Orea Z1

Equipment notes

Orea is an independent brewing-gear brand founded in East London in 2020, and the Z1 grew out of a simple challenge: zero-bypass brewers had a reputation for being slow. After testing a range of filters, Orea teamed up with Spanish filter maker Sibarist and built the Z1 around its FAST paper, aiming for bypass-free extraction at pour-over speed. It received two design awards before launch. The principle is straightforward. Inside the cylindrical chamber the filter sits flush against the wall, so water has no gap to escape through and everything you pour passes through the coffee bed. Orea says this reduces astringency and dryness while cleaning up acidity and improving clarity of flavour. Because no water skips the bed, how evenly the coffee is wetted becomes the main thing to manage. There are two ways to use it. The default is pour-over with the included Melodrip, which disperses water gently over the bed, and Orea says the brewer's fastening also lets it work with other devices such as the Hario Switch for immersion-style brewing. The constraints are clear: it uses dedicated Sibarist filters, and it is built for single-cup doses. This is a dripper for the single-dose brewer who wants one clean cup a day, made the same way every time.

Filters that fit

• Sibarist FAST Flat SDefault