Chemex

The Chemex is an iconic brand of pour-over coffee brewer, invented in 1941 by an American Chemist, Dr. Peter Schlumbohm and included in MOMA’s permanent design collection. While iconic, the Chemex coffeemaker’s design is enduringly simple; consisting of a heat-resistant hourglass-shaped glass flask with a funnel-shaped neck and a wooden collar for insulated/heatproof handling. The wooden collar allows the entire apparatus to be handled safely when full of hot coffee. The high-quality borosilicate glass is non-porous and does not add impurities, contaminants or flavours to the brewed coffee. The Chemex uses proprietary disposable, unbleached paper filters which are made from a thicker paper than traditional coffee paper filters.

The thicker paper in Chemex filters allows for a slower brew and a rich cup of sediment-free coffee. The thick paper filter helps to remove more of the oils from the ground coffee beans during the pour-over brewing process. This results in a ‘cleaner' tasting coffee when compared to other similar pour-over brewers. The thickness of the Chemex paper filters may also help to reduce the presence of the cholesterol-elevating cafestol in the final beverage.

Today the Chemex coffeemaker, Chemex bonded paper filters, handblown water kettles, and Chemex accessories are all manufactured in Western Massachusetts. The Chemex coffeemaker now comes in a variety of capacity sizes from small three cups, to six, eight and ten cup sizes.

Owing to its relatively small size and the fact that it does not require electricity to operate, the Chemex makes an excellent addition to a portable coffee brewing kit.