“As a busy tech professional that travels nearly weekly, I cherish every morning that I am at home making my own cup of coffee. This machine has transformed what used to be a task into an experience. The crackling sound of the three-part brewing cycle, the instant aroma arising with the steam from the open shower head design, the visual treat of dark coffee trickling down the carafe. I find myself watching the coffee being brewed, in much the same way I would watch a barista making my pourover at a favorite SF coffee house.
Experiential aspect aside, the Ratio Eight makes a damn good cup of coffee. It is never over-extracted or unevenly brewed. I use an Able Cone filter for a more oily french-press-esque cup. With that I grind a bit more course than with a typical machine, and have found 52oz for a half batch (more than is recommended by Ratio's guide) suits my taste. With the glass carafe and the lack of a heated base (which would ruin the coffee), I tend to pour myself a mug and transfer the rest into an insulated carafe, which I use to refill my mug a few times before the morning is over. If I have guests I make a batch and pour immediately. If we want more, we simply make more.
In a world of over-automation, this is one aspect of my day that I want to remain somewhat manual. Not unlike a classic Porsche where the satisfying clank of the 5-speed will never grow old.”
“I was one of the early adopters of the Ratio 8 and I have spent the last two years telling my wife and mother in law that the ratio 8 coffee flavor was worth the lack of heating element and inability to keep coffee warm for more than 8-10 minutes. I have been counting on the thermal carafe to solve this problem and it finally arrived this week - only to find out it looks nothing like the coffee maker I bought even though it's called the same champagne nickel finish. I really wanted the ratio 8 to be a ground breaking coffee maker but at the end of the day it's an attempt at attractive aesthetics that sacrificed practical usefulness, I'm finally telling my wife she was right, the Ratio 8 looks nice but is not much of a practical coffee maker...”
“Its so refreshing to buy a product that does what it says it does. Make coffee taste better then any cup anywhere. The folks behind these machines build them with care and passion. When you need help they are right there. We had a moccamaster for a number of years and finally switched to Ratio. We are so happy we did. its elegant on the counter, makes incredible coffee, easy to maintain and worth every penny. Just gave one as a gift to two architects and they were blown away with the design and the quality. We developed a problem with our machine and it was fixed in no time.. with passion.”
“1) Coffee from my French Press came tons better. You can brew a decent cup of coffee with this thing, but no matter what you do, the coffee will not be as good as a simple French press or a cheap counter bought coffee maker. Yes, it's made from the most quality materials, and it looks super cool; but I bought it primarily to brew coffee. If you want it as a show piece, or just feel that your coffee is healthier (this thing does have some plastic as well as an aluminum heating tank - so it still ain't all that healthy), then this coffee maker is for you. Otherwise, if you want a good cup of coffee, then get something designed more for function than for fashion
2) The power cord is a disaster. Who the heck designed this thing? The back plug is such a tight fit that you have to struggle to get it in and out, and the wall plug is right angled at the bottom with the ground at the bottom, so if you need to put this in a top outlet, then it will block the lower outlet”
“We are on our third carafe. They keep chipping even though we very gently hand wash. This machine is not worth the price. It is hard to clean the system. The water storage becomes dull. Coffee gets lukewarm very fast. No warming tray.”
