Mark Hellweg's maternal grandfather was a student of architecture and collector of iconic furniture. He gave Mark his collection of drafting tools, 35mm cameras, and a few pieces of his art, one of which hangs in the Ratio office. From him Mark learned to appreciate good design and beautiful tools.
Mark's paternal grandfather was a German entrepreneur in the performance auto parts business. He loved quality & good engineering, passing on to his dad and then Mark the "curse of always insisting on the best." They both said that it's better to pay more for quality up front than to be constantly replacing inferior goods.
Mark took their advice to heart when he started selling coffee & espresso equipment in 2008 with Clive Coffee, offering only brands that reflected good design and quality that lasts.
Ratio is the result of pondering coffee makers for several years. After listening to many customers complain about flimsy plastic parts, complicated programming steps, and overall inelegance, Mark decided to draw together a team of talented designers, engineers, and creatives to build a new company that is devoted entirely to coffee machines of unmatched beauty and quality.
As a result of that Mark Hellweg created the Ratio Eight, a powerful 1400 watt/110 volt coffee maker featuring a cantilevered top and base made of die cast aluminum with nickel-plated finishings. Eight comes with a laboratory grade borosilicate glass water tank, supply lines, and carafe. The carafe holds Chemex paper filters or Able Kone stainless steel filters. Each unit is entirely hand assembled and tested in Portland, Oregon.
