Coffee according to Tom Dixon

We mainly know London designer Tom Dixon for his lamps and interiors. But from now on, also for coffee equipment, with which he elevates making coffee to a ritual. From percolator to cafetière and biscuit tin, Dixon’s ‘Brew’ is an ode to ‘the mysteries of the modern coffee ceremony’.

You may have seen Tom Dixon’s lamps hanging in restaurant C in Amsterdam. Or perhaps you ate in the decor he designed for Jamie Oliver’s London butcher’s restaurant Barbecoa. The same Tom Dixon created a copper tea service a few years ago.

Now he has added the ‘Brew’ coffee series to it, in the context of which he speaks of “the coming together of heat, steam, water and ground coffee. An ode to the mysteries of the modern coffee ceremony.”

Coffee ceremony

The tea ceremony dates back thousands of years, with a whole arsenal of artfully designed pots, cups, tongs, tea tables and other indispensable accessories for making tea as it is meant to be made. But over all those centuries, coffee has progressed little further than, roughly speaking, a pot plus some kind of filter, and later the espresso machine.

Filter coffee is sawing at espresso’s legs, and with ‘Brew’ Tom Dixon delivers the death blow

Of course, designers have previously turned their attention to coffee service. But now that filter and other brewing methods are sawing vigorously at the legs of espresso’s absolute rule, Dixon delivers the latter the death blow with his ‘Brew’ series.

From coffee canister and spoon to cafetière (French press), percolator (stovetop pot), milk pan and even biscuit tin and tray, he elevates the modern espresso-free coffee ceremony to an art form. Yes, even to “an ode to time and attention.” And all of it in stainless steel with a high-gloss copper finish.

One question: why espresso cups if you make coffee with a pot? Or could that be one of the mysteries of the modern coffee ceremony?

Text: Marjan Ippel
Image: Brew by Tom Dixon