Review: Goat Story Gina Smart coffee maker
Goat Story Gina Smart
Buy from Goat Story
The Gina Smart coffee maker by Goat Story is app-enabled and gives three ways to brew your perfect cup. But be warned — this is not a device for the busy.
If you are a coffee lover, you do not want to settle for a bland and bitter cup of caffeine. For you, making coffee is a culinary skill that involves extracting the best flavors from your beans and savoring the complexity in your brews.
With Gina Smart, you can enjoy a smooth pour-over, a rich immersion, or a refreshing cold drip from the comfort of your home — as long as you do not mind some drawbacks.
Goat Story Gina Smart — app-enabled brewing
The Gina Smart coffee maker combines a pour-over funnel, a carafe, and a scale in one app-enabled kitchen accessory. The standout feature is its built-in scale that connects to the Gina 2.0 app via Bluetooth, and the app acts like a barista that guides you through the brewing process.
The scale and the app team up to give you the precise portions of water and coffee grounds you need for each brew method so you can craft the perfect cup of joe.
You can adjust how strong you want your coffee, and the app will tell you the correct ratio of coffee and water needed. After setting up the coffee beans and water, you can use your phone to monitor the brewing process via the app.
This app-enabled coffee maker is ideal for iPhone users who use their phones from when they wake up. When waiting for your coffee, you can use your phone for other things, but do not close the app completely, or you will lose the brewing information in the app.
For example, while your coffee is brewing, you can keep the Gina 2.0 app running in the background while you check emails or use the Picture-in-Picture (PiP) feature to watch YouTube videos.
We tested the Gina Smart for many days in our kitchen. At first, we had to learn the steps of making coffee with the app, but it was easy and enjoyable once we got the hang of it.
We sampled some of Goat Story's coffee, such as the Rwanda Gasharu Intego. It was a rich, fruity blend with sweet blueberry notes and a smooth cinnamon finish.
We liked that we could measure the coffee and water with the same device and not use a separate scale.
The Bluetooth connection was seamless each time, and the app was user-friendly — even when we were sleepy in the morning. We liked making coffee with this device while multitasking with our iPhones.
Goat Story Gina Smart - design and build
The Gina Smart is easy to set up and takes up little space on your kitchen counter. It measures about 13.5 x 6.4 x 5.3 inches and weighs 3.08 pounds.
It sports a sleek and sturdy stainless-steel frame that holds a ceramic funnel at the top. The funnel has a removable ceramic lid and a capacity of 10 oz. It feels premium and well-made but top-heavy, so be careful not to knock it over.
There is a small valve that lets you control the drip speed of your coffee — a feature that meticulous baristas would appreciate. You can fully close the valve for immersion brewing or open it for a pour-over or cold brew.
You will also get a glass pitcher that has a tapered shape with an elegant yet understated look — perfect for serving artisan coffee at a breakfast table with a friend.
There is a discreet line on the pitcher that measures to 2 cups. The coffee carafe has a capacity of 25 oz — enough for two mugs of coffee but not for a large crowd.
The carafe does not retain heat, so your coffee may cool down quickly if you don't drink it immediately. On the other hand, if you are a fan of cold brews, you can make your own with the cold drip module that fits inside the carafe.
At the base of the coffee maker is a heat-resistant silicone pad that is easy to clean with a damp cloth.
The whole setup is made of high-quality materials and shows attention to detail. However, some parts are fragile and not dishwasher safe, such as the ceramic funnel and lid, the cold drip module and filter, and the glass pitcher. You will need to handle them with care and wash them by hand.
Goat Story Gina Smart — ideal for meticulous coffee makers
The Gina Smart is for coffee lovers who delight in making coffee and want to extract the best flavor profiles from their blends. It is not for those who need a quick swig of caffeine before running out the door.
Some might think that Gina Smart is too pricey. But you get a ceramic pour-over funnel, a cold brew module, a stylish carafe, and an app-enabled coffee scale in one sleek design, so you can brew artisan coffee at home and save money on costly cafe trips.
Goat Story Gina Smart - Pros
- App-enabled integrated coffee scale
- 3-in-1 design for pour-over, immersion, and cold brew
- Control valve for precision drips
- Ceramic funnel and lid
- Sleek carafe
- High-quality materials
Goat Story Gina Smart - Cons
- Top heavy
- Not dishwasher safe
- Carafe is not insulated
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Where to buy the Goat Story Gina Smart
You can order the Goat Story Gina Smart exclusively from their website for EUR 220, which is roughly equivalent to $240. While you're there, check out their coffee blends, including the Rwanda Gasharu Intego for EUR 19.90, or $22.
