Kettle consultations

Kettle consultations

I can’t help but notice the super cool long necked kettles such as the Hario Bouno V60 drip kettle.  I’ve had my finger on the mouse button to purchase it as a “gift for my wife” so many times lately that I cannot count it all up.  Now that goes in quotes because she will never actually use it – I will, so perhaps it is really a gift for myself if I buy it, but on the other hand she is the one who drinks brewed coffee and not me most of the time and so it will be used by me to make her coffee.  


I usually make clever style coffee (with a Timolino Ingeni coffee maker) that I blogged about here.

http://www.roaste.com/CoffeeBlogs/wakeknot/Clever-or-not-so-clever

I heat the water with a Pyrex cup in the microwave, but I’ve toyed with the idea of upgrading.  This morning I used an old kettle we had lying around to heat the water and it took less time than the microwave, much to my surprise (perhaps because I didn’t dramatically overfill it this time).  

I have two questions about these kettles and the Hario in particular.  First, will it make for better coffee?  Does the extra long spout help or is it a nice idea that in practice does nothing to help the taste of the coffee.  Second, does the handle get too hot when you rapidly boil water in it?  Our current kettle is hard to pick up if you do not grab it the moment it boils (or if you boil much water in it).

These seem like really cool kettles, but they are not cheap so I would hesitate if they either turned out to be a gimmick or if they were unpleasant to pick up.  It also might not be a gimmick, but be unnecessary in one kind of pour over but not in another I suppose.  I’d love to get input from the Roaste experts out there!   (You can also give me feedback on what a bad idea this is as a “gift” if you like).