Too long ago, at the start of January I think, we wrote of the concerns we have about finding a coffee maker that the KF4 Swissgold fits into, and we promised to go away and give the issue some more thought.  The KF4 Swissgold box details a list of coffee makers that the KF4 Swissgold is intended to fit but unfortunately many of the brands listed are not sold in the UK.  Anyway, we will step through that list in a moment.  In the meantime we have acquired a Chemex 10 cup from the manufacturer in the US.  They gave us first class service and were extremely helpful, so if you are thinking of selling Chemex brewers I would not hesitate to recommend them as good people to deal with.

Anyway, the 10 cup Chemex brewer is measured using a 5.5US fluid oz cup.  The 10 cup capacity is measured to the bottom of the wooden grasp.  We did the rest of the world a small favour and translated this curious measure into metric.  It's 1400mL to the bottom of the wooden grasp.  If you wonder as we have to admit to wondering why the wood, basically the Chemex would be too hot to hold comfortably without it.  It is a really nice touch, and conceptually we love the design.  It is practical and has stood the test of time.  The raw hide leather is also a very nice method of attaching the two half wooden clasps to the brewer.

We used 70g of fresh coffee ground to a medium/filter coarseness to make 1400mL, or 14g per 280mL which is probably a bit easier to relate to as that is roughly the capacity of a 'mug' cup of coffee.

You can see from the images that the KF4 Swissgold doesn't fit in the 10 cup Chemex quite as nicely as it should, but it is 'workable'.

Standard operating procedure for anyway experienced in making drip filter coffee really, boil the jug, wait for all the bubbles to cease forming indicating that the water is sufficiently cool to pour over the coffee, then sprinkle a small amount of water over the coffee grounds to allow the coffee to bloom.  You will elsewhere in more elegant terms that this is to allow the full aroma and flavour of the coffee to develop, etc, etc.

Based on my somewhat less prosaic observations i would say that the effect you observe is actually quite similar to what happens when heavy rain falls on parched dry land; it just runs off the land to the lowest point, quickly forming streams, and then rivers.  Well, if you don't gently sprinkle the water over the dry coffee grounds, allowing the grounds to swell and bind together then something similar happens and the water simply drops through the coffee without extracting much of the flavour.  You can give this process the rather elaborate title of blooming if you like, but I think you can see my point.

The other thing to note is that you cant really use a fine espresso grind coffee in the KF4 Swissgold as we do to great effect in the KF300 Swissgold; the conic shape results in the fine grinds compressing together in the bottom of the filter, causing the water in the filter to drain away too slowly, and if you are using a filter coffee machine it will flood as we showed in the last blog on the KF4 Swissgold at the start of January 2011.

So, what's the conclusion?  Well, while the filter obviously fits, making coffee with this large Chemex filter is painfully slow to be honest. We love the look of the Chemex, and we love the performance, and it keeps the coffee sufficiently hot for much longer than we anticipated if you place it on an insulating surface, like a wooden chopping board, but not a granite bench which will suck the heat out very quickly.  But you can actually feel yourself ageing as you stand there with the kettle having to top up the filter from time to time.  Its at least 10 minutes out of your day and for this reason we are unable to recommend the Chemex for making large amounts of coffee.  Would would recommend the Chemex without hesitation in the smaller sizes.  For the larger sizes we think you need to have the luxury of home help at your disposal as we found it unacceptably labour intensive.

For us the search for a method to make a large amount of coffee in an easy, everyday fashion continues.  While we like a minimum of fuss this experience was a rare occasion where we really felt the benefit that even a basic electric coffee maker brings as it frees you up to get on with other things while your coffee brews.

If you want to acquire a Chemex brewer in the UK we have no hesitation in sending you to Stephen Leighton of Hasbean who carries a good selection of genuine Chemex brewers and accompanying accessories.