1Zpresso K-Ultra vs Kalita Wave

“a $200 kettle with a ~$100 grinder seems like a bit of a misstep to me. the Stagg is a great kettle, but you can get like, 90% of the same results with the most basic temperature controlled gooseneck on amazon. I'd go for a ~$50-75 kettle and $200-250 grinder instead. 1zpresso ZP6 or K-Ultra seems to be the chief recommendation around here, I have a ZP6 and it's excellent, haven't used a K-Ultra so can't speak to it personally”

“Flat bottom brewing is the logical progression, though there are a bunch of options and ways to brew with them. Kalita is the standard bearer for good reason, though I’d steer around the normal stainless steel version. Of course there are many others. Some are mostly trying to overcome the clogging problems of the stainless steel version, which also can be overcome simply (and often less expensively) by selecting glass, ceramic, or Tsubame versions. Some are aiming for filter negotiation / smooshing for lower bypass brewing. That’s legit, but can be accomplished in the OG too, and some of those alternatives become a little too focused / one trick ponies. Some focus on being cheap plastic alternatives, and succeed by that measure. Some offer a variety of alternatives, though IMO that’s largely something to waste time with / get confused by. Seems like most who use such systems eventually settle into one main mode of use, making the supposed versatility superfluous. And while their eventual choice may be structurally different in appearance, it probably ends up not that different in terms of what ends up in the cup. Because unless a dripper is seriously flawed, they all perform the same basic task of securely holding a piece of wet paper with ground coffee. The differences in how they do that can matter, but tweaks to how the brewing is done can bring larger changes than the filter holder normally will, making the differences trivial in comparison. Which is a lot of words to say, don’t overthink it. You’ll end up with a shelf full of them no matter what you choose next lol.”