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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

french press

Canadian Sisters Launch Capra Press, a French Press That Doesn’t Oversteep and Eliminates Messy Cleanup

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.

Capra Press Founders (L to R): Jeff Polster, Zoey Knobler, Mia Knobler

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.

Those Who Haven’t Gotten Their Rite Press May Want to Try the OVRLNDR No-Mess French Press

Coffee aficionados looking for a no-mess French press, but who were burned by the Rite Press’ no-show, may be in luck. Planetary Design is currently taking orders for its self-contained BruTrek OVRLNDR French press, which features a removable base plate for easy cleaning.

Anyone who’s used a French press knows how they make delicious coffee, but how much of a hassle they are to clean. The grounds get stuck to the bottom and if left in the vessel have to be chiseled and rinsed out without those coffee grounds going down the drain.

That was the allure of the Rite Press, which crowdfunded a ton of money — only to not deliver an actual product to many of its backers. Rite Press was a whole thing, with a ton of drama around it, and for more you can read the full story here.

The OVRLNDR is a little different than the Rite Press. It’s a rugged, 28 oz, double wall vacuum insulated, outdoor travel mug with a built-in plunger, and the aforementioned removable base plate, which collects the coffee grounds and can be taken off for easy cleaning. Going one step further, the company says that its patented plunger and brew-plate assembly stops the grounds from brewing once fully pressed so the coffee doesn’t become bitter.

Another way Planetary is different from Rite Press is that Planetary has been in business for 15 years and already has a number of coffee-related products on the market. I spoke with Jess Nepstad, CEO of Planetary Design by phone this week who told me that his company has a person in China right now inspecting the final elements of production. Nepstad said the OVRLNDR will be available here in the U.S. in February with an MSRP of $50. Nepstad also said that a more upscale in-home version of its no-mess French press solution will be available in September of next year.

While this hot coffee solution may be cold comfort to those Rite Press backers who never got their device, Planetary is doing those crowdfunders a solid. People who backed the Rite Press are eligible for a 25 percent discount when the product comes out, by providing their email address with the company.

The “No Mess French Press” Just Broke the Record for Coffee Products on Kickstarter

Using a French Press is one way to brew undoubtedly tasty coffee—if you actually know how to do it correctly.

By correctly, I mean knowing the exact temperature the water has to be, how long the coffee needs to brew, and how to clean the darn thing without dragging coffee grounds from one end of the countertop to the other.

The folks behind Rite Press want to make all of those activities easier for consumers. Billed as the “no mess French Press,” the product is a new iteration of the popular coffee brewer that regulates time and temperature. It also uses patented technology to make cleanup considerably easier.

Founder and CEO Sargam Patel used his background in physics and engineering to come up with the concept back in 2015, and Rite Press has been in development ever since. The basic process remains the same as a normal French Press: measure grounds, pour water, let the coffee brew, press down on plunger.

Where Rite Press sets itself apart is with the extra features that give the user a more sophisticated choice and the ability to brew with more precision.

To that end, the Rite Press comes with a removable thermometer you use to measure water temperature—a crucial factor for brewing good coffee—before you combine it with the grounds.  Not sure how long to let the coffee brew after adding the water? Just watch the hourglass feature, which attaches to the press via magnet. Once the sand inside is drained, the coffee is ready.

One of the biggest complaints about the traditional French Press is the mess involved with cleaning it. Many have tried to solve this problem. However, all those solutions involve extra steps or utensils, which translates to extra money and/or time.

With Rite Press, pushing the plunger down forces the coffee grounds into a removable chamber at the bottom of the pot, which then twists off for easy disposal of the grounds. (I’m assuming this is where Patel’s physics background comes into play.) Since I haven’t personally tried the product yet, I can’t say how much this improves the cleanup process of a French Press. But at the very least, there are fewer pieces to scrub grounds from.

There’s clearly a market for this reinvention: Rite Press’ Kickstarter campaign launched in January 2018 with a $20,000 goal and currently has over $1 million in pledges, which places them atop the all-time rankings for coffee projects on Kickstarter. There are still two days left to back the project. For doing so, you’ll get an assortment of Rite Press products, which start shipping in March.