One brewer.
Infinite Possibilities.

SOFI is Aramse’s standardised South Indian filter. This standalone stainless steel, no-bypass brewer requires no electricity or paper filters to brew a delicious cup of coffee. You just need access to great coffee and hot water, and you’re all set! You get modern design, premium build with upgraded materials, air flow slits that prevent stalling, a WDT tool to distribute the grounds, and a silicone band to make handling easier. We would be devastated to see this nifty little brewer with so much potential beyond its current use become a relic of the past. The South Indian filter absolutely has a place in the world of modern coffee and we are on a mission to ensure that happens!

Well then you can. SOFI is compatible with industry standard paper filters like the Kalita 185 and AeroPress XL. It's even compatible is the premium Sibrast DISC 72 filters!

The traditional South Indian filter comes in varying sizes, shapes, dimensions and even materials in stores across India. Eliminating the variances from one brewer to the next means that people around the world can now create their own recipes and share it with others. SOFI is an attempt at raising the bar of what is currently available, through standardisation of sizes (72.5mm diameter filter). The goal behind this effort in reimagining the South Indian filter for the modern world of coffee is to promote innovation around brewing with this device.

It’s just short for South Indian Filter.

The Weiss Distribution Technique (WDT) is widely considered the most effective method of distributing coffee grounds. The WDT tool is a game-changing accessory that uses 0.25 – 0.4mm needles to break up any clumps in the grounds and helps create a well-distributed bed to ensure that water can extract all of the coffee evenly

The best way to reduce sediment is to pour more gently. Use ‘the spoon technique’ (as outlined in our user manual) or a Melodrip to achieve this. You can also try swirling less aggressively. Lastly, pour the brewed coffee out of the bottom chamber slowly and stop just as you see any sediment.

The air flow vents only prevent stalling due to air-lock. There are a few other reasons why this could be happening:

• Your grind size is too fine, try going coarser
• You are pouring too fast from too high — again lower pour height and speed and also try the spoon technique.
• Your grinder is producing too many fines.
• You’re swirling too much — try being more gentle and reduce swirls.
• You’ve dosed too high — try reducing the dose. The ideal range 15 – 20g.

Increase coffee dose or reduce amount of water used.

Pour over brewers like the V60 have ridges which create gaps between the filter paper and walls of the brewer. While brewing, some of the water above the coffee bed slips out through the paper and down these gaps making little to no contact with the coffee. This phenomenon, called bypass, leads to lower extractions, and is why low or no bypass brewers like the KŌNO and Tricolate are gaining popularity. The South Indian filter has been around forever and is also a no-bypass brewer that ensures all of the water to passes through the bed of coffee with no opportunity to go around it.

While the band does significantly improve handling of the brewer it can become fairly warm if the top chamber is filled up with very hot water. This scenario shouldn’t arise when brewing the recommended dose of 15 – 25g.

There are multiple reasons why the "plunger" does more damage than good and using a spoon completely eliminates the need for this tool.
- It's very poorly machined so the water flows over it unevenly onto the bed of coffee leading to uneven extraction.
- It's curved (again not a precision curve) so it compacts the sides more than the centre causing water to again flow and extract unevenly.
- For a tool like this to do anything positive it needs to be precision milled like tampers are for espresso.
- The plunger is basically used as a crutch to allow one to pour more carelessly.
- And lastly, the biggest issue is that at the end of every brew, almost 99% of the time, you'll see this plunger tilted to one side, digging a hold in the coffee bed and causing severe channeling. This is never a good sign.

SOFI is NOT dishwasher safe. We recommend gently handwashing to maintain the brushed finish. Avoid using any abrasives.