Not enough for a side by side but I have some ramblings..
I'm a firm believer that things like esthetics, setting, and care to ritual are improvements to the experience. That being said "delivering the goods" is everything.
This is why we are so jazzed to find a very inexpensive but super tasty food spot and we also love the white linen once a year anniversary restaurant with waiter Pompous Magnus.
So I give credit to the weight, class, and style the Beehouse brings to the table but I'm also a huge fan of the Melitta always performing well above it's price point. I still maintain there is no better ROI value buy in the coffee game than the Melitta cone. What has my attention right now is 1) the one hole design of the Melitta vs the two hole of the Beehouse. 2) the heat sink of the Beehouse vs the Melitta.
First off I think the one hole is better.
It just performs better in my opinion and allows for pouring flow rates that feel better to me all around. I would love a single hole Beehouse.
Second the heat sink thing is real. Beehouse requires preheating for sure and some routine adjustments to optimize use. I pre heat it to ~130 before pouring but also hit it with ~200 water just prior to adding the filter/grounds. There is an economy of motion speed bump when dealing with the pre heat that I have not settled yet using the Beehouse...in addition is the spacer/triangle/chopsticks thing because the Beehouse might fall off my cup un-modded.
In general I prefer the style of the Beehouse but the built for battle nature of the Melitta sill ranks highly with me. When time isn't an issue and I want to enhance the overall experience the Beehouse clearly wins but if I could only have one the Melitta wins instantly no question.
Cup wise I'd need another month to say...The Beehouse is pretty "nimble" and I might be able to do more with it than I know about yet but I guess the point of my rambling is that they both have solid points and I'm still undecided.....
