Pu’er Coffee

 The world of coffee gear is inseparable from product design, and product design, in turn, is inseparable from innovation and aesthetics. To some extent, there is always a tension between emotional appeal and rational utility. I can accept that an original design object may carry a premium beyond its material value as a way of honoring the effort and creativity behind it. What I find harder to ignore, however, is a more practical question: What tangible benefits does this product bring to my daily use? And more importantly, what problem does it actually solve? If I can’t find convincing answers to those questions, I tend to classify the product as “nice but unnecessary,” and switch into a mode of evaluating whether it’s truly worth the price. Today, I want to talk about an espresso cup made from an unusual material, and use it as a starting point to discuss a broader question: when it comes to original design, do you place more value on form or on function? The espresso cup in q...

 Mahdi certainly wouldn’t miss a market opportunity like this. In the past, they had already released several mid-priced grinders designed for home users, but those products alone couldn’t fully create a complete at-home coffee-making setup. So earlier this year, they made a strategic move: Mahdi’s parent company, Hemro Group, acquired Berlin-based Xenia Espresso. The purpose of this acquisition was to relaunch Xenia’s flagship espresso machine under the Mahdi brand. Xenia Espresso was originally founded in 2012 by members of a German online coffee enthusiast community. In many ways, it was a product born from collective wisdom—a machine designed entirely from the perspective of hobbyists, hitting all the right notes of what home enthusiasts expect in a coffee machine. The original Xenia already featured a dual-boiler system, a quiet pump, pressure sensors, and PID temperature control for its advanced heating system. Beyond these foundational components, the newly redesigned machin...

 The VortexBrew Pro cold brew maker may look like any regular cold brew pot on the outside, but its core feature sets it apart — a small motor that uses centrifugal technology capable of spinning at 1,000 rpm. Inside, it’s equipped with a 5W ultra–low-power motor and a built-in lithium battery, which means it’s fully rechargeable. You can take it anywhere — to the office, camping, or traveling — and it becomes your portable cold brew companion. When fully charged, the VortexBrew Pro can make up to 30 cups of cold brew. And even if the battery runs out, it can still operate while plugged in. The pot has a 600 ml capacity, which is more than enough to supply two or three people with cold brew for an entire day. The filter basket uses a 300-mesh ultra-fine nylon filter, which does a decent job keeping coffee grounds out of the final brew. During operation, as shown in the demo, the device works almost like a washing machine in spin-dry mode — continuously rotating to create a centrifu...