Look up Coffee Chronicler's french press technique where he just put a normal pourover/drip filter over the whole plunger and carefully plunge. This doesn't disturb the bed or drain through the coffee bed, yet paper filters the brew.

That's a pretty cool technique, assuming it works reliably.

But the water would still be in contact with whatever material the press seal is made from.

The December coffee brewer is basically a kalita wave with four options for flowrate you can change on the fly. The first option is completely closed and is in effect an immersion brewer. I'm not sure why you would want this if you already have pourover equipment of another kind since it will change the taste but it's not a completely different sort of brew to a normal kalita wave.

Do you want immersion for the simplicity?

If not, then the vac pot is a fun option. Apparently they are big in Scandinavia. If you go down that route and want to make things more complicated there is always the Dragon Brewer!

https://thedragonbrewer.com/

The December brewer is pretty cool. Great design. But it has a Teflon gasket which eliminates it as a solution for the OP's search.

The Dragon is basically a siphon with a pump so there is same question about seals and contact with vapor.

The Gina Goat Story Basic without the smart scale is probably the best non-plastic solution: https://idrinkcoffee.com/en-us/products ... aker-white

How did they do the valve on the Gina?

And why is it so expensive?

Look up the "purion 360" brewer. All clay v60 with immersion capability. You rotate it to open the internal valve. It'll be somewhat wasteful to preheat it, but there you go.

Also, a blast from the past: look into the sowden brewer, it's like a tea pot. You can line the basket with a paper filter. Actually, probably any teapot** might work. Now sure how well that would work? Finally, I've seen single-cup three-piece ceramics in Japanese marketplaces (like Mitsuwa here on the west coast USA) that are intended for tea as well, but would work this way, not sure what they are called.

Edit: ** any teapot with a basket

jedovaty wrote:Look up the "purion 360" brewer. All clay v60 with immersion capability. You rotate it to open the internal valve. It'll be somewhat wasteful to preheat it, but there you go.

That's what I was imagining, a simple valve that is machined to a high enough precision to seal. It doesn't even need to seal perfectly as a few drips are inconsequential. I was thinking of glass or stainless steel but the high fired ceramic of the coffee and teaware that Aurli sells looks quite beautiful. It's interesting that they offer it in two firing levels: once through the kiln and five times through the kiln. They claim that you should choose between the two based on the type of coffee you drink. They similarly say that their clay formulation is best suited for heavily fermented teas.

High fired clay vitrifies but still absorbs some water. So I guess they are basically saying that there is some degree of leaching. If you worry about plastic would you worry about clay? They promise there are no heavy metals in it. It's definitely not an issue for most people. I recently made a pour over cone in a pottery wheel class and a small part of it that contacts the coffee remained unglazed. It's the normal way people make them.

By the way, where could you buy this in the U.S.? I couldn't locate a domestic retailer.

I doubt it's available in the US, I never looked. There's an australian shop that has some in stock and I believe will ship to the US.

There are some potters in Colorado who I believe are coffee enthusiasts and have tried duplicating some of the european ceramics (like MK Ceramics?) to have local versions without the need to ship internationally, and might be open to making a version of this purion brewer. I did a quick history search and couldn't find them, hopefully someone here knows who I am writing about. If not, I'll try to find them later.

Regarding the clay/paint materials, it's a valid concern. Some super fancy snooty snobby potters in europe have "shops" on etsy and will specifically advertise they are using food safe glazes. I think the purion 360 brewer is glazed inside, so it won't absorb any of the coffee, and I don't know if glazes have any water-soluble compounds that leech?