JHCCoffee Just curious. What is the difference between a Clever Dripper and a Hario Switch? In operation? In taste profile? I was thinking of getting one or the other, but not both. What are the pros and cons of each?
So I’ve just done a small Clever brew, same parameters as the Switch:
Comandante X25 at 16, 10g coffee, 160g (+/-) water in in 15 or so sec, steep til 2:00, 3x back & forth stirs, draw down at 2:15.
Extractions were comparable at 1.53% TDS for the Switch & 1.52% for the Clever, Clever brew had couple of g more water.
Draw down was 47s on the Switch, 112s on the Clever. The Clever cup was nowhere near as clean, more swampy/pithy, I subjectively scored a 5/9 compared to 7/9 for the Switch. Bear in mind, this is not my typical method for the Clever, just a direct comparison between the 2 brewers, my normal Clever methods tend to produce better cups than this (no lower in preference than any other dialled in method). You wouldn’t keep making sub standard cups on the Clever, just so that you didn’t have to change method between them.
Pros:
Clever requires no switching, this is done automatically by placing the brewer on a cup.
Clever’s plastic handle is always cool to the touch. (No handle on the Switch cone section, but the base is rubbery/silicone).
Switch has the ability to use different size glass V60 & Mugen cones on the same base.
Cons:
Steeps in the Clever can have a plasticky taint (always has on & off)…as my Switch is new I can’t say how this will be affected in the future.
I’d really just go for the Switch as long as V60 papers are easy to source where you live.