Black Friday Deals on Coffee Equipment and Equipment for Cold Brew (I): The Barista, Wacaco, and Oxo Compact
Black Friday is the best time to buy the latest coffee gear and accessories at discounted prices. We have identified the best deals on espresso machines, coffee equipment, and even coffee equipment for cold brew. Our live Black Friday deals and tips can be found on our website.
The Cafe Barista, which is part of the same family as Mr. Coffee, is a budget pick because of its deals below $200. The low price of the device makes it plasticky and lightweight. But for that, it makes rich single or double espressos, cappuccinos, and lattes with no fuss and a single button push. The foamy nature of milk makes it a plus or a minus.
The Breville Barista is the WIRED Gear team’s favorite premium all-in-one espresso maker that’s a great value and this weekend it’s lower than list price, which could push the price even further down. What do you think about the Barista? It’s a sturdily constructed, mostly metal machine that’s easy to use and easy to froth your milk with. It’ll grind your beans for you, and it’ll produce consistent water pressure you can watch on its included pressure gauge. It’s also durable: It’s lived happily on WIRED reviewer Julian Chokkattu’s shelf for more than five years.
Wacaco’s Picopresso is the complete best portable espresso maker, with excellent extract, and compact, lightweight, and solid. It’s a tiny device with delicious results, offering very little bitterness and a nice crema. Caveats are that you’ll need to use very fine grinds, and you’ll have to be able to apply quite a bit of manual pressure to get good extraction, making this a difficult device for those with joint pain or repetitive stress injury. We also had good results, though not quite as good, with the previous (and less expensive) Nanopresso.
This is a solid deal on a terrific cold brew maker. The Oxo Compact is my favorite device to make classic cold brew—the sort that brews for most of a day atop your counter. Why? It is easy to use, elegant of shape, and its combination of mesh and paper filters makes for a clean-tasting coffee. The Compact is respectful of the small counter and fridge space. The coffee tastes great. The Oxo is the closest coffee I can get to the best packaged or café cold brew.
We will not oversell this blade grinder, we want you to know that the high end conical or flat burr grinder will give you the very best. But if you’re a default drip or French press coffee drinker whose eyes cross whenever you hear someone talk seriously about “evenness of extraction” or “separation of flavors”? Well, this sturdy little KitchenAid will grind your beans without complaint. Pro tip, if it doesn’t bother you, pulsing will yield a bigger grind than holding the button down.
The French press is an essential and portable tool in any coffee lover’s kitchen, a low-tech default for countertop or camping. The Secura’s biggest sell versus many other French presses is that it’s sturdy, stainless steel, and insulated. The cool stuff stays cool, and the hot stuff stays hot. Does it make sense to mention the French press that the WIRED gear team used to make cold brew?
This is a good place to put it, because it is a nice stocking stuffer that makes this smart warmer a great gift for the coffee drinker in your life. This mug warmer isn’t “smart” because you need an app to use it, or because it records your conversations. It is smart because of that. If a flat-bottomed mug on top of the device is registered, then it will keep the mug warm enough to keep you drinking coffee or topping off your coffee. The device will turn off if the mug is removed. It is easy to overlook.
WIRED Black Friday Deal: High-Quality Home Drip Coffee Makers for Low-Energy Coffee-Pooring
Vacuum bean storage makes coffee taste better, longer. If you’re using fresh, premium beans from a local roaster, a vacuum storage container will better preserve the investment you’re regularly making in your beans. Go to this container, then turn the twist-action pump. The device will remove all air and oxygen so that the oxidation process can be stopped and coffee can be made. This is the lowest price we’ve seen on the Atmos this year, and it’s a great gift for the coffee-obsessed.
For the Aeropress lover in your life, even if it’s you: Swap out the cap on your Aeropress for a thicker Prismo, and you’ll drastically increase the pressure you exert on the resulting brew. The team at WIRED found that it offered a cleaner cup, a bit of aeration, and even more satisfying cold brew. Science! Though this Black Friday deal isn’t a whopper, it still matches the best discount we’ve seen this year.
The Moccmaster coffee maker was made in the Netherlands. It’s big, sturdy, and technically precise drip machine that’ll maintain water at optimal brewing temperature during the entire brewing process. Note that to get this Black Friday deal, you may have to compromise on color. Some colors are sold out at the sale price already, so click around among the different color options to see if you find one you like on discount. Chances are it will stay around for a long time.
When this terrific, SCA-certified drip brewer came out only a few years ago, WIRED reviewer Joe Ray had to reassure readers that high-quality home drip coffeemakers were indeed possible, and real—and that the Oxo 8-Cup was resounding proof (9/10, WIRED Recommends.) It’s still a great coffeemaker. The insert will let you make just one cup of coffee instead of a whole pot. Still an idea that’s still a great idea.
One of the few coffee equipment that can offer both quality espresso and macchiato, without being Americano, is the Terra Kaffe. This all arrives in a nifty, easy-to-clean package with a smart screen and all the trimmings. When using a phone app, you can quickly warm up the machine by placing it in your bed. Anyway, it’s a whopping $500 off till December 15, with an extra hundo off the top if you sign on for a coffee subscription. —Matthew Korfhage
OK, I know: A classic AeroPress is already pretty portable. But the Go is even more travel-friendly. In fact, it’s the WIRED Gear Team’s favorite portable coffemaker of them all. It’s lightweight, a little bigger than a coffee mug, and completely self-contained. Another plus for people on the go is that an AeroPress is by its nature quite forgiving. It’ll be a pretty good cup of joe if you throw in some grounds and stir it up. The Aeropress is giving 25% off most of their models for Black Friday.
If you don’t buy it as part of Fellow’s Aiden Grinder kit, the Opus is well worth buying all on its own. WIRED recommended it as their favorite overall grinder because it is silent and a consistent grind even at the finest espresso settings. At less than $200, it also manages to compete with grinders that cost much, much more.
If you don’t need coffee, the Tally will weigh it for you. But it’ll also start a timer to track the progress of a prourover, and calculate the weight of water you’ll need to add to it. Consider it a coffee pourover enthusiast’s true companion. Like most Fellow coffee gear, the Tally is 20 percent off right now.
