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A Coffee Subscription
Trade Coffee Subscription
A Sampler of Super-Chilled Near-Instant Coffee
Cometeer Coffee Pods
Virtual Tasting Party
Driftaway Virtual Tasting Party
A Classic (Viral) Ceramic Mug
East Fork The Mug
Coffee is an important part of my life and my daily routine. While growing up in a big Mexican family, coffee was something we could all find common (if sometimes hotly debated) ground on. It was something we took pride in, something I could look at as a kid and say, “This was grown in the place where my family is from, or somewhere very like it.” Lovingly brewing a cup or pot of coffee every morning is a ritual that connects me to my family, my loved ones, and to myself. What better way to let your coffee-drinking friends know that you care about them and think about them than to give them a gift that nourishes and reinforces their daily self-care.
We carefully curated this list to include products and accessories that our team has personally tested, vetted, and used to brew their own coffee at home. Here’s our guide to finding the perfect gift for the coffee lover in your life.
Be sure to check out our many other buying guides. We have a few coffee-related guides, including our favorite cold-brew coffee makers, portable espresso makers, and cappuccino machines.
Updated November 2023: We removed a few old picks and added the Fellow Tally Pro Studio Edition digital scale, East Fork Mugs, Origami Japan Cup Set, Cometeer Coffee Pods, Nanofoamer Milk Frother, Ozeri Kitchen Scale—and adjusted prices throughout.
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Photograph: Trade Coffee
A Coffee Subscription
Trade Coffee Subscription
Nothing makes a coffee lover happier than good, fresh beans. Which ones? Well, that’s tricky. If there’s a good local roaster near you, give them a call and ask for recommendations. If you want to give your coffee lover some variety, a subscription services make a wonderful gift. These services deliver fresh, delicious coffee right to your door. There are a lot of options, each with its own twist. Be sure to read our guide to the best coffee subscription boxes.
Several of us on staff have enjoyed Trade Coffee, which works with small roasters. Trade offers gift subscriptions ($60 for three bags of coffee). Another fun one is Angel’s Cup, which sends samples in unmarked bags for unbiased, blind taste testing.
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Photograph: Cometeer
A Sampler of Super-Chilled Near-Instant Coffee
Cometeer Coffee Pods
This is for the coffee lover in your life who is always in a hurry, or doesn’t have a full espresso setup at home. Cometeer’s Coffee Pods are super-chilled little pucks of frozen, high-quality coffee. I was a very skeptical before I tried them, but one sip convinced me. This isn’t instant coffee or a K-cup. This is rich, full-flavored coffee from some of the best roasters in the United States. You can buy the sampler set or sign up for a recurring subscription from the buy link below.
For hot coffee, take a pod out of the freezer, open it up, plop the frozen puck into your mug, pour near-boiling water over it, and you have a fresh cup of hot coffee.
If you like iced coffee like me, just take out a Coffee Pod, thaw it in some warm water for about five minutes, then pour it out into a cup with ice, top it with milk and you’ve got a café-quality iced latte.
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Photograph: Driftaway
Virtual Tasting Party
Driftaway Virtual Tasting Party
Driftaway Coffee, a Brooklyn-based roaster, has created virtual tasting parties. For $100 per screen you can taste coffee live on Zoom with your friends and family. The tastings are hosted by one of Driftaway’s coffee experts.
Before your tasting, Driftaway will send out a very fun coffee kit with glasses, coffee in unmarked bags, a tasting wheel, and a form for noting your impressions, plus some extra coffee you can enjoy later. The kit alone should make any coffee lover happy. Throw in the virtual tasting and you can’t go wrong.
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Photograph: East Fork
A Classic (Viral) Ceramic Mug
East Fork The Mug
This sturdy, thoughtfully crafted ceramic mug has been my morning companion for a couple years now, and I couldn’t love it any more than I already do. It went through a phase of viral popularity a while back, but they’re easier to find now. You might have to hop between the available colors, though, because they still do sell out.
The mug is made from a robust ceramic that feels sturdy, with a gently sloping grip that’s big enough for most hands and feels smooth and balanced when you pick it up. Warmed by fresh coffee, the glaze kinda soothes your palm. It’s magical.
Plus, East Fork even has a page that details exactly how each one is made, so you can see how much work goes into these gorgeous little things.
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Photograph: Slow Pour Supply
A Cute Set of Cups and Saucers
Origami 8-ounce Latte Cup and Saucer Set
These are some of my favorite dishes to serve or drink coffee out of. The Origami Latte cups are 10-ounce cups that come in a variety of vibrant colors, all with a brilliant white interior to contrast your espresso against. They’re heavy-duty, too. These are cups that restaurants and cafés buy wholesale, so they’re designed to take a beating and stand the test of time.
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Photograph: Stokke
A Stylish Ceramic Travel Mug
Sttoke Reusable Ceramic Travel Mug
Depending on your area, some cafés are allowing you to use reusable mugs again (including Starbucks), so you can stop feeling guilty about all those paper cups you’re throwing into the trash.
One of our favorite reusable travel mugs is the Sttoke Ceramic Mug. It’s made from a shatter-resistant ceramic, which gives it a different feel than most travel mugs. It’s a nice way to bring the warmth and comfort of home with you when you’re out and about.
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Photograph: Slow Pour Supply
A Ceramic Dripper for Chill Vibes
Origami Ceramic Dripper
Even if the coffee lover in your life has a lot of equipment and accoutrements in their kitchen, sometimes it’s nice to skip the theatrics of espresso in favor of something simpler. The Origami Dripper is a beautifully crafted ceramic cone that sits over your coffee mug. You put a filter in it, put some coarse grounds in there, and just pour hot water over it. It’s simple and elegant, and it produces a robust and thoughtful brew. It’s a wonderful way to have coffee on a chill autumn morning.
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Photograph: Ozeri
A Kitchen Scale
Ozeri Pronto Digital Multifunction Food Scale
A digital scale is not necessary to make good coffee, but it’s nice to have. It helps you reproduce your favorite cup accurately, and it’s great for trying other people’s brewing recommendations.
Measuring out your beans every morning is a simple, easy way to start getting a consistent cup time after time. Plus, a scale is a welcome addition to any kitchen. Your giftee will wonder how they ever lived without knowing exactly what one coffee bean weighs. (I won’t spoil it for you.)
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Photograph: Fellow
A Smarter Scale
Fellow Tally Pro Studio Edition Scale
It’s safe to say nobody actually needs a $185 kitchen scale, but it’s exactly the kind of thing the intense coffee lover in your life might not splurge on for themself. This scale is an absolute joy to use. It feels solid, heavy, powerful. You turn the knob to cycle through the different units of weight on its little OLED display, and press a smaller button beside it to cycle through the modes.
Brew Assist mode is amazing for pour-over fans. Put the container for your coffee grounds on the scale, tare it, add your grounds to the container, use the knob to set your desired water/coffee ratio, and the scale does the math to tell you how much water you’ll need to achieve that strength. You can watch this tutorial to see how Brew Assist mode works.
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Photograph: Subminimal
Milk Foam Is Its Own Gift
Subminimal Nanofoamer
You don’t need to have a whole espresso setup to have foamy, frothy milk for your morning (or afternoon, or evening) coffee. The Nanofoamer is a handheld milk frother with a couple different attachments and filters to help you fine-tune your home-spun milk foam. Even if you do have an espresso machine, it’s honestly hard not to reach for the Nanofoamer. It’s a nice little shortcut.
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Photograph: Fellow
Keep Your Coffee Fresher
Fellow Atmos Vacuum Sealed Canister
The coffee fanatics will tell you that keeping your beans fresh is one of the most important parts of making a good cup, and generally, they’re right. If your beans aren’t fresh, they aren’t going to taste as good. They’ll get bitter, and those delicate flavor compounds will break apart and vanish into the ether, leaving behind muddied, astringent flavors.
One way to keep your beans fresh as long as possible is to store them in a vacuum-sealed canister. The Atmos Vacuum Canister is the right size to hold an entire pound of coffee beans, and sealing it after each use will preserve the delicate and rich flavors you get from fresh-roast coffee for much longer. Plus, it’s matte black so it’s light-sealed. Light is also the enemy of good, flavorful coffee beans. Keep them secret, keep them safe.
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Photograph: Amazon
A Manual Burr Grinder
Hario Skerton Pro
You know those swirling blade grinders you can get at any home store for less than 10 bucks? Those are fine for grinding spices, but they’re terrible at grinding coffee. Getting the kind of even grind you need to brew a good cup of coffee is much easier with a burr grinder. If your coffee lover doesn’t have one of these, you’re about to change their life.
We have an entire guide to the best coffee grinders, but an electric model will cost $100-plus. The Hario Skerton Pro ($47) is a small hand-cranked burr grinder, but it can handle everything from espresso to pour-overs. The only thing it’s bad at are courser grinds like what you need for French press brewing.
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Photograph: Primula
Our Favorite Cold Brewer
Primula Burke Cold Brew Coffee Maker
Even seasoned coffee lovers don’t always think of cold-brewing coffee, which is a shame because a good cold brew is a great, refreshing afternoon pick-me-up. Try it with some macadamia nut milk.
Our favorite cold brewer is the Primula Burke, which topped our guide to the best cold brew coffee makers. It’s simple to use and brews 32 ounces of smooth, flavorful coffee. The mesh basket filter is fine enough that you won’t get the heavy sediment that taints some cold brewers. When you’re done, cleanup is a breeze. The bottom of the Burke’s filter screws off, allowing you to easily eject used grounds.
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Photograph: Fellow
A Gooseneck Kettle for Pour-Over
Fellow Stagg EKG Electric Kettle
This one’s on the expensive side, but it’s a great pick for any coffee enthusiast. It’s the pour-over kettle you’re likely to see your local barista using, and for good reason. It’s gorgeous, heats up quickly, and the long, narrow gooseneck allows you to carefully pour a thin stream of hot water around your coffee grounds, ensuring an even saturation.
It’s one of those appliances, like a KitchenAid mixer, that ends up becoming equal parts decoration and functional kitchen tool. It looks great on any countertop.
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Photograph: Aeropress
Coffee on the Go
AeroPress Go Portable Coffee Maker
The AeroPress Go (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is barely bigger than a coffee mug, is incredibly lightweight, and makes one of the best cups of coffee you’ll get on the go. It’s as good as the standard AeroPress—easy to use, good at minimizing bitterness—just smaller.
It’s also very forgiving. While it takes some experimenting to get it to make coffee exactly the way you want, it’s difficult to make a bad cup of coffee. That makes it a great gift for someone who isn’t necessarily a coffee fanatic, yet.
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Photograph: Amazon
The Perfect Travel Mug
Contigo Luxe Autoseal (16 Ounce)
WIRED Reviewer Scott Gilbertson has had an earlier version of this Contigo mug for about 10 years, and it has never leaked or spilled. As an added bonus, it will keep your hot items hot for about five hours and cold things cold all day. The updated version here is a favorite of Gear team writer Matt Jancer, who says this version has also never leaked on him. Seriously, these are great. Grab one for yourself while you’re at it.
If you’re not content with this very nice mug, check our guide to the best insulated coffee mugs, which has some of our other favorites from Yeti, Snow Peak, and others.
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Photograph: Wacaco
Espresso Anywhere
Wacaco Nanopresso Portable Espresso Maker
If your coffee lover is suffering through drip coffee at the office, hook them up with one of these. The Nanopresso tops our guide to the best portable espresso makers. It strikes a great balance between ease of use, portability, and taste. It extracts a nice espresso from almost any beans, and the compact, all-in-one design also means you can shove it in the smallest of bags and have excellent espresso anywhere you go. There’s also an expansion kit called the Barista Kit with a larger water tank and grounds basket for making a double espresso.
Not every coffee fanatic loves espresso, so it’s worth asking before you buy.
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Photograph: JEFFREY MICHAEL WALCOTT/Flair
Artful Espresso
Flair Classic Espresso Maker
The Flair Signature series espresso makers hearken back to another era, like something you’d find on the counter of a tiny coffeehouse in prewar Italy. Its design feels timeless, and it produces the best extraction of any hand-powered espresso maker we’ve tested (read our full guide to the best espresso machines). If you want to class up your coffee lover’s kitchen, the Flair is the way to do it.
If you’re feeling generous, the Signature Pro 2 ($325) is the even nicer, solid stainless steel version.
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Photograph: The Tea Spot
Expand Their Horizons With Tea
The Tea Spot Tea Sampler
Coffee all the time can get boring. Help your coffee lover explore a new kind of delicious with a tea sampler. Tea is every bit as deep a rabbit hole as coffee, so it helps to have a guide. That’s why we like these samplers from the Tea Spot, which come with six mini tins, each filled with a different variety. There’s a green tea sampler as well.