Coffee gear & cafe supplies

The cone dripper most specialty cafes in the country brew filter coffee on.

The default first brewer. The plastic version costs the least and, unlike ceramic, does not need pre-heating or survive being dropped any worse.

The consumable the dripper is useless without. Sold in packs of 40 to 100.

Anyone with a V60. Buy the size that matches your dripper — 02 filters do not fit an 01 cone. Bleached (white) and unbleached (brown) both work; unbleached needs a more thorough rinse.

A plastic plunger that brews one strong cup under gentle pressure.

The most forgiving brewer on this list and the most travel-proof — it is nearly impossible to break and very hard to brew badly with. A good pick if you want one cup at a time and no ceremony.

Steep, press, pour. The lowest-effort way to brew several cups at once.

Best value per peso in this section, and the right answer for a household that drinks coffee together. It gives a heavier, siltier cup than paper-filtered brewers — some people prefer that.

A flat-bottomed dripper that meters flow through three small holes.

Buy this instead of a V60 if your pour is inconsistent — the flat bed is far less sensitive to how you pour. The wave filters are pricier and harder to find locally than V60 papers, which is the real trade-off.

A kettle with a narrow curved spout, so you can put water exactly where you want it.

The one genuine upgrade for pour-over. A regular kettle dumps water and channels the bed. Start with a plain stovetop gooseneck; the variable-temperature electric ones are a luxury, not a requirement.

An electric gooseneck kettle that holds a set temperature to the degree.

Only worth it once you are brewing daily and chasing repeatability, or you are serving guests and want the water ready without babysitting a stove. Any cheap electric gooseneck does 90% of this.

A small scale that reads to a tenth of a gram and times the brew alongside it.

Buy this before you buy anything else on this page. Coffee is a ratio; without a scale you are guessing, and every recipe you read online becomes unusable. A basic one is enough — this is the cheapest big improvement available.

The scale that shows up on cafe brew bars, for good reason.

Faster and steadier than a generic kitchen scale, and it survives being splashed. A sensible upgrade if a cheap scale has already annoyed you; a waste if you have never owned one.

A carafe with a long mesh basket — coffee steeps in the fridge overnight, then the basket lifts out.

Sensible in this climate. It makes several days of iced coffee in one go with no heat and no technique. Use a coarse grind and give it 12 to 16 hours.

The hand grinder that made decent burrs affordable. Steel burrs, external adjustment.

The standard recommendation for a first real grinder, and the one to buy if you brew filter coffee. It will grind fine enough for espresso in theory, but doing it by hand every morning gets old fast.

Hand grinders with finer adjustment steps and faster burrs than entry models.

For someone pulling espresso by hand, where small grind changes decide whether a shot works. Overkill if you only brew pour-over — the C3 already grinds well past what filter coffee can taste.

An electric burr grinder for filter coffee, with parts you can actually replace.

The upgrade when hand-grinding stops being charming — usually around the point you are making more than two cups a morning. Not an espresso grinder; it does not go fine enough to be consistent there.

A single-dose flat-burr grinder that changed what home espresso grinding costs.

For home espresso where dialling in matters. Single-dosing means you weigh each shot's beans in rather than keeping a hopper full, so beans stay fresh and you can switch between bags freely.

A quiet, compact espresso grinder built to be used many times a day.

The bridge between home and commercial. Sensible for a serious home setup or a very small bar; a busy cafe will outgrow its motor.

A shop-floor grinder built for continuous service and large burrs.

For an actual cafe. Buy the grinder to match your busiest hour, not your average one — an underpowered grinder overheats, and hot burrs make bad espresso right when you are busiest.

A stovetop pot that pushes water up through coffee under mild steam pressure.

Not espresso, but strong and concentrated enough to build an iced latte on for the price of a couple of cafe drinks. The most under-rated purchase on this page.

A hand-pumped portable espresso maker, no power needed.

For travel, the office, or anywhere with no outlet. It genuinely pulls a pressurised shot. Not a replacement for a machine at home.

A hand-operated lever press that pulls real espresso with no pump or boiler.

For one or two shots a day from someone who enjoys the process. Nothing to break electronically, and it takes counter space rather than kitchen infrastructure. No steam wand — you froth milk separately.

A compact pump machine that heats in seconds and has an automatic milk wand.

The easiest entry into real home espresso, especially if milk drinks are the point. Check the voltage on any unit you buy — imported 110V stock needs a transformer here.

A metal-bodied single-boiler machine with a commercial-size 58mm portafilter.

The one to buy if you want to tinker. It takes standard 58mm accessories, parts are everywhere, and it will outlive several plastic machines. You steam milk after brewing, not during.

A heavy single-boiler machine using components from the maker's commercial line.

For someone who wants a machine they will still be using in ten years and does not mind waiting between brewing and steaming.

Separate boilers for brewing and steam, so you can do both at once.

Worth it when you make several milk drinks back to back — for guests, a home office, or a small pop-up. Below that volume you are paying for capacity you never use.

The standard cafe bar machine: two brew heads, plumbed in, built for all-day service.

For a shop expecting queues. Buy from a distributor with a local technician, and confirm the electrical requirement before you sign a lease — some units need a dedicated line your unit may not have.

One brew head, commercial internals, a much smaller footprint.

The right size for a kiosk, a small takeaway window, or a cafe where filter coffee carries most of the menu. Same build quality as a two-group, half the counter.

Brews litres of filter coffee at once into an insulated dispenser.

The quiet fix for a slow queue. If a third of your orders are plain brewed coffee, a batch brewer serves them instantly and frees the espresso machine for everything else.

An inline filter that strips chlorine and controls hardness before water reaches the machine.

Non-optional for any plumbed machine. Scale is the single most common way cafes destroy an espresso machine, and it is not covered by most warranties. It also improves the taste, but the warranty is the real argument.

A padded bar for knocking spent pucks out of the portafilter.

Every bar needs one. A drawer-style unit sits under the grinder and saves counter space in a small shop.

A flat, fast scale that lives under the portafilter.

What keeps shots consistent across a staff of several baristas. Buy two — one at the grinder, one on the bar — before you buy anything decorative.

Foil pouches with a one-way degassing valve, so fresh beans can vent without letting air in.

Anyone selling retail beans. Without the valve, fresh coffee inflates the bag; with a plain bag, coffee goes stale on your shelf and it becomes the customer's memory of your roast.

A bench tool that heat-seals a pouch shut in a second.

Pairs with the bags above. Cheap, and it is the difference between retail beans looking like a product and looking like a favour.

A stainless steam pitcher with a shaped spout for pouring.

Match the size to the drink — a big pitcher will not texture a small amount of milk properly. 350ml for one drink, 600ml for two. This is where latte art starts, well before technique.

A weighted flat base for compressing coffee evenly in the basket.

Replace the plastic one that came with your machine — it is almost always undersized, which leaves a rim of loose coffee for water to escape through. Measure your basket; 58mm is standard but not universal.

A handle of fine needles you stir through the dry grounds before tamping.

The highest-impact cheap accessory in home espresso. It breaks up clumps so water cannot tunnel through one weak spot. If your shots run unevenly, buy this before you blame the machine.

A portafilter with the spouts removed, so you can watch the shot leave the basket.

A diagnostic tool as much as an accessory — channelling is invisible in a normal portafilter and obvious in this one. Check your machine's size and brand fit before ordering.

A basket with evenly machined holes, unlike the stamped one in the box.

A quiet upgrade for any machine with a 58mm portafilter. Also make sure you are not using a pressurised basket by accident — those fake crema and mask everything else you fix.

Detergent for backflushing the group head and soaking baskets and portafilters.

Weekly at home, daily in a shop. Use a product made for coffee equipment — dish soap leaves residue you will taste for days.

Removes mineral scale from the boiler and water path.

Different job from the cleaner above, and not interchangeable. Every few months on a home machine, depending on your water. If you filter your water it comes up far less often.

A heat-resistant brush for scrubbing the shower screen and gasket.

Costs almost nothing and takes ten seconds at the end of a session. Skipping it is how a machine starts making everything taste bitter.

An opaque, sealed container, usually with a valve to push air out.

Air, light, heat and moisture are what stale coffee. A sealed canister in a cupboard fixes all four. Do not store beans in the fridge — they pick up smells and condensation.

Sachets of mineral salts you add to distilled water to hit a known brewing profile.

For someone who has already fixed grind and ratio and still finds their coffee flat. Tap water varies enough across the metro that it is a genuine variable — just not the first one to chase.

Measures how much coffee actually dissolved into the cup.

Genuinely useful for a roaster or a cafe standardising a recipe across staff. At home it is a hobby instrument — buy it because measuring is fun, not because your coffee needs it.

A vacuum-walled cup that keeps iced coffee cold through a Marikina afternoon.

For anyone working out of cafes. Plenty of shops will fill your own cup, and a few knock something off the price when you bring one. Check that the lid seals if it is going in a bag.

A heatproof glass server to brew into and pour from.

Most drippers need something underneath anyway, and a marked carafe doubles as your volume measure. Buy one bigger than your usual brew, not exactly the size of it.