Early mornings are sacred to me. When I worked as a barista 15 years ago, I would give myself an extra hour to drink my first coffee of the day and read or jot down some writing ideas before I bolted out the door to the café. Even though I’m not under the same time constraints, I still love waking up before dawn, sipping on a pour-over I made to accompany whatever novel I’m reading or writing project I’m in the middle of. There’s something meditative to brewing coffee by hand when the world is still dark and quiet, but if I’m being honest, the whole routine only works because of my Fellow Stagg EKG Pro gooseneck kettle.
What’s great about the Fellow Stagg EKG Pro
As a longtime coffee professional, I usually tell people that pour-over can be tricky. With so many variables—water temperature, grind size, brew time, and even pouring style—it’s easy to brew inconsistently. Every one of those brewing components can turn an incredible whole-bean coffee into a disappointing cup. And while Fellow’s Stagg EKG Pro doesn’t automate your brewing the way a good drip coffee maker can, its design takes on as many of those variables as you could reasonably expect of an electric kettle to improve your brew.
To start, the Stagg has precision temperature control that lets you set the exact water temperature to a single degree Fahrenheit. It’s the most accurate temperature control kettle I’ve used, and I’ve been around a lot of them. That consistent temperature is key for getting the coffee and water mix to exactly 200ºF in your filter. But more than just having a built-in thermometer, the Stagg can actually hold its temperature, at one of five preset times or your own custom choice, so you can set it, walk away to clean up the kitchen, and come back to water exactly as you need to brew.
The thermostat control is also key for brewing tea. If you look in my tea drawer, you’ll find Japanese sencha, white tea from Yunnan China, black tea from Nepal—all of which demand varying water temperatures for the best results. If brewed too hot, the green tea will be bitter; some high-end Japanese green tea need temps as cool as 160ºF. If brewed too cool, the black teas will lack sweetness. Few kettles can hold temperatures with that wide a range.
It’s not just the technological bells and whistles, it’s the form factor of the Fellow kettle too. When it comes to pouring, the Stagg has the best spout design I’ve ever brewed with. The elongated point of its tip means that water won’t dribble when pouring at slower speeds, and the thin, kinked neck provides some resistance to flow, giving the user more control over the pouring speed than traditional curved gooseneck kettles. It also has a weighted handle to offset the water in the kettle itself, providing more balance for precision pouring.
The result is a kettle that offers more control over what you’re brewing than any other gooseneck kettle you’re likely to come across. If I’ve got a slightly darker roast at home, I can fine-tune the temperature a few degrees to cut down on smokiness. If the water is draining through the coffee too fast, I can easily slow my pour to ensure proper contact time between water and coffee. And thanks to the spout’s flow control, I know that every pour is going to land exactly where I want it to on the coffee bed, ensuring even extraction from all of the grounds.
The Stagg EKG is quick to heat up too. When I roll out of bed, the first thing I do is fill the kettle and set it to heat. By the time I’ve weighed out my coffee, pulled my favorite mug from the cupboard, and set a filter in my pour-over cone, the water is ready to brew. It may be more work making a pour-over with the Stagg than turning on a drip coffee maker, but from start to finish I have coffee in my mug quicker when I brew by hand. And if I want to save even more time, the kettle has a schedule feature that lets me have water heated and held at temperature before my alarm even goes off in the morning.
Finally, I just like the way the kettle looks. Chances are, if you have an electric kettle, it’s going to be an appliance you use almost every day, so constantly moving it in and out of storage would be annoying. My kettle is on the counter at all times and I’m glad that the best-performing gooseneck kettle is also the best-looking one. I appreciate its sleek, modern design compared to the white plastic or glass and stainless options you normally get with electric kettles. I have it in black to match my grinder and drip coffee brewer, but I also appreciate the wide variety of colors and materials such as powder blue with a maple handle or matte black with walnut accents.
What I don’t love about the Fellow Stagg EKG Pro
There is one downside to consider, and that’s the cost. As I’m writing this, the Stagg EKG Pro costs close to $200, and I can already hear some readers saying that the kettle alone costs more than most drip coffee makers do. That might be true, but most drip coffee makers that cost less than $200 don’t actually get hot enough to brew correctly and have long, drawn-out brew times that pull more bitterness into the cup. Though the Stagg is a little pricey, it’s actually a more cost-effective way to brew the highest quality coffee at home. Add in all the other times you may use an electric kettle—for tea or other small tasks like dissolving bouillon—and the Stagg is maybe the lowest cost-per-use appliance I own.
Should you get the Stagg EKG Pro Gooseneck Kettle?
I really do love my morning coffee ritual. It’s not the only coffee I drink each day—I typically pour a cup from the larger pot I brew when my partner wakes up—but nothing can replace the meditative moments I have pouring slow concentric circles while watching the coffee drip into the glass carafe below my pour-over brewer. And while most gooseneck kettles would do a passable job, the Stagg’s precision and control really do elevate the experience. That, for me, is worth everything.