Pour-Over
↓Chemex
“With the Chemex, even a chemist can make coffee simply, and even a poet will find nothing to complain about.”
⏱ 4–5 minBody: LightHigh
Origin Story
In 1941, Peter Schlumbohm — a German chemist who had emigrated to the United States in 1936 — patented a coffee brewer that married laboratory precision with domestic elegance. Schlumbohm held over 300 patents in his lifetime, but the Chemex became his masterpiece: an hourglass of borosilicate glass cinched with a wooden collar and leather tie, using proprietary bonded filters 20–30% thicker than standard paper to produce a cup of extraordinary clarity.
The design establishment took notice almost immediately. In 1942, the Chemex appeared on the cover of the Museum of Modern Art's "Useful Objects in Wartime" bulletin, and it remains in MoMA's permanent design collection today. In 1958, the Illinois Institute of Technology selected it as one of the best-designed products of modern times.
Schlumbohm believed that everything he designed should combine chemistry and beauty in equal measure. The Chemex is the purest expression of that philosophy — a brewer whose thick filter removes oils and sediment so completely that the resulting cup is closer to tea than to any other coffee method, revealing flavors that heavier brewing obscures.
With the Chemex, even a chemist can make coffee simply, and even a poet will find nothing to complain about.
The Ritual
The hourglass fills slowly from the top, amber liquid pooling beneath the thick white filter like light through cathedral glass. You pour for no one but the morning, and the morning is patient.
What you'll need
- Chemex
- Chemex filter
- Gooseneck kettle
- Scale
- Timer
Today's Recipe
LAB Tostadores Chemex Brew
LAB Tostadores' signature Chemex recipe, designed to showcase their Pink Bourbon honey process bean. The thick Chemex filter produces a strikingly clean cup that lets the floral and stone fruit notes take center stage.
⏱ 4:30Intermediate
