A coffee maker that’s as simple and effective as it gets

Coffee making doesn’t get simpler than the V60. Sure, cafetières, moka pots and Nespresso machines aren’t exactly tricky (although I’ve struggled with many Airbnb coffee machines.) But this truly takes it back to basics, similar to traditional filter coffee – how much of the coffee drunk in my mother’s homeland of Brazil, the world’s leading coffee producer, is brewed.

It’s as simple as boiling the kettle, placing the V60 over a cup, adding a filter and coffee grounds, pouring over the water, waiting up to the recommended three minutes (I found it often took less time than that) and drinking.

Versatility

Score: 7/10

Depending on your definition of versatility, the V60 can score well or poorly. For my regular morning drink, I usually make a mug of black coffee using a cafetière. While testing the V60 I made a number of drinks using various different styles of ground coffee, mostly medium ground. From my normal supermarket coffees, both regular and decaf, to a fancier speciality coffee, the brews were consistently excellent.

But in terms of different styles of coffee, it’s not as versatile as more high-tech coffee machines. Of course, there are many devices aimed at a single style, from espresso-like moka pots to the longer black coffees of a cafetière (although, obviously, you can add milk.) But for true versatility you’ll need a more glitzy gadget, like a cafe-style bean-to-cup coffee machine capable of making espressos, cappuccinos, flat whites and more. Those are far more expensive, however, and require much more maintenance and cleaning.

Quality of results

Score: 10/10

If you’re a fan of a cup of black coffee in the morning – and I certainly am, never drinking coffee with milk – then the V60 is a superb device. I found the coffees to be, generally, superior to those from a cafetière, often using less grounds than I would with the latter, helping save money. For each coffee style tasted, I found the results to be more well rounded. I could taste fruitiness, acidity and sweetness rather than, as is often the case, purely bitterness.

As Eastwood-Quinn explains, the V60 tends to brew coffees with “more clarity and a lighter mouthfeel”. Indeed, with cafetière coffee, grounds often end up in the cup, risking a grainy or sandy final sip. Here, the filter removed any risk of that. While it didn’t have the intensity and punch of an espresso, my go-to order when out, it provided an excellent full cup of coffee with a balanced, clean flavour.

It was also fail safe. With both moka pots and cafetières, I end up with coffee that’s sometimes absolutely delicious, sometimes burnt, watery or bland. Not the case here: each cup was at least an 8/10.

Ease of cleaning

Score: 10/10