We like our coffee how we like our women:
Smart.
And thus, we like GINA.
Dubbed “the first smart coffee instrument,” GINA mixes high tech and classic design to craft a barista-quality cup o’ joe. It’s the brainchild of GOAT Story, the people behind Kickstarter fave the GOAT Mug (a coffee mug that looked like a horn).
The Swedish company, which specializes in design, started on GINA a few years back. The idea was to create a beautiful-looking device that also delivered a coffee worthy of your local spot in all its artisanal, fair-trade, single-origin, indecipherable-menu glory.
“We wanted to give it a name so it had personality,” says COO Stella Korosec, who stopped by InsideHook with GOAT founder Anze Miklavec to serve up a few cups just before launch. (They add that it’s a female name because the device is multifunctional and gives you guidance; we’ll accept that.)
Built from ceramic, stainless steel and borosilicate glass, GINA also features a built-in Bluetooth scale and accompanying app. The combo of all these disparate parts allows you to make coffee three different ways: pour-over, immersion or cold drip. A small copper-plated valve in the middle gives you tactile control over the different techniques, and by utilizing a Bluetooth scale, you can track your brewing habits.
Why the hell do you need to analyze your coffeemaker? Simple: beyond delivering precise instructions on water temperature and bean-to-water ratios, the app also gives you access to recipes and a larger coffee brewing community. Given that just a few adjustments in time or measurement can alter the taste — even with the same beans — play around with this pays dividends.
Miklavec himself used it to find a unique blend that involves beans from a local coffee shop and a combination of a pour-over and immersion brew. (Later, I tried a cold brew of his that tasted better than 95% of the cold brews I’ve had from local coffee shops. It also kept me up for about two days.)
According to the founders, you can also “hack” the device for tea or iced tea, along with cocktails. But GINA is really about giving coffee lovers who aren’t barista-trained a path to great java.
Just launched on Kickstarter, GINA is available for $145 in polished stainless steel, black or white.
How do you take yours?
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