My Chemex Is the One Thing James Bond and I Have in Common

Amy Keating, a registered dietitian at Consumer Reports, is another member of the Chemex fan club. “I love the simplicity and design of my Chemex, and the clean and light-bodied brew I get from the specially designed filters,” she says. “Plus, it’s a beautiful addition to my countertop, so beautiful, in fact, that it’s featured in the Museum of Modern Art.”

Though the Chemex may seem like a newfangled hipster product (as another co-worker called it when I mentioned to her that I was writing this piece), it’s actually pretty old—and indeed, one of its earliest incarnations is in the MOMA collection. Its creator, Peter Schlumbohm, was a German chemist and inventor who immigrated to the U.S. in 1935. Schlumbohm was an avid coffee drinker and fan of the Bauhaus School, an early 20th-century design movement that emphasized minimalism, form following function, and technological innovation. He incorporated these principles into the Chemex, for which he received a patent in 1941. 

The Chemex uses borosilicate glass, which is a sturdy, heat-resistant glass that Schlumbohm was familiar with because of its use in laboratory flasks. He added a wooden collar with a leather tie for comfortable holding, a groove for pouring, and a glass button for easy measuring. To this day, the Chemex looks and performs almost identically to its original design. It’s an easy-to-use pour-over-style coffee maker that won’t break easily and has a minimalist glamor so you never need to worry about hiding it away when you have guests.

Frank Yang, an associate director of consumer insights and research at Consumer Reports, appreciates the Chemex’s simple, economical design in particular. “What I like most about the Chemex is the elegance and simplicity of the glass design, and the ease of having it all in one,’” he says. “One doesn’t have to have separate extraneous items to enjoy a nice pour-over, and I think works really well in a single sit-down session with friends and family.” 

The Baratza grinder below is part of my daily morning routine. In CR’s tests, it scores well for producing coarse and fine grounds, and it’s easy to clean.

If you’re brewing only a single cup at a time, an individually sized dripper, like the Bee House I used in my barista days or a v60, which Frank likes, may be enough for you. I brew two 12-ounce cups of coffee a day in my Chemex, and could easily add another 12-ounce up if I really felt like gunning it. (The brand calls this size an “8 cup” Chemex, but it considers a single cup to be 5 ounces. The full capacity is 40 ounces.) 

But the Chemex has a unique, clean flavor that’s harder to guarantee with drippers, especially those that use standard, super-thin grocery store filters, which you definitely won’t get with a French press or moka pot. Chemex filters are thicker, which prevents any grounds from getting into the coffee and muddying it up, and they’re the primary reason a cup of coffee from the Chemex is nuanced, complex, and lighter than your standard cup of joe—without being thin and watery.