Fellow's First Bar Set, a $9,990 Sample Roaster, and One Very Interested Cat

Fellow's first cocktail kit is $199.95, pre-orders are open, and delivery is promised for early November in either a glass or a double-walled stainless mixing vessel. The eight pieces are a single-sided jigger, the mixing vessel, a cobbler-style shaker with a built-in strainer, a Hawthorne strainer, a fine mesh strainer, a weighted muddler, a forged bar spoon and a tray cut to hold each tool. Fellow's own framing is vintage Fellow: "A complete set of tools for more intuitive, precise, and satisfying mixology, with eight pieces designed to control temperature, dilution, and clarity in every drink." Forbes called the launch the brand's "first big move beyond coffee", which is fair for a catalogue built on kettles, brewers and grinders. USA TODAY's reviewer, who put the set at "around $200", singled out the shaker lid that solves the familiar problem of a top that will not budge once it is ice cold.

ROEST's new generation runs from the S200 and L200 Plus to the flagship L200 Ultra, and the Ultra's headline claim is throughput: "15 batches or 3kg per hour", with counterflow mode rotating the drum against the airflow to double heat transfer. The capacity is 50 to 200 grams a batch and the machine weighs 14 to 16 kg; Sweet Maria's lists five temperature sensors, first-crack detection and a browser-based interface. The US distributor sells the L200 Ultra for $9,990 and currently shows it out of stock, describing it as "an important tool for our sample roasting and evaluation process". ROEST's own page carries a testimonial from coffee consultant and author Scott Rao: "Counterflow mode doubles the heat-transfer efficiency of the Ultra." The roaster behind the channel Roaster Kat has already posted an unboxing and first roast.

The machine is a De'Longhi Dedica 885, and two consecutive shots produced nothing but a basket of wet grounds, which the owner photographed in the sink with a cat peering in. The most-liked answer skipped the diagnosis entirely: "That's a cat, not an espresso machine. Easy to confuse. Honestly, im impressed with how far you got." The technical answer was that the stock basket is pressurized rather than broken, so it wants pre-ground or deliberately coarse coffee and drains slowly through a small hole that owners of the same model clear with hot water and a safety pin. Kaffeemacher, a German coffee retailer that publishes its own Dedica guide, explains the same mechanism in blunter terms: "These baskets are designed for pre-ground coffee."

The photograph is the retail wall at Dayglow's Silverlake shop on Sunset Boulevard, holding the cafe's own boxes alongside bags from other roasters. The top reply was pure neighbourhood pride: "Truly blessed in Silverlake with this and Ondo". Then came the complaint from two customers who like the shop but not the pricing — one praised "the baristas are super knowledgeable and they seem to dial in their pour overs well" and still called the retail bags "absurdly priced. Always a huge mark up". Another framed the shelf as a test of how much mark-up a buyer will accept when other multi-roaster shops in the city sell the same bags for less, and Dayglow itself did not reply in the discussion. Other commenters flagged the new Drop bag designs on the bottom shelf, which regulars hunting the older plain brown bags might miss.

The poster owns an espresso machine and a pour-over but still bought an iced coffee every morning for the walk, the cold cup and the ten minutes outside. The most-liked answer suggested simulating the whole ritual: preheat the machine, walk around the block while it warms, brew, then take the cup outside to a bench and watch the street. The argument underneath it was that the enjoyable parts are leaving the house and drinking outdoors, so a cup made at home will not compare unless those parts still happen. Cheaper substitutions followed — one reply would pour the brew into a travel mug and bank $5 in a jar for each home coffee instead, which comes to $150 by the end of a month, while another keeps a single cafe morning a week so the treat stays special. (The photograph is a separate home-coffee post from the same week.)