I love coffee made directly from ground beans but I think that boiling water has a tendency to scald them and a better flavour comes with a slightly lower temperature. Easily enough done but it seems a waste to take the water all the way up to boiling and then let it cool a bit and it is hard to judge (or I get distracted) if I try to catch it on the way up. Therefore I’ve had my eye out for a variable temperature kettle for a while but, for what should be a fairly simple enhancement, you have to pay a fairly steep price hike and, for the various ones I found online, there were plenty of negative reviews which put me off.

Shopping in Wallingford this afternoon, I was delighted to find this VillaWare kettle. There is something to be said for being able to pick up and examine an item before you purchase it and it does seem to be a good quality piece of kit. Furthermore, it has a wider temperature range than of any of the kettles I had looked at online, with five options from 40°C – 100°C. It even comes with an insert that, combined with the “keep warm” function, will let it serve as a temperature controlled bain marie.

So, tick that one off the list and now I can start experimenting to find just what temperature I do want the water for my coffee.