Mia and Zoey Knobler had a love-hate relationship with the French press. The two sisters from British Columbia loved the richer flavored coffee that resulted from the steep and plunge appliance, but hated the messy clean-up and the over-brewed coffee resulting from continued exposure to the grounds.
So they set to making a French press that had all the upside of that full-bodied first pour but not the downside of over-brewed coffee and sludgy cleanup. The result was the Capra Press, which debuted this week on Indiegogo and has raised over $32 thousand as of this writing.
The sisters teamed up with product designer Jeff Polster to create a French press with two interesting differentiators. The first is a mesh filter that seals after pressing, preventing bitter coffee from over-extraction. The filter utilizes silicon umbrella valves that seal the grounds into the bottom after plunging.
The second feature is a removable bottom that enables easier cleanup. Called the “grounds-keeper,” the twist-off bottom allows the user to dispose of the grounds into the trash or compost.
The team worked out of the Revelstoke Idea Factory, a community maker space and design lab in Revelstoke, British Columbia set up by the City of Revelstoke and the Revelstoke Fabrication Lab Society. After two years of prototyping and testing their ideas, the trio launched the Capra Press on Indiegogo this week.
Longtime readers of The Spoon might recall another French press project called the Rite Press that raised $1.3 million on Kickstarter but never delivered the product. When I asked Mia Knobler about the inevitable comparisons some might make to the ill-fated Rite Press, she pointed out that the Rite Press was offered at an artificially low price ($40) that didn’t consider the true cost of manufacturing. The Capra Press Indiegogo pricing starts at $85 for ‘Super Early Birds’ and has a retail price of $125.
“We are very far along in the process with the Capra Press and have been conservative with all our estimates to ensure that we can fulfill all the orders from our customers without compromising on quality or innovation,” said Knobler.
While all hardware crowdfunding campaigns carry some level of risk, the Capra Press is off to a good start, with over $32 thousand raised in just two days from nearly 300 backers. With 34 days left, the campaign has a long runway to raise more funding.
