Coffee by Lulu’s Hand

Making filter coffee seems easy, but it isn’t necessarily. For example, you shouldn’t dump the entire pool of water onto the ground beans all at once. Instead, you need to pour the water in a very thin stream. And distribute it evenly at the same time. In circles. Can’t it be easier?

Yes, with Lulu’s Hand. A cup-top brewer, as it is officially called. It is an ingenious filtering gadget that you place on top of your coffee cup, just like an ordinary filter or a fancy Clever Coffee Dripper. To pour water into it, however clumsily, and ultimately have everything turn out just right in the cup.

Diaphragm

The fact that it does indeed turn out well is thanks to a kind of slider that works like a diaphragm. It regulates the blooming of the ground coffee and then its gradual flow into the cup. So you don’t need the help of one of those expensive Japanese kettles with a thin gooseneck spout.

Even without an expensive Japanese kettle with a thin gooseneck spout, the filter coffee will turn out well.

Lulu’s Hand bears a very distant resemblance to that other cup-top brewer, the one for Vietnamese coffee. Same material (stainless steel), same somewhat robust, no-nonsense appearance. But with a smarter and more advanced flow-through system.

Pour without the fuss

The filter+ was designed by Taiwanese information technology professor Alvin Su, who has no experience whatsoever in the coffee world, but all the more love for a good cup of joe without too much fuss.

But who is Lulu, after whose hand this stainless steel and polypropylene gadget is named? She is the protagonist in Frank Wedekind’s play Earth Spirit, which in turn inspired Alban Berg’s opera Lulu and now, consequently, the Taiwanese professor. A true muse. With a good hand for coffee.

And if you’re craving cold coffee now: simply put some ice cubes in the cup and place Lulu’s hand over them.

Lulu’s Hand is available to buy here after a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Text: Marjan Ippel
Image: Lulu’s Hand