The best gifts for coffee lovers: ultimate pick-me-ups

As every coffee nut knows, the most important piece of equipment you can buy to take your coffee enjoyment to the next level is a decent burr grinder. Buying coffee in roasted bean form and grinding it up yourself is the only way to ensure a fresh, vibrant cup every time. The Krups Expert Burr Grinder is bit of a legend on that front. Simple, hard-wearing, reliable and cheap, it’s the go-to entry point to a whole world of flavour.

It might look like an eyebrow-raising piece of medical equipment, but the AeroPress is actually one of the most revolutionary pieces of coffee-making equipment of the past few decades. It enables you to brew a single cup of high class coffee in mere minutes, with just a little elbow grease and some cheap filters. The AeroPress replicates the plunger motion of the cafetière/French press, but it’s actually closer in principle to an espresso machine in the way it uses air pressure to force hot water through coffee granules. We think this smaller portable version would make an excellent gift for the coffee lover in your life.

A personalised travel mug is a great gift idea for any coffee lover and TOPL's cups are some of the best around. TOPL offers a personalisation service on its site, with mugs coming in 12oz and 8oz options. There are a number of colours to choose from, to. While Hot Coral is en vogue right now, you can also choose from Jet Black, Off White, Stone Grey and Teal Green. Couple this with a non-stick base, 360-degree drinking and some impressive spill-safe technology and what you have is a great little gift for someone that they will actually use.

It’s easy to get sniffy about the classic cafetière. It’s far from the most precise way to serve your coffee, after all. But it is an easy and reliable way to bring multiple cups of fresh coffee to the breakfast table on those mornings when you really can’t be doing with fiddly equipment or precise measurements. And coffee can still taste great brewed this way. This luxurious model from Le Creuset is made from ceramic, so it’ll keep up to four cups of coffee hot for longer than the usual glass or metal alternatives.

With Patron now out of the coffee tequila game, it's time to look for a new challenger. One of our favourites is Cazcabel Coffee Tequila. This spirit blends a roasted sweet hit of luxury coffee with earthy agave notes which brings with it a great mix of sweetness and bitterness. It's also a spirit that can be used as a cocktail base for something like a coffee negroni. Lovely stuff.

The Barista & Co Twist Press 2.0 is an upgraded version of the original travel device. We are big fans of the first one and this upgrade refines the gadget, making it easier to make great coffee on the go. For those unaware, the Barista & Co Twist Press 2.0 is a device that allows you to brew espresso-style coffee wherever you are - whether it's the great outdoors or in a hotel. It works by a patent-pending twist motion that uses a traditional corkscrew method to make pressing the coffee a fairly easy task.

There's something incredibly fancy and luxurious about drinking your coffee from a glass rather than a mug. It feels special and like you're sipping your espresso on the continent. To elevate that experience even further, we highly recommend double walled glasses and Bodum makes some truly stunning ones. This pair of glasses would make an excellent gift for coffee lovers and could be used for all types of drinks, making them a perfectly practical present, too.

Assembly Coffees is one of our favourite coffee roasters and its online store has some superb coffee-based gifts for those who want to sip coffee in style. Our pick is this coffee subscription service. Every month the experts at Assembly select and share a coffee they believe is unique and distinct in its flavour and texture. You can buy a gift subscription for 3, 6 or 12 months and we think it would be incredibly special and original for a coffee lover to get a hand-selected special coffee each month.

If you're looking for the best gift for the coffee lover in your life but know for a fact that they have everything they need to make a good cup of the hot stuff, then we've got another suggestion for you. Frank body scrub has become an extremely cult and popular product for a reason. This body scrub is made from coffee granules and comes in a range of flavours, we like this chocolate one. Sure even the biggest coffee fan might not want to bathe in the stuff, but if you're looking for an unexpected alternative gift, this is it.

If you're buying for someone who doesn't like smart, fancy coffee makers but prefers to brew in a more traditional way, then check out this Bialetti stove-top coffee maker. It's a modern update of Bialetti's iconic Moka Express coffee maker and works well on traditional stove-top surfaces, as well as with induction hobs.

It can take a little getting used to if you're buying for someone who hasn't made their coffee this way before, but if anything it turns the whole coffee-making process into even more of a special ritual.

For the cappuccino, latté, and flat white die-hards out there, proper milk froth is almost as important as the coffee itself. It’s pretty tricky to get the right consistency without specialist equipment, however, and this Dualit effort is one such device. It can make cold or hot milk froth in just 70 seconds - the latter courtesy of a handy heating function. It’s also dead easy to clean, with a removable whisk, a sealed drive and a non-stick coating.

What more fitting object to put on your coffee table than a beautifully illustrated book all about coffee? The World Atlas of Coffee is a comprehensive reference book covering the entire coffee experience, and written by a World Barista Champion and co-founder of Square Mile roasters in London. It’ll teach you all about the beloved beverage, from the way it’s produced to the best brewing techniques, as well as offering an insight into the various coffee-growing regions around the world.

Okay, so this is definitely on the premium side of gifts but Smeg's first Bean to Cup Coffee Machine is a retro stunner. It's the ultimate barista in the home experience, styled in the way only Smeg can do. The machine has a multitude of coffee grind options and coffee styles to choose from. It will also froth your milk and the whole thing is powered by an innovative touch screen. Brilliant stuff.

If you're buying a gift for someone who likes their coffee short, sharp and in little shots, then get them some espresso accessories. We love this rainbow-coloured espresso set of 6 cups from Bialetti. What better way to have a kick of coffee in the morning than with a pop or colour?

So your coffee fanatic of an acquaintance already has a grinder and a suitably advanced means of brewing the black stuff. What do you get them next? One thing they might not have is a proper weighing scale. Brewing coffee is closer to chemistry than baking, so your average beaten up kitchen scale isn’t going to be capable of the necessary precision. What you need is something like this from brewing specialist Hario, which weighs in 0.1 gram increments.