Voltaire: a portable, high-performance coffee grinder that monitors bean freshness. Ever Cup: a sustainable travel mug for coffee+tea.
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It's official: we're funded! Voltaire, Airvault, and the Ever Cups are headed into production. Whether you pledged $1 or $1000, we're so happy to have you along for the ride. Let's go make these things!
It was a nail-biter, but we hit our 150k stretch goal with a few minutes to spare. You'll have the option of selecting Voltaire + Airvault's metal details in copper or silver. Hello to all you midnight backers who pushed us over the top!
We'll be distributing 30% off codes to everyone who backed, so that you can check out "all that other stuff" we've been working on lately. We are just a few days away from launching a brand new, beautiful website at GIR.co, along with lots of new products to choose from. Thanks for your patience as we wrap it up and put it through the final paces of testing. (Was it crazy to run a Kickstarter and launch a new website at the same time? Yes. Did we do it anyway? Yes. Is it going to impress? Absolutely.)
Thank you for everything, and good night!
Love,
The GIR Team: Sam, Christian, Lauren, Mike, Sally, and Brian
So excited to share this video of the Ever Cup in action - Christian (our Chief Creative Officer) brewed up a LOT of coffee this weekend and burned the midnight oil to make sure we had this in time to show you all before the campaign ended!
Mike (our Director of Design) made this animation of the lid turning with a cool X-ray view of the patent pending mechanism inside.
And Lauren and Sam (the NYC crew) took a field trip to the Central Park Zoo to give you a little taste of how wild things can get with Voltaire unplugged. You can also hear how quiet it is while grinding!
Our 150k stretch goal is within reach! #tellyourfriends #voltaireinsilver
Click to tell your Twitter friends about Voltaire in silver!
Click to tell your Facebook friends about Voltaire in silver!
We will be distributing 30% OFF coupons for GIR.co shortly after the campaign ends! Thank you all for your incredibly generous support. We have been rushing to get our new website launched (with lots of new products) so that you can take advantage of the discount code for all the new stuff. Sorry to keep you waiting! Should you be inclined to let your friends in on the deal...
Click to invite your Twitter friends to get the 30% discount.
Click to invite your Facebook friends to get the 30% discount.
As I write this, we're rolling into T-24 hours. Go team!
Love,
GIR
We wanted to show you a comparison of grind fineness among three machines: the Mazzer Robur, Baratza Preciso, and Voltaire.
We're going to talk espresso for a minute, since it's the least "forgiving" of brewing techniques and a good metric by which to measure the performance of any grinder.
The Mazzer Robur is a $3,000 commercial grinder, a gold standard among espresso grinders. It's capable of producing ethereal espresso shots in the very best cafes. We love it. We want one. But it's $3,000, 62lbs, and just about 28" tall. It has 71mm conical steel burrs. It would probably kick Voltaire's butt in a head-to-head competition, but we'd like to think that's like asking Ali to go up against a sumo wrestler.
The Baratza Preciso is a top-line consumer grinder capable of excellent home espresso. We love it. We have one. It's $285, 6.5lbs, and 13.75" tall. It has 40mm conical steel burrs. This is closer to our weight class.
The Voltaire is a portable consumer grinder capable of grinding from anywhere and, naturally, making excellent home espresso. We love it. We built it. It's $199, 5.5lbs, and 10" tall. It has 40mm conical ceramic burrs. And it's capable of sensing bean freshness (and a bunch of other stuff) with the addition of a $50 sensing platform.
As you can see from the photo, the Robur really does show off. But step over to the non-$3000 grinders, and you'll see that Voltaire makes a great showing next to the Preciso. This is exactly what we're going for, and if we can kick it up a notch once we're in production, we're hoping to do even better.
Cheers,
The GIR Team
ALCHEMA: Turn Fruit into Personalized Craft Cider
Alchema is a smart homebrew device to make personalized craft cider at home. With Alchema, you can create your own flavor of craft cider or mead within 2 weeks. You can also make wine with Alchema with your own resource of wine grapes and age it for longer. You pick the ingredients, and let Alchema take care of the rest.
Heading into the last few days of the campaign, we thought it was only fitting to introduce a stretch goal. If we hit 150K, we'll be able to manufacture Voltaire and the Sensing Platform (which also pairs with the Airvault) in... SILVER! The stepless adjustment collar, timer knob, and sensing base rim will be plated in silver rather than copper, and the picture really says it all:
We have received so many requests for this color option - thank you to everyone for the interest! And if you have any friends who've been on the fence about copper in the kitchen, please please please spread the word. We have what they want now ;)
Assuming we reach the stretch goal, you don't have to do anything immediately to indicate your interest in the copper or silver options - we'll be sending a post-campaign survey to collect your preferences.
This has been such a wonderful campaign. Thank you to everyone for your insightful questions and comments, and steadfast support. For those who are hoping for a black version of the grinder and container housing: we hear you! We haven't quite reached the funding level we'd need to pull it off, but who knows... if things take off, black may just be in our future.
Also, we added a new graphic to the campaign page to illuminate some of the capabilities of the Sensing Platform, and wanted to repost it here. The standalone grinder and container are pretty cool, but when paired with the platform, magical things happen.
Happy grinding,
The GIR Team