BREWERS · FELLOW STAGG [XF] · FIT

Well made, plastic free, and it brews more coffee than almost any other pour-over on my shelf. I still reach for it three or four times a year.

If you already know this is the one you want, it is here, seventy dollars for the dripper on its own. Otherwise, the rest is why I would think about it first.

I have to be straight with you about something first, because it is the reason this entry is not simply a no.

A flat bottom and a cone are not the same purchase. I put four brewers side by side on the same Ethiopian, same ratio, same temperature, same grinder, and the shape did move the cup. Not dramatically. But on a bright coffee I was not enjoying, the flat bed gave me the better balance and the cone kept the acidity singing. It is a difference you notice if you are paying attention, and the coffee in front of you decides which one you want more than the brewer does.

So there are two separate questions here, shape and size, and every cheaper thing I can point you at answers one of them and not the other.

Of the flat-bottom brewers I own, the Stagg is the biggest. I think that is the point of it. So if what you need is a flat bed that brews for a table, I am not going to pretend there is an obvious cheaper swap, because for me there has not been one.

If size is what you need and the shape is negotiable: the Hario V60 in size 03, about twelve dollars.

Size 01 and 02 really are one-or-two-cup brewers, so if those are your reference the Stagg's height looks like it is doing something nothing else can. On volume, it is not. The 03 is the cone-shaped answer to what the Stagg does, and it costs twelve dollars. It is a cone, so by my palate expect a brighter cup, and that is the honest trade. I own all three sizes.

One thing I should say plainly, because it cuts in the Stagg's favour and leaving it out would be dishonest: the size 03 is plastic. Hario makes ceramic V60s, but not at that size. So if you want the volume and you do not want plastic, the cheap answer runs out, and that is the narrow spot where the seventy dollars starts to make sense.

If the flat bed is what you want at a smaller scale: the Kalita Wave, and I would get the ceramic. Around twenty six dollars.

I owned the 185 in the lightweight aluminum and gave it to a friend. It worked really well, no issues with it at all. The ceramic I have not used, so let me be clear about what I am basing this on. The two are the same brewer from the same company in different materials, and the material is the whole difference: the aluminum is light and it cools down faster, the ceramic is more robust and holds heat better. That trade goes the other way too, and it is worth knowing before you buy: with the ceramic you will want to preheat it, probably more than once, if that is the kind of thing you care about. On size, the Wave comes in two and the difference is real: the 155 is a personal brewer, about a size one, and the 185 takes more coffee on a tighter bed. Neither one is doing what the Stagg does at the top end. But the same rule applies here as anywhere else, which is that you can put less coffee in the bigger one and carry on. If you are choosing between the two, get the 185.

Or the Verve Dwell Dripper, thirty dollars.

Silicone, flat bottom, and the one I actually reach for. Smaller than the Stagg, under half the price, and it has been in my rotation long enough that I reviewed it twice.

And if you want this brewer without the height: Fellow makes the shorter one, the Stagg [X], around fifty seven dollars.

Same brand, same insulated stainless steel, ten ounces instead of the full size. I do not own this one, so here is exactly what I am basing that on. My complaint about the [XF] is the height, and I have five years of using it to back that up. The [X] is the same brewer with the thing I complain about taken out, and it is cheaper. What I cannot tell you is whether it takes filters the big one won't, because I have not had it in my hands. If that is the deciding factor for you, check before you buy rather than taking my word for it.

And underneath all of it, the thing I actually believe: two or three brewers, one flat and one cone, is all you really need.

That is not a line I am writing for this page. It is how I ended the video where I tested this, and I still think it. I own four or five flat-bottom brewers alongside the cones, and they are cheap and easy to find. If what you want is to find out what a shape does to your coffee, a flat one and a cone will teach you more than one nice brewer will, and the pair of them still costs less than the Stagg. Then you let the coffee decide which one comes out that morning.

I had barely worked with flat-bottom brewers when I bought this. That was most of it. It looked different, it looked interesting, and I wanted to know what it did.

The other half was capacity. Pour-over brewers tend to assume you are making coffee for yourself. This one is taller than the others and it holds more, and that is a real problem it solves rather than a feature on a box. I liked the base too, ten small holes instead of one big one, which felt like a design decision somebody had actually made.

So I bought the set. Dripper, insulated glass carafe, thirty filters, about a hundred dollars in the summer of 2021.

It worked. That is the honest first sentence and it stays first, because most of what follows sounds worse than the thing deserves.

What I did not expect was how particular it is to load. The bed is tall and narrow, and getting the coffee in evenly is a small job every time. You cannot tip and go. It reminds me of the CAFEC Deep 27 in that respect, a similar design idea, a tight deep bed, though that one is a cone and this is not. The Stagg gives you less room to be sloppy in than either.

Then the thirty filters ran out, and I found out what the filters actually cost. My first move was to be cheap about it. I tried using Kalita Wave filters, which I already had, and they were far too shallow for how deep this thing is. So I bit the bullet and bought the real ones. I want to be clear that I did that, because it changes what this entry is. I did not quit on it when the free paper ran out. I paid up, came back, and it still ended up where it is now.

I have owned it since July 2021. I use it three or four times a year, if that.

It lives on the shelf. Nothing has gone wrong with it, and nothing is going to, because it is a piece of stainless steel with holes in the bottom.

Here is the part that surprised me going back to it. When I made the video about this brewer, I argued that the problem was the price. Seventy dollars for something a ten dollar brewer matches. Five years of it sitting on a shelf and I do not think the price was the main thing. The main thing is the shape. It is taller than it needs to be for most people, it is fussy to load because of that height, and the shorter version of it would probably serve more people better while opening up which filters they can use.

The price was the complaint I could measure. The shape is the reason I stopped reaching for it.

I did buy a reusable steel filter for it, a Quell, to get out from under the paper cost. It works. It is fine. I just do not use metal filters much, because I like what paper does to the coffee, so it did not change anything for me.

Sometimes I get a metallic note from it. It might be placebo. I am not going to tell you it is definitely there, but I have thought it more than once over five years, and it reminds me of drinking out of a stainless steel travel cup. Take that for exactly what it is, which is one person's impression and not a property of the brewer.

And the thing I keep coming back to: it is metal, so it will never break. Five years in, that is the strongest thing I can say about it, and it is also the problem. A brewer that will outlive me and that I touch four times a year is not a bad product. It is a product that found the wrong owner.

If you are brewing for four people and you do not want plastic, that owner might be you. Everything on this page carries a link, including the cheaper things I just pointed you at, so I earn either way and I have no reason to talk you into this one.

HOW IT SCORES

Does what it claims — 8 / 10

Plastic free, holds heat, and genuinely brews more than the others. The condition is the loading: it does the job, but you have to be deliberate about it.

Holds up over time — 7 / 10

Five years of ownership, three or four uses a year, so call it fifteen to twenty brews. Nothing has degraded and it is stainless steel, so nothing is likely to. This is thin evidence rather than proven durability, and the number says so.

Worth the Buy — 4.5 / 10

Genuinely depends, and the two buyers are easy to confuse. Every cheaper brewer I can point at solves either the size or the flat bed, not both. If you need a flat bottom that brews for a table, seventy dollars is a real answer and I am not going to pretend otherwise. But for most people it is more brewer than the job needs, and the proprietary filters are a standing bill on top of the sticker. Half a point because it sits between the two: the depends-case is real, and it is much smaller than the overpriced-case.

Would I buy it again — 2.5 / 10

No, and I know what I would do with the money instead, which is two cheaper brewers in different shapes. Half a point because for my own use it is close to not worth it at any price, without quite being that.

55% 22 out of 40. Four things, ten points each.

Used three or four times a year over five years. That is a light use rate, and it cuts both ways: nothing has failed, and nothing has been asked of it either. If you would brew on this daily, weigh the durability number lighter than I have, and weigh the loading complaint heavier.

Scored against what this thing claims to do and what it costs, not against other gear.

WATCH THE TEST

This is where the price complaint came from, five years ago, on camera. Worth watching next to what I think now, because the two do not agree and the disagreement is the point. One thing before you click: I call it the XL in that video. It is the XF. I had the name wrong on tape and did not sort it out until I went back and found the receipt.