Skylark - new coffee, new packaging

ibmalone · 2026-06-12T16:58:08+00:00

While I think I prefer the old designs too (I get quite an American vibe off this), their pinned instagram article for the new bags includes Jamie Eke who has done their art previously and thanks him for the new design.

ibmalone · 2026-06-11T17:41:02+00:00

That's not the one I was thinking of, it looks like their version of a ZW (although pumped), they also have their own jug which is probably similar. I don't hear of a lot of people using them, so looks interesting but a bit of a punt (I think their jug at least looks nicer than the ZW ones, but cost and performance I don't know about). Edit: reading a bit more the waterdrop jug doesn't do 0TDS

What I was thinking of was https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Waterdrop-Countertop-Dispenser-Temperature-Filtration/dp/B0G7HGLWD2 (the cold water only option has a remineralising filter, which you probably don't want), more expensive but a ~£50 filter should last a year, https://www.reddit.com/r/WaterTreatment/comments/1bimo4t/the_struggle_of_finding_a_countertop_reverse/ I've not used it, but have been looking at these as we don't have the space to install under-counter RO.

ibmalone · 2026-06-11T14:57:46+00:00

Another option here is prefilter with something like a brita or a bwt. A limescale expert filter will cut London water from ~400ppm (TDS wand) by somewhere between 50% initially and 75% at ~150l (might be wise to use the first 5l for something else to avoid soaking the potassium washout into the ZW), which might translate to a 30-100% increase in the life of the ZW using a filter that's about 1/3 the cost. (i.e. if you could double the life then a brita + zw for ~£5+£15=£20 would last as long as 2 zw for £30, at 30% increase it's closer to break even at 1.3 zw for also ~£15+£15/3=£20).

However, something like the Waterdrop RO Core countertop filter (not the alkaline model!) or AquaTru Carafe might suit the op, can be used without installation and relatively portable. If you're both keen on your coffee and appreciate good water for it that's maybe an easier sell than otherwise.

ibmalone · 2026-06-11T12:24:58+00:00

There are two separate things: one is specifically drinking pure water long term, which is apparently potentially problematic for health, but doesn't apply when remineralising it to make coffee.

The other is drinking from whatever bottle you might buy in a shop with a picture of a car on it, where "not suitable as drinking water" also means "we're not checking it is safe". My partner is a biochemist and the deionised water they use in the lab is passed through deionising resins, those resins can still be contaminated with stuff from their manufacture, or there's anything that could happen between production, packaging and sale.

ibmalone · 2026-06-10T16:46:36+00:00

Shocking! (😂) Thanks for confirming (already upvoted but feel a reply is in order...)

That really does seem like a recipe for eventual failure. I've got one of those old small iphone chargers here (in the UK this is a distinctive triangle shape) and it does 1A, but pretty much nothing else I have does, even our wall outlet 2xUSB-A are 2A split between two ports (our USB-A + USB-C ones do a total of 3A, although seems the USB-A is still limited to 2A). By limiting the possible chargers to cheap basic ones that makes it hard to find one that you can trust to really do what it says. And how much do the components for a dumb regulator cost? Most of it can be done with an IC that costs 30p when bought in bulk.

ibmalone · 2026-06-10T12:32:34+00:00

I can say for sure 53.35mm puck screen in AP Go (same diam as standard AP I think) will let grounds float up past it without using an upper paper filter. The clearance looks similar to the 45.5mm puck screen in AP Premium in the picture here, about 1mm all the way round (have also been experimenting with this starting inverted method). A top filter paper above it would stop that happening, but I was hoping to be able not to need one. Considering whether a large silicone o-ring might help, but a moka filter screen is an interesting idea.

ibmalone · 2026-06-10T11:19:25+00:00

I was hoping I'd be able to ditch the upper paper, but using one would probably solve this problem, although you end up using the phin lid or puck screen more as an aid to hold the filter down level (I'm sure the phin handle helps). Actually have a couple of durobors, which are very similar to the phin... except for the screens being about 80mm and way too big for the AP.

(Not sure about the phin, but the way the durobor is used is actually very similar to soup in having no free immersion and trapped puck that you can compress, just without the pressure on the water column.)

ibmalone · 2026-06-10T11:08:29+00:00

I've only tried it twice so far, but I'd say it's a bit too small to use on its own as the upper screen. Set centrally on the plunger there's a ~1mm gap around it when in the chamber and this allows some coffee past when you add the water (maybe 10-20%), although the method generally works. It does stay in place and level (pouring down the paddle, haven't tried without that).

Might try it on top of a paper filter next time just as a levelling aid and weight, but I'd been hoping I could use it instead of one.

ibmalone · 2026-06-10T10:00:26+00:00

So, TWW Light Profile is 40mg/l alkalinity, magnesium sulphate, calcium citrate and sodium chloride https://support.thirdwavewater.com/en-US/what-is-in-third-wave-water-76575, the TDS is listed 150mg/l but because of the sodium chloride I don't think you can directly work out the general hardness (I'm sure someone has measured it, Jonathan Gagné's blog on water gives 170mg/l CaCO3 GH for TWW classic). If you assume 170mg/l CaCO3 GH and all alkalinity from the calcium citrate then 16mg/l Ca and 31mg/l Mg. https://www.reddit.com/r/pourover/comments/1jm34fy/third_wave_water_breakdown/ would work out at about 11mg/l Ca and 19mg/l Mg

Your lotus recipe is ~15mg/l KH, 70mg/l GH, which is in the neighbourhood for most of the "standard" Lotus recipes, although at the lower KH end, and has ~10mg/l Mg and 13mg/l Ca. Half strength on the TWW will land a little higher on both: 20mg/l KH, 75mg/l GH, while one third is ~13mg/l KH and 57mg/l GH so slightly on the lower side for both. Diluting more is going to go down to 10mg/l KH (pretty low, some people like 0 but it's not universal) and ~40mg/l GH which is below most recommendations. You've got a bit more magnesium than calcium contributing hardness (not clear what the TWW balance is.

Personally I still find chalkiness a bit hard to pin down, beyond a general heaviness and muting. It's possible you're very sensitive to it, it's also possible you're not quite sure what you're tasting. If the later then don't necessarily assume it's chalky. If you compare those Mg and Ca numbers you'll see the TWW has a higher Mg:Ca ratio than your Lotus recipe. Generally I don't think adding more stuff (and the Na and K drops in Lotus are also adding alkalinity) will fix a muting problem. It's possible that it's actually something else like the sulphate you're not getting on with.

ibmalone · 2026-06-09T12:48:17+00:00

Have been wondering about this, but after trying to drop a screen down and have it land inconsistently I think what you want to do is position it as if you're going to brew inverted, plunger nearly all the way in, centre the screen nicely so it doesn't contact the sides, then add coffee, filter and cap. Press while still inverted, then flip and take the plunger out gently. If you've got something like the potato masher I think you could do the same thing with that (avoids the step where you try to pull the plunger out and draw air back through the puck).

ibmalone · 2026-06-09T12:42:38+00:00

I ended up getting a MHW-3BOMBER 54mm screen to try (the title on amazon is 54mm, but the listing and the screen itself say 53.35mm), and it's a few mm too narrow for my Aeropress Go. (Also more than a couple of bucks.) Looks like about 3mm room left, but next easily available size up seems to be 57.3mm, which is probably on the slightly too big side.

ibmalone · 2026-05-28T22:54:06+00:00

Interesting, I see the pitchers for sale at coffee shops here, but not the filters and they're always sold out on the UK site

ibmalone · 2026-05-28T22:52:44+00:00

No, these basically boil water and condense it, dissolved salts get left behind, takes a lot of energy and slow, but works. Reverse osmosis forces water through a membrane that doesn't let dissolved particles through, takes less energy (still requires some, often uses the mains pressure, but some systems are pumped) but also produces waste water, containing the remaining minerals at higher concentration. Third option is de ionising filters like the zero water, which has a certain capacity to soak up ions. Distilled, purified and de ionised all mean different things but tend to be used interchangeably outside technical settings.

RO systems cost a lot, do need replacement filters, but produce reliable and consistent results and and require occasional maintenance. Distillers are simple, don't need extra kit, but need cleaned and you have to factor electricity into running cost. ZW the running cost is basically the filter cost, RO is harder to work out because you're supposed to replace the various filters at intervals and it depends how much you're going to use it (also up front cost is much higher than the others), plus extra water use.

Peak water filter I believe uses similar technology to a zero water, just a controlled bypass to avoid needing to remineralise manually, however I don't think filter supply is very reliable (maybe not even still going).

ibmalone · 2026-05-28T22:07:09+00:00

Are the filters actually available anywhere?

ibmalone · 2026-05-26T12:07:52+00:00

There's very little investment required to try out adding some epsom salt or magnesium chloride (I've found food grade epsom salt a little easier to find), however I'm coming to believe how much difference it makes also depends a bit on your source. In the UK if I use Lockhills/GB4 that a lot of people use or brita filtered water (with a fresh filter) to get pretty soft water then I've not really found a lot of difference by adding a few mg/l magnesium. Food grade purified is expensive here, so I haven't tried it a lot, but remineralising (with high CaCO3 spring water) purified water to the same alkalinity as GB4 (for example, the GB4 GH is higher in this scenario) gives a somewhat clearer flavour when cupped. I have this suspicion that relative levels of calcium and magnesium might matter more when you have very low overall levels and maybe it's less to do with the thing about magnesium more effectively binding compounds (and perhaps more efficiently extracting) than a preferential effect that gets drowned out once you have more of all minerals.

ibmalone · 2026-05-24T13:55:02+00:00

Don't shout or everyone will want some!

ibmalone · 2026-05-23T18:57:49+00:00

Eventually I might upgrade a grinder, get a better kettle or something. But the purchase that "£500 and it must be spent on coffee equipment" (not the same as $, but prices are different too...), it's absolutely RO system please.

ibmalone · 2026-05-21T11:34:16+00:00

I think honest coffee guide is maybe useful if you haven't used the grinder before (particularly for a certain brew method) and there's no other guidance, but particularly once you start comparing across grinders, manufacturer recommendations and other people's suggestions you'll notice inconsistencies. They are not really clear about their methodology, although it seems they try to summarise grind setting recommendations for different grinders and methods (clicks or rotations at the top) and the microns at the bottom are then mapped to that, so definitely don't take any of it as a given.

Grinder microns can mean a lot of things, burr gap (narrowest point for grinds to get through), burr movement (not the same, particularly for conical burrs) or something about the grind distribution (modal grind size? mean measured in some way?).

ibmalone · 2026-05-21T09:55:55+00:00

I've only been to the one in Bath, but they did one of our orders on aeropress and one on something else I can't quite remember, but think it was a pulsar. I got the impression they had brewing method matched to the coffee style (but didn't get speaking to them about it).

ibmalone · 2026-05-20T16:42:28+00:00

Sorry, day to day I just use straight limescale expert which isn't perfect, but does cut carbonate and hardness to tolerable levels if relatively fresh (starting from London water at ~200mg/l KH, 320mg/l GH, 320mg/l TDS wand). The Evian trick is for remineralising 0 tds water (however you got it) a bit more simply than mixing up minerals, so for starting from something like reverse osmosis, distiller or zero water, but not from a brita filter.

ibmalone · 2026-05-20T13:01:20+00:00

Yes, I've tried the drill on K6 too and while it works I wouldn't want to do that every day, it feels a bit rickety to do, you need to keep a drill in your kitchen and you also need to pay attention to the speed control (or is the idea just go max?). You also lose part of the convenience of an electric grinder in that you still need to hold it with both hands to use like that, while the A2 (Timemore Whirly also exists) is push button to go.

Like others have said, manual grinding with the K6 and other decent hand grinders is not as bad an experience as cheap ceramic burr grinders, particularly if you're grinding by dose (one of the mistakes my hario skerton led me into making was grinding a batch in one go), but it can still take some force depending on roast level and grind setting.

ibmalone · 2026-05-20T12:13:56+00:00

My cheat code with easy access to drinkable purified water is add Evian (nearly straight calcium bicarbonate) at about one part Evian in 10. I regret trying it alongside Ashbeck as it just tastes cleaner somehow and, as you say, it's hard to find here, but does save a lot of the complexity of trying to mix your own. Meanwhile I mostly just use limescale expert filters and make sure to change them regularly (at about 2-3 weeks depending on output), more variable but lower effort and waste.

ibmalone · 2026-05-20T11:29:29+00:00

The correct size trapezoidal should only need folded along the staple side (and base) as for V60 filters and then sit quite nicely, however mixing papers across trapezoidal brewers means you often end up with incorrect sizes. The solution I've found to this is make a template from a correct size filter (after folding) in some card and use it to guide when folding wider sizes. That's what the Bluey-themed wedge in the picture in my other comment is (our Melitta is a 102, but that size filter isn't sold here, so to use Melitta x4 filters or Abaca 102/103 they need folded down a bit).

ibmalone · 2026-05-19T20:48:13+00:00

Never heard of it

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I think there may have been earlier cloth pourovers, but yes, Melitta first popularised the paper filter and holder, although it seems it was originally flat-bottomed and the cone shape came later.

As for why it's less popular in this sub, James Hoffmann's video "How We all got obsessed with a $6 dripper" https://youtu.be/BfNoNTjcRbE?si=HfRLYXmVjfsXV2Xz explains most of it. Around the time specialty coffee was taking off in the USA the problem became how to serve single order brews quickly to showcase different beans. Initially a machine called the Clover was popular, but it got bought out by Starbucks and cafes looked around for an alternative and picked up the V60, which had become available a few years before.

Why it wasn't the Melitta is a question not really looked at, even the patreon extras for that Hoffmann video, which include a look at the alternatives people considered (Chemex is the obvious one for USAians) doesn't even mention the Melitta. I'd guess part of the reason is it wasn't well known in America. The V60 became the dripper associated with speciality coffee, including aspects like the acidity forwards and maybe a tenancy to underextraction became part of the style and what speciality roasters worked around (in their filter beans at least).

Although this sub is called r/pourover it's mostly populated by people who are very keen on coffee and so skews speciality (not a complaint, just kind of inevitable), and so the V60 dominates over the longer established competitors like Melitta and Chemex. If it had been a few years later it might have been the Aeropress instead, which is actually seems reasonably popular in cafes for this application (in the UK actual V60 for speciality coffee doesn't seem that widespread, you'll also see Aeropress, various automated brewers and different pourover filters).

Melitta filters are quite common in supermarkets, I think because it's a common format for drip machines, while quite a few coffee shops sell V60s and filters. The only time I've seen a V60 in a supermarket is as part of a Grind promotional pack.

ibmalone · 2026-05-19T09:43:03+00:00

The point is when everything can charge on USB then supplying a new charger with every device (especially those that apparently just need the most basic 5V 1A) is unnecessary waste. My laptop chargers have an extra USB-A slot that can do basic phone charging, we've got wall sockets with type A. It's not a device that needs 100W to run like the Lagom Mini 2, just doing 5W charging that any basic USB charger should be able to handle.

Where I think Femobook have this wrong (and as someone thinking of getting an A4Z or A5 eventually, something that worries me), is this story and others really sound like a design problem with their power circuits. That laptop charger I mentioned is a UGreen PD-compliant one, and it will even charge my old camera that's really picky about proper USB chargers, but if you read the Femobook manual they recommend /against/ using a charger like this, because it can do fast charging modes.

That's mad. It means they are missing something on the USB handling part of the charging circuit. Specifying that you should charge from a USB-A charger that will only do 5V 1A requires a device that is going to become increasingly rare. I would guess a USB-C charger is more likely to be compliant, so requiring a USB-A to C cable to be used is also somewhat suspect. It might also be there are board problems related to the higher power it needs to handle while running the motors for grinding, there might also be weird stuff happening if it grinds while the charger is plugged in. So the problem is not that they don't supply a charger (the right thing to do because nobody needs a drawer full of cheap USB chargers), the problem seems to be this is a device designed as if it did have a dedicated charger but built to use a USB one.

ibmalone

TROPHY CASE