Former World Barista Champion Tim Wendelboe is pretty persnickety about what he will or won’t endorse. Since he’s made quite a famous name for himself since winning the WBC in 2004, and opening his self-titled cafe and roaster in Oslo, Norway, which continues to churn out award-winning coffees, I was more than curious about the SVART Presisjon and SVART Manuell, both produced by Wilfa, which Tim is here in Seoul to promote and demo at the Cafe Show.
For the past few years, Tim has been working with Wilfa, the esteemed Scandinavian producer of home electronic goods, to create the SVART Presisjon and the SVART Manuell, two home brewers that are blowing the socks off of coffee lovers from Norway to Sweden to Finland to Denmark.
And now Korea.
It seems Wilfa is so crazy about coffee equipment for the home that they have an entire side project called Nordic Coffee Culture. It was under this name that the SVART Presisjon and SVART Manuell, were developed, along with input from leaders in Scandinavian coffee such as Klaus Thomsen of Denmark’s the Coffee Collective (himself a WBC champ), Kalle Freese (reigning Finnish Barista Champion), and others.
The goal was to create an easy-to-use home brewer that would produce exquisite coffee ”and be beautiful to look at, too.
Presenting SVART Presisjon and SVART Manuell, two automated machines that offer consumers ”even those without barista skills ”the ability to craft exceptional coffee at home. The SVART Presisjon is more automated, in that the machine dispenses water directly into the grounds ”all the home brewer needs to do is fill the water chamber, grind fresh coffee for the filter (which looks much like a Melitta), and turn it on.
Tim says he also likes to stir the grounds after the bloom, but even that isn’t absolutely necessary on the SVART Presisjon.
The SVART Manuell gives the home brewer more control, in that instead of a chamber for water, it includes a precision kettle for the home brewer to use to pour water through the coffee.
There are three especially unique features of the SVART Presisjon and SVART Manuell:
1) Water is heated in the chamber to a precise temperature and holds that temperature throughout the brew cycle. As the chamber is removable, the home brewer can take it off, rinse it, and make sure there is no residue left inside.
2) There is a mixing tube that extends from the top of the carafe to almost the bottom, which stirs the coffee as it brews, making sure the early, middle, and late sections of the brew are properly integrated. Tim says he likes to give it another stir himself when the brew is over.
3) Flow control on the filter holder: there is a cuff on the neck of the filter which can be adjusted to determine how quickly water passes through the coffee. This can also be shut closed at the end of the brewing cycle when the home brewer takes the filter off and carries it to the sink ”no drips.
Tim told me that Wilfa is currently working on a 110 volt version of the SVART Presisjon and SVART Manuell for the North American market. The SVART Presisjon and SVART Manuell will be available in Korea in a few months.
To read Tim’s review of the SVART Presisjon and SVART Manuell, go HERE
To see Tim demo the SVART Presisjon, see video below.
