The Vandola Coffee Maker From Costa Rica

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The Vandola coffee maker certainly caught my eye in Costa Rica.

Travelling through Central America has been somewhat frustrating for a self-diagnosed coffee snob on the back of living in coffee obsessed Australia.

While some of the best coffee in the world is produced in these tiny countries, trying to find people who know anything about the process after the farm can be tricky.

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Stumbling across a third wave coffee shop in Costa Rica was like finding your favourite pair of trainers you thought you lost.

Decked out like any independent hipster haunt in Sydney or Melbourne this is where the cool kids of the capital slurped their midmorning caffeine and Instagrammed their avo on toast.

Swaggering the best espresso machine I had seen since Australia and coffee paraphernalia lined up waiting to be poured upon, these guys knew what they were doing.

The menu consisted of the usual suspects apart from one which instantly caught my eye, a Vandola.

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What is a Vandola?

The weighty, ceramic Chemex like coffee filtration method was designed 5 years ago by ceramicist and coffee enthusiast Minor Alfaro.

The 55-year-old Costa Rican created the Vandola with a vision of keeping coffee hot plus the flavour intact and it does exactly that.

With so many ‘science lab’ like coffee equipment out there now, the clay finish offers something different and especially with Minor’s artistic flare each Vandola is unique, with either a colour or detail different.

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When I asked the barista what a Vandola is, she sprang into life-giving me a brief Spanglish explanation of what it was and how it worked.

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Much like sitting down at a restaurant in France and waiting an hour for your starter, this was not a coffee to grab and run. The size and weight of the ceramic means it takes about 5 minutes to heat prior to the extraction.

Although this may seem like a little far fetched one of the beauties of this method is that when preparing a 2 or three cup batch the heat of the jug keeps the coffee warm for significantly longer than other similar techniques.

How to use a Vandola?

Once the Vandola is heated either in an oven or by filling with hot water, the coffee is ground to around a Chemex grind and then a Chemex paper filter is soaked on top of the funnel.

Like a teapot with a V60 instead of a lid the timings, weight of coffee, extraction and technique of pour-over is similar to that of a Chemex.

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The small hole just below the funnel is an important aspect of the Vandola, It not only helps the coffee to be infused faster as it sits right next to the point of the cone but it also creates better oxygenation.

This should create a coffee with more defined flavours and sweetness.

What does Vandola coffee taste like?

I tried the Vandola a few times during my time in Costa Rica with a couple of different speciality coffees with different roast profiles.

I must admit that I sway towards a lighter roasted coffee with interesting flavours, however, the darker roasted coffee excelled more so for me with the Vandola.

The coffee has similar overall acidity to a pour-over coffee like a Chemex and a V60. The point of difference for me was the aroma of the coffee, I’m not sure whether it was the clay, the oxygenation or a placebo effect, to me the coffee always had a more distinct aroma all the way through the experience. The body is slightly softer than a Chemex which in hand creates more delicate flavours.

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I was absolutely sold by the Vandola. Firstly I think there is a huge gap in the market for a more natural-looking coffee filter method. The Vandola almost looks like it has been uncovered in a Mayan archaeological dig.

It is certainly a talking point and although it is a relatively new creation the technique of making ceramics is ancient and it almost feels like you are drinking a cup of heritage.

The whole experience of the Vandola was another huge selling point.

Coffee is a drink that is enjoyed all over the world, at different times of the day and used as a quick pick me up or a centrepiece of breakfast.

The Vandola is definitely the latter. The ritual of preheating it then a skilful pour-over makes it a showstopper and has the flavoursome brew to back it up as a quality filtration method.

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The Vandola’s would make a great gift for a coffee lover but they are hard to come by as they take around a month to make and are all handmade and unique.

They are, however available online at various market places and Costa Rica is only a 10-hour flight away from the UK and has some of the best coffee plantations in the world, so if you were looking for an excuse to go to Costa Rica, look no further.

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