SIFTER BASE

Disclaimer: I do not consume coffee. I do roast cacao beans, grind, and cold brew cacao. I enjoy the bittersweetness of the cacao. Coffee people have the best accoutrements. When I supported the Kruve Kickstarter campaign for the Create 3 spout latte art pitcher, I discovered the Kruve Sifter. I purchased a Silver Sifter 3 years ago this May. Little did I know how useful this tool would become. Mostly, I was looking for a way to sift the cacao nibs to make grinding easier and to sort grinding results to up my cold brew cacao game. The first thing I did was learn how to press-fit the sieves into the spaces in the sifting trays. The sieves, when properly inserted, are slightly concave. The sieves are delicate and need gentle handling. For me, I found if I laid the sieve in the tray sieve space from above, then turned the tray over, it was easier to pop the sieve into place. I started at the apex corner (closest corner to the E in Kruve) and seated the tray edge into the groove; Working clockwise around the rim, the sieve gently laid into the rim. Once two corners were anchored, I worked both sides leading to the third corner to pop the sieve into place. There is a learning curve to fitting the sieves in place. I iterated the practice until I could load the sieves smoothly into place. I had packed in anticipation of moving (did not happen; long story) and could not find where I packed the Kruve sifter. As frequently happens in my life, I ordered a Black Sifter and the day after the new sifter was delivered, The Silver Sifter reappeared. Happy to have two! The Sifter does a wonderful job with Cacao nibs. The Cacao beans are too large for the largest bean sieve. No sweat. Once the beans are roasted and the Cacao bean shell is removed, the beans break easily into cacao nibs which can be ground to make beverages or ground into cacao powder. I use the different bean sieves to sort the nibs and the grind sieves to sort the ground nibs. Having the ground nibs in a similar size range very much improves the cold brew cacao. The Silver Sieve allows for a wonderful color contrast between the sifter and the darker sifting materials. The Black Sieve allows for a wonderful color between the sifter and the lighter sifting materials. Ah! But as an engineer, I am forever finding ways to use tools for other uses. Shortly after receiving the first Sifter, I tried sifting home-milled flour onto a rolling surface for pie crust. Since the flour was whole grain Einkorn, I wanted a fine sift on to the rolling surface. I used a 700 micron sieve in the top tray; a 500 micron sieve in the middle tray. The flour sifted nicely on to the rolling surface: a silicone mat which requires just a fine dusting. The bran layer of the whole grain flour was mostly contained in the top tray; the finer particles of bran were confined to the middle tray. The bottom tray caught the fine white flour when not being sifted onto the board. I also had a way of sifting the whole grain flour into its components of bran and all purpose flour when I wanted to bake with the all purpose flour. No other sifter available to the home cook allowed such wonderful separation. The bran gets used in bran muffins. I can sift enough flour in about 30 minutes to make pizza dough with all purpose flour or to make Einkorn soft pretzels. Plus bran for a batch of bran muffins. What other sifting opportunities awaited? I found I could sift out the small particles in the bottom of nut containers; sift out all the small crumbs from snacks such as potato chips or crackers and have a cleaner product to eat. The bean sieves are handy for sorting any number variety of beans and makes finding the broken beans or tiny stones easier to remove. Sifting ground herbs, spices, and seaweed for scratch cooking makes sifting out larger pieces and stems easier. I do bead work and found the bean sieves are handy for sorting beads. I grow seeds for sprouting and for replanting. The bean and grind sieves make sorting seeds easier. The Kruve Sifters: making life easier with a simple tool. They would make great gifts for the people who take their coffee seriously, or their cooking endeavors, or the artists. I could see the sifter used to sift clay for fine ceramics; or the artist who mixes their paints from raw materials. So many uses, so much to explore.

Customer support is the hallmark of a great company. After writing a poor review Kruve contacted me and provided a few hints on firmly seating the Sieve screens. I was able to seat the screens from the bottom and secure a very tight and functional fit. They work great and have found a place in the calibration workflow for different coffees for my new DF83V V3 grinder as well as a way to filter out “fines” for pour over. An indispensable tool for enthusiasts taking the guesswork out of dialing in a grinders particle-size distribution (PSD) and removing grinds that fall out of the desired range yielding a perfect brew. Screens are still not ‘a walk in the park” to insert, especially the finer meshes that are less compliant, but manageable - otherwise they would get a 5 out of 5. Very high quality sieves and carrier trays, thoughtful and artistic design and accompanying tools, like the ruler and sieve holder. Thank you for your excellent support Kruve! I discovered you can also also insert the screens from the bottom with the sieve size number viewable from the bottom of tray. This works better for me for some sieves🙋‍♂️.

Sifter works fine but changing the sifter plates can be a bit finnicky and time consuming with the rubber gasket around them that can be difficult to evenly seat in the sifter bucket edges. I worry about long term durability of the seals when changing sifter plates frequently.