The new brewing apparatus was created with one purpose with one goal in mind: making great coffee as easy as possible.
BY JOHN TAVES
A SPECIAL EDITION OF BARISTA MAGAZINE
Photos by Josh Taves
Laura Sommers needs no introduction. If you’ve worked in the field of coffee for any length of time, it’s nearly certain that you’ve got the pleasure of using any of her products. Since the beginning of the 1990s, Laura has been the person behind brands such as Espresso Supply, Cremaware, Rattleware, EkoBrew, and Bonavita. Why haven’t more people have heard of her? To her praise, Laura is excessively kind and humble, and she prefers to give credit to the colleagues in her team prior to herself. When Laura decides to emerge of the shadows and make her way into the spotlight you can be assured that it’s something worth taking note of.
In her new business, Simply Good Coffee, Laura is returning to her roots and aiming to turn the coffee-brewing business upside down. Simply Good Coffee launched earlier this year, in 2022, during the Specialty Coffee Expo in Boston (with an extremely cool and recycled trade show booth, in fact) with a single product called the Olson Coffee Brewer. The brewer is targeted towards home coffee brewers and has the intention of making excellent coffee that is simple.
Making Home Brewing Easy
Laura and her crew are not strangers to the home coffee maker market. The latest and most advanced technologies as well as certifications and aesthetics are all in their realm of expertise however, they were not happy. They concluded that all the new advancements in coffee brewers weren’t helping new users to make better coffee, but they were helping those who already had good coffee make their drinks better. To put it another way all of the bells and whistles that come with the coffee brewer can only be beneficial if the person who uses it can interact with the functions in an effective manner. In many cases, more functionality is used to deter those who aren’t familiar with. This is the case with the Olson Coffee Brewer, designed to feel comfortable, accessible and easy while producing high-quality coffee.
using Olson Coffee Brewer. Olson Coffee Brewer.
Water Temp
The Olson Brewer is designed to address three main issues you encounter that you encounter with the “typical” cheap drip brewer. First, the engineers designed an additional heating element that makes the water sufficiently hot to reach grounds of the coffee grounds at the right temperature for brewing. This is between 195 and 205 degrees F. This is vital to the brewing process of coffee, since it allows a variety of delicious aromatics and volatile compounds to dissolve properly from the grounds and into your cup.
Ratios Water-to-Coffee
The Olson Coffee Brewer is built to allow for proper coffee ratios. Anyone who has used their gram scale at Airbnb and attempted to brew a full cup of coffee using a low-cost brewer will recognize the flood of grounds that can occur when you use a ratio of grounds to water between 15:1 and 18:1. Simply Good fixed this issue by using a Brew basket that is large enough to hold a suitable amount of grounds and still utilizes the standard Melitta filter.
with a focus on the simplicity.
Brew Speed
The Olson Brewer was designed to provide hot water quickly, so that it can keep brewing times to a minimum. Simply Good claims that the Olson brewer can create an entire eight-cup pot in as short than six minutes. The brewing time is essential to avoid excessive extraction and bitter tastes in your drink. To top all these new features Olson Coffee Brewer comes with Olson Coffee Brewer also includes an option to select a “bloom” function that helps fresher coffees to de-gas prior to the brewing process begins. The true beauty of this machine is its simplicity (remember I began with that? ).
Brewing Simplified
The best part is that the Brewer comes with all of these features, and also the ability to dramatically improve your coffee experience at home by pressing (drumroll please) one button. To be honest, if you wish to make use of the bloom cycle you have two buttons but that’s all. There’s no touch screen, there are no temperature settings and no flashing lights as well as no alarms. Simply great coffee (pun intended). The other thing that is great? It’s the Olson Coffee Brewer will only cost you $149.99.
When do you plan to make a cup of tea?
From my experience Laura Sommers is a good person with excellent ideas. Given that she’s chosen to make the brand’s image her own and you can be certain she believes it’s a good idea. Do you need to throw away your fancy brewer and purchase one from Olson Coffee Brewer? Perhaps not but you must remember this article next time someone is asking you questions about making a better cup of coffee at home. Simply Good Coffee is focused on increasing the number of people who are excited about their coffee every morning and you should be too.
About the Author
Josh Taves is the director of business development at Stovetop Roasters in Michigan and the
the creator of CuppingBrewer.com. He was also a 2017 USBC finalist, which means he’s a pro at his craft.
many various coffee equipments. He’s been in the industry of coffee since 2006 and is a fan of
making the most of all the amazing adventures that the outdoors has to provide.
This article was first published at Barista Magazine, an online magazine dedicated to baristas and coffee professionals.