KINTO Coffee and Teaware

If you’re not familiar with KINTO, keep reading because this brand is definitely worth your attention. Based in Japan, they produce a wide range of products, from cups and mugs to travel tumblers, teapots, tableware and other lifestyle items. If you’ve seen any of our marketing over the last few years, there’s a good chance you’ve already seen some of their cups paired with a variety of our machines. Recently we’ve expanded our offerings to include teapots and pour-over brewers in addition to drinkware, so we thought it was a good idea to take a closer look at what we have on offer.

Why We Like KINTO

As a company that takes a lot of photos and makes a lot of videos, if a cup can look good on camera in addition to being comfortable to hold and pleasant to drink from, that’s a big plus. KINTO’s product philosophy attempts to balance usability and aesthetics. There’s an understated quality to their designs that often allows their choice of shape or materials to take center stage. That coupled with the fact that they have drinkware for all kinds of coffee drinking means that no matter what you brew, there’s a KINTO cup that will work for you. Around the office, these cups have become favorites both on and off camera.

Where Are KINTO Products Made?

As a Japanese company, a large number of their products are also made in Japan. In particular, all of KINTO’s ceramic products are made in Japan, while their glassware and steel products are made in China.

Why Invest in Cups?

As someone who's worked for nearly two decades in the coffee industry, I'm still surprised by how many people tend to disregard the importance of the cup to their enjoyment. I'm not gonna get too scientific on this one because we actually have a great video that not only breaks down the ideal temperature to drink coffee, but also features a holding temperature analysis that tracks the change of in-cup temperature over a 30 minute period. The whole video is worth a watch, but the specific segment that compares cups, including several from KINTO starts at 18:29.

Temperature is definitely important to coffee enjoyment, but so is style, capacity, ergonomics, and really whether or not the cup just feels right. So, if you haven't already, it might be time to trade in the "World's Best Dad" mug for something a little better suited to your coffee routine.

KINTO Drinkware

Ceramic and Porcelain

Slow Coffee Style

KINTO’s Slow Coffee Style or SCS collection is designed for traditional coffee drinking, with tastefully designed cups and mugs that are comfortable to hold and pleasing to look at. The namesake SCS Mug is reminiscent of a classic diner mug with an ample 13.6oz capacity but elevated by its Japanese porcelain construction. The 11oz Stacking Mugs on the other hand are designed to be stacked (no surprises there) with a pop of color glaze on top of a clay base.

The final cup, the S03 is a beautiful three-color 11oz glazed mug with color options including shades of blue, greens and yellows, browns, pinks and whites.

CLK and Ripple

KINTO’s CLK cups and mugs belong to their “Ceramic Lab” collection and are available in a range of sizes including 6, 10, and 14oz. They feature rough, unfinished ceramic bases with subtle black, beige, and white glaze. These cups are made with rocks and stones from the Amakusa islands and conduct heat very well.

The last ceramic cups we offer, the Ripple are beautiful and petite 250ml cups with soft colors and a gentle curve design. Their low profile make them perfect for super-automatic machines or for splitting a pour-over with a guest.

Glass

CAST and HIBI Tumblers

The KINTO CAST series cups are thin walled glass mugs that are less fragile than they might look at first glance. They’re available in a range of sizes from espresso to latte and are perfect for iced and cold brew coffee as well. The thin wall design produces a unique visual effect as the liquid inside almost appears to be floating in the air.

In contrast to the delicate CAST cups, the HIBI tumblers are designed for everyday use for a variety of hot and cold beverages. They’re made from soda glass and available in five colors so they fit into a variety of circumstances.

Kronos Double Wall

The last glass cup we offer, the Kronos Double Walled cups are curved double-walled cups in espresso and coffee cup sizes. They feature a rounded design with a ridge about halfway up the side.

The ridge fits comfortably between your fingers for more secure gripping and holding. The double walled design keeps the exterior of the cup cool while insulting the liquid inside to keep it hotter or cooler for longer.

For Coffee On-The-Go

Some of the best coffee is the kind you can take with you. KINTO produces two different styles of travel tumblers that are available in a variety of sizes and colors. The taller, more narrow Travel Tumbler is available in 12 and 17oz sizes. The 17oz is a bit too tall to fit super-automatic machines while the 12oz will fit under machines like the Gaggia Accademia, Cadorna and Magenta series as well as the JURA GIGA 10. That said, its slim profile makes it perfect for backpacks and other bags with its secure screw top lid.

KINTO’s other travel mug, the TO GO Tumbler is shaped more like a traditional cup with the small and large versions both fitting comfortably under a wider variety of super-automatics.

These cups aren’t just for automatic coffee however as the wide rim can support single-cup pour-over devices like the KINTO OCT Brewer and other favorites like a Hario V60, Varia FLO, and others. The TO GO Tumbler features a silicone plug so you can take a sip without having to remove the entire lid.

Pour-Over Products

In addition to coffee drinkware, KINTO also produces several devices for brewing coffee as well as their own paper filters. We recently added both to our collection with the introduction of the KINTO OCT brewers and servers. The OCT is a Japanese porcelain brewer available in 2 and 4 cup sizes. The OCT is designed to sit directly on a server or large cup, making it similar to a Hario V60.

The shape of the OCT is intended to make the server easy to pick up and hold at the point of connection between the cone and the base. However, the OCT is made from porcelain and incredibly conductive so it gets hot quickly and stays that way. The curved design at the top of the cone makes it easy to remove filters when you're done brewing, and the top of the filter cone stays cool enough to be lifted from your cup or server.

On the inside of the OCT's cone, straight ridges guide water flow downward through the bed.

Extraction Comparisons

If you haven't checked it out, last year I put together a pretty comprehensive review of our entire pour-over catalog. With the arrival of the OCT, I was honor bound to do a bit of a deep dive with it and brew some coffee.

For testing I used our Colombia Tolima single-origin coffee and I did a side-by-side comparison between the OCT and another conical device we carry, the Brewista Tornado. All coffee was ground using the Varia VS4 at 300 RPM and I used three different configurations when comparing the two. I used the OCT and Tornado with their own proprietary filters and then did a little swap as well.

Brewer vs. Brewer

KINTO Oct vs Brewista Tornado with SCS KINTO filters

	KINTO	Brewista
Drawdown:	2:15	2:00
TDS:	1.49%	1.42%
Extraction:	20.71%	19.74%
Taste:	Grape, Apple, Body Alongside Bitterness	Sweeter Chocolates, Less Bitter, Smoother

KINTO Oct vs Brewista Tornado with Brewista Cafec Filters

	KINTO	Brewista
Drawdown:	2:00	1:45
TDS:	1.45%	1.42%
Extraction:	20.15%	19.74%
Taste:	Higher Bitterness than KINTO Filters, Dark Chocolate, SLIGHTLY Sweeter	Astringent, Bitter

Filter vs filter

	KINTO SCS Filters	Brewista CAFEC
Drawdown:	2:10	1:44
TDS:	1.48%	1.46%
Extraction:	20.57%	20.29%
Taste:	Higher Acidity, Pleasant Caramel	Some Bitterness with Dark Chocolate

Ultimately I found that the OCT brewer and filters tended to emphasize more of the fruit and caramel notes of the Colombia and yielded higher TDS and extraction overall. The Brewista leaned more into the chocolate territory and had lower extraction. I'll add that TDS and extraction are pretty close here: it's overall brew time that affected overall flavor. I imagine the fact that the Kinto SCS filter thickness slowed the brew down, but the geography of each brewer certainly played some kind of role in the flavor of the brews too.

I will say that the OCT does get VERY hot while brewing, so lift near the top when you're finished. The OCT Jug is a bit Plain Jane with a set of subtle dot indicators for 1 and 2 cups, or 2 and 4 cups on the larger server.

KINTO for Tea

In case you missed it, we recently expanded our catalog to offer a selection of teas from German tea company Althaus. You can read about their line of easy-to-brew, organic Pure Teas in the article below. Suffice it to say that reintroducing tea to the catalog inspired us to pick up KINTO's PEBBLE series of tea pots and matching cups.

Made in Japan, the PEBBLEs feature a playful rounded design that resembles a pebble or small stone. The pots have an 18oz / 500ml capacity and included a fine steel filter for brewing loose lea tea. You can also remove the filter and add a Pure Tea bag instead. Pure Tea recommends brewing with 400ml or 13.5oz of water, so you can comfortably brew for two and share with a pair of PEBBLE teacups.

Final Thoughts

As a pretty big coffee nerd I definitely appreciate when coffee is served in the right cup for the right drink. The fact that KINTO's cups are so photogenic is something we actually have in common and I might already have been photographed holding one. Joking aside, if you're going to put effort into making great coffee at home, you can't cross the finish line without a proper cup to drink it from. Fortunately, KINTO's here to help make that happen.

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