sucks. I’ve never been able to completely scrub the coffee stains out of the bottom half of a Chemex because the narrow neck leaves little room for any dish brush or sponge that I own. Obviously, I could get one, but just for cleaning this thing? No thanks.

The Chemex is a functional coffee dripper, a presentation-worthy vessel that’s great for dinner parties or brunch with friends. I fully support the way it looks. But at 7 in the morning, I don’t need elegance. I need coffee. I’ll be sticking with my Technivorm Moccamaster, thank you.