If you haven’t heard the news, Whole Latte Love is about to become the exclusive North American distributor of Varia Brewing equipment. In preparation for this momentous event, I was lucky enough to be able to sit down with Ramsey Gyde, one of the founders of Varia and much of the driving force behind their product design, both philosophically and practically.
We discussed Ramsey’s history in the coffee industry, what led him to start his own brewing equipment manufacturing business, and what the future holds for his company.
Read on for the highlights of our conversation.
Ramsey Gyde: The Origin Story
Coffee has always been a part of Ramsey’s life: he grew up on the floor of the cafe, where his parents would bring him as a child. At 14 years old, he started actually working as a barista after school for a few hours each week. He always enjoyed working with his hands, and since his stint pouring professionally has spent time servicing coffee equipment, roasting, and working in production management.
After University, Ramsey found himself running New Zealand’s largest specialty roasting company, which was started by family friend Andrew Mio of Rocket Espresso. He worked there for seven years, noticing some interesting trends in the shopping habits of his customers—people tended to stick to one of three brewing methods: the French press, moka pot, or pour-over.
It seemed, Ramsey thought, there was room for something new, something flexible , something with an incredibly high build quality at an unbelievably reasonable price.
And thus, Varia’s ethos was born.
Varia’s Ethos
If Varia had a single, essential quality that underpinned its product design philosophy, it would be (of course) variability. “The whole ethos behind the design for Varia,” Ramsey tells me, was always with “modular flexibility and interchangeability in mind.”
But why?
Ramsey explains: “my whole experience with coffee is that it’s alive—it’s changing all the time. Every brew changes, every detail changes.” And so, by creating coffee brewing equipment that can change and adapt to the ever-shifting waters of the home-brewing experience, Varia can achieve its ultimate goal: to “help customers get a better understanding of coffee…and make it easier for them to harness that brewing potential.”
It is for this reason that “it’s built into the DNA of the brand to be interchangeable and to vary.”
Beginnings
Saying you want to build variable, multi-functional coffee equipment is all well and good, but what does that actually mean in practice? For Ramsey and Varia, it began with their first multi-brewer, the precursor to Varia’s PRO Brewer that’s in production today.
This is the manifestation of variability in its most literal interpretation: a single brewer that can be used either as a French press, a moka pot, or a pour-over cone.
Ramsey admits this first multi-brewer was “a great product” that “makes fantastic coffee,” which is perhaps easy for him to do given that it won the Best New Product award from the Specialty Coffee Association in 2021. Despite its initial critical success, the multi-brewer was “tricky to make” because it had a lot of different, plastic components.
This taught Ramsey some important lessons about prioritizing what the brand needed over what he wanted to make. He likes to draw and design things (and still does), but has gained the maturity to understand when that’s not necessarily the best thing for the brand.
Perhaps simplicity was the better angle.
The VS3 is Born
This newfound maturity led to the design of the VS3, Varia’s flagship grinder. Where the multi-brewer was complex, requiring users to switch out parts in order to access its multifunctionality, the VS3 is exceedingly simple: it only has one button. While the brewer does many things well, the VS3 does one thing (grind coffee) exceptionally.
The inherent simplicity of the VS3 was at the forefront of this grinder’s design. Because it is so easy to use (not to mention small and affordable), the grinder is approachable; it “opens coffee up to people who otherwise wouldn't be” interested in brewing at home. “You can approach it and it doesn’t feel complicated.”
It’s also worth noting here that, while the word “quality” isn’t at all eponymous to Varia the way “variability” is, it is just as inherent in the design of its products. This is especially true of the VS3, which is made entirely from space-grade aluminum alloys and features a full stainless steel gearbox motor construction that, along with a 76.5° acute angle and slow grinding speed, results in ideal zero retention conditions.
“But wait,” you might say. “What happened to variability? If this is a simple, one-button grinder that only grinds coffee, how does it fit in with the whole ethos of Varia’s brand?”
Fair question, but one simply answered: the VS3’s primary variability comes in the form of grind settings with virtually endless particle sizes, spanning everything from Turkish coffee to cold brew, giving users full access to experiment with various brewing methods. Beyond that, the burrs in the VS3 are designed to be upgraded to expand its functionality and offer different grinding profiles which change the flavors of brewed coffee in various ways.
So, the VS3 succeeds in something rather remarkable: offering a high level of versatility in its uses and a simple user experience, all wrapped in outstanding build quality that is truly unbelievable at its price point. The result is a grinder that allows consumers to “access more, experiment more, and get more out of coffee.”
Reception of the VS3
Critically, the Varia VS3 was well-received, winning a Best New Product award at SCA Japan in 2022. This “meant a lot more” to Ramsey than the multi-brewer’s win the year before: the fact that they’d won for their first electric grinder set the pin on the map for the brand and validated everything they’d been through to that point.
Since then, the VS3 has practically been flying off the shelves. They produced upwards of 50,000 of them in 2023 alone.
The Future of Home Brewing
When I asked Ramsey what the future held for Varia Brewing, he wouldn’t give too much in the way of details, but assured me that “grinders are going to be a big part of it” and that “it’s quite a fun time” over at Varia HQ these days.
Looks like we’ll have plenty to get excited about down the road.
But, since we’ll have to wait around for details with the rest of the world, I instead asked about Ramsey’s go-to coffee drink: a short long black: 30g of water with a double espresso brewed on top. He makes it on his Linea Classic, which is accompanied by a puck press and (of course) a VS3 grinder.
Despite it being seven or eight years since he’s worked in a roastery, Ramsey chuckles at the fact that he’s still getting more free coffee than he could ever drink. “I’m very lucky to have the friends and network I have,” he notes.
I can’t help but feel a little lucky too: if his connections and drive to design new products that achieve the fusion of simplicity and versatility persist, I think we’re going to have a lot to look forward to from Varia.
For more information about Varia’s specific product offerings, take a look at our product review blog (we've also got some excellent videos on Varia products over on our YouTube channel). And, if you decide you want to get in on some of the modular brewing action, you can explore our full line of Varia products, available exclusively from Whole Latte Love.
