The Coffee Lab
I’m Erin, and welcome to the ninth episode of The Coffee Lab, the series where we forget coffee snobbery. The Coffee Lab is all about making coffee fun. Join me as I help you kickstart your coffee journey!
You’ve been asking, and I’ve been listening — you are sick of plastic in your coffee makers. Coffee lovers desperately want a plastic-free coffee machine. The plastic-free SimplyGoodCoffee Brewer is your answer if you want a drip machine, and the AeroPress Premium is a glass-and-metal manual gadget.
The SimplyGoodCoffee Brewer has arrived at The Coffee Lab — it’s due on the dissection table as soon as possible — and I’m super excited to get testing. But you want plastic-free coffee makers now… so, please, let me introduce you to the Ratio Four.
The Ratio Four is a delightful coffee maker. There’s nothing else quite like it. Although it’s not entirely plastic-free, hot water never comes into contact with internal plastic — with a caveat that the filter basket is plastic, but you use a paper filter, or use a metal Kalita Wave or Hario V60. The carafe is made from borosilicate glass, not plastic. And the joint-best part is that it makes delicious, nuanced, complex, coffee-snob-approved coffee with zero effort — just like any other drip machine.
Perfect for plastic haters
I’ll cut to the chase: the Ratio Four isn’t completely plastic-free. In no way am I suggesting this is a non-plastic alternative. The Four is low-plastic, which has a slightly different meaning.
Let’s compare the Ratio Four to a truly plastic-free brewer, the SimplyGoodCoffee Brewer.
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Ratio Four |
SimplyGoodCoffee Plastic-Free Brewer |
|---|---|---|
|
Heating element material |
Aluminum heating element |
Stainless steel heating element |
|
Carafe material |
Borosilicate glass |
Borosilicate glass |
|
Water tank material |
BPA-free/BPS-free, shatter-resistant co-polymer plastic |
Borosilicate glass |
|
Filter basket material |
BPA-free plastic |
Stainless steel |
|
Water lines |
FDA-grade silicone. Silicone does NOT leach into water, even at boiling point and hotter |
Surgical-grade stainless steel |
|
Showerhead material |
Stainless steel |
Stainless steel |
|
Exterior material |
Plastic |
Stainless steel |
|
Does hot water contact plastic? |
Kind of — the filter basket is plastic, but you can use a metal Kalita Wave or Hario V60 in place of Ratio’s default |
No |
Here, you can see that the Ratio Four isn’t completely plastic-free. Even so, hot water only touches the filter basket, and the Ratio is designed so you can switch out the default filter basket for a Hario V60 or Kalita Wave. As you can see in this week’s The Coffee Lab video, you can easily fit a V60 into that filter space.
Pour-over taste with zero effort
If you’re more concerned about taste and ease of use than plastic, I’m sure you’ll be familiar with the Moccamaster KGBV Select, or another low-plastic option, the Aarke Coffee Maker. These are two revered drip machines, and I’ll recommend the Moccamaster for its 5-year warranty and lifetime repairs until I’m blue in the face.
But they’re drip machines, right? The Moccamaster makes delicious coffee, but, at the end of the day, it’s drip. It’s not pour-over, and pour-over delights my coffee snob heart.
That’s where the Ratio Four leads the way. The Four is an automated pour-over, not a drip machine, with separate bloom and brew modes. The result is a more defined, complex, and lighter taste than your traditional drip.
Of course, you can experiment with grind and dose to adjust this flavor, but at its heart, the Four is for coffee snobs who don’t have time to mess around with concentric circles and flow rates at 7 A.M.
Would you try the Ratio Four? Or are you happy with your Moccamaster? How about the plastic-free SimplyGoodCoffee Brewer? As always, stay tuned for my full review.
I post new episodes of The Coffee Lab on Tom’s Guide’s Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube every Friday, so be sure to check back next week for more!
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