Forget your percolator: this is siphon coffee.
The newfangled machine looks more like it belongs in a chemistry lab than your local cafe, but that seems to be half its appeal. It's a siphon bar, it costs $20,000, and it lives at Blue Bottle Cafe in San Francisco, California. And it's certainly is fun to watch:
Essentially, there are several burners, each with a glass or metal bulb suspended above. You put your coffee grounds into one, and your water into the other. You light the burner, and as the water heats, it is pushed through a pipe into the coffee grounds. The coffee brews, and when it is finished, it is sucked back through the pipe to the first canister, where it waits patiently until it is consumed. The bar allows baristas to do this process several times simultaneously, like in the photo above.
Now, just to reiterate: this machine doesn't make espresso, or froth your milk, or contain storage containers for cocoa and cinnamon. It just makes plain ol' coffee. But fans of the machine say the taste is extraordinary, because the process keeps the water at just the right temperature when it mixes with the grounds, creating a heavenly cup.
If this sounds appealing to you, luckily, there are cheaper siphons (also called 'vacuum coffeemakers') currently on the market, like the Bodum Santos Vacuum Maker (from $55 to $80, depending on where you look) or the Yama 8-cup Vac Pot Siphon Brewer (about $50).
But if you want to get the true experience of the siphon bar, you'll have to head over to the Blue Bottle Cafe.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-23-2008 @ 12:17PM
MrsBug said...
I've tried one of the vacuum coffee makers (our Chairperson had one) and honestly, it was just coffee. Now, I will say for the record, I am a coffee snob, but not a connoiseur. YMMV.
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1-23-2008 @ 1:02PM
Hates Coffee said...
Blue Bottle is actually located in Oakland...across the bay from San Francisco.
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1-23-2008 @ 1:04PM
Ellen Slattery said...
Hi, thanks for reading.
Actually, a new Blue Bottle just opened today (1/23/08) at 66 Mint St in San Fran!
Peace,
Ellen
1-23-2008 @ 2:50PM
rainey Smith said...
I was going to suggest the Bodum Santos after reading the description of the process. It makes excellent coffee operating on the same principle AND it's entertaining to watch in the morning.
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1-23-2008 @ 4:47PM
EAC said...
This looks awfully familiar. Doesn't Ray's Cafe in Philadelphia (on 9th street, in Chinatown) do siphon coffee? It's an exquisite Taiwanese cafe that I still miss.
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1-23-2008 @ 5:19PM
Greg Sherwin said...
Two major corrections:
1) "Siphon coffee" may be "new" to some rookie reporters, but it's essentially vacuum pot coffee -- with a halogen lamp heat source and a cotton fabric filter. Vac pot coffee has been around for decades.
2) The $20,000 price tag cited in the Times also reflects a bit of ignorance about the topic. When a reporter is in way over his head with the subject matter, all they can talk about to describe its qualities is a price tag. Blue Bottle's siphon bar includes their own parts, training, etc.
That quoted price tag just reflects a reporter who zeroed in on something he thought would make his story better without knowing much about the subject matter.
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1-23-2008 @ 6:29PM
Ellen Slattery said...
Hi Greg,
Thanks for your comment, and thanks for reading. You are correct: siphon/vacuum coffee is not new - several of our commenters have tried one - but what is new is Blue Bottle's siphon bar.
To the reporter's credit, the price tag was a significant factor in the story. A new siphon coffee maker in a cafe? Not so newsworthy. But a $20,000 siphon coffee bar? Pretty interesting, and not something you hear everyday. Plus, it's a fantastic way to turn more people (read: people who don't know as much about coffee) on to siphon coffee, non?
Best regards,
Ellen
1-23-2008 @ 11:42PM
mangosteen said...
Agreed. I was in China a few years ago and had coffee from a place that had one of these bars-- in fact, they might have made it themselves. It was a back of the road place in Shanghai and I highly doubt the coffee shop, though it catered to the ex-pat community, paid $20,000 for the bar.
A good cup of coffee isn't about the price tag of the machine.
1-23-2008 @ 9:11PM
EAC said...
Hey, this looks awfully familiar. Doesn't Ray's Cafe in Philadelphia (9th street, in Chinatown) do siphon coffee? Oh, how I miss that exquisite Taiwanese cafe.
Reply
1-24-2008 @ 10:08AM
Rojos Roastery said...
If you are on the East Coast looking for vaccuum extraction coffee or equipment Rojos Roastery in Lambertville NJ offers fresh roasted coffee, and brew on demand vaccuum extraction. We also import handblown cona vaccuums for sale.
http://www.rojosroastery.com/
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1-24-2008 @ 10:12AM
armmat said...
A good cup of coffee will be good because of the freshness of the coffee...not the quality of the machine. Fresh coffee will be very mildly sweet. Never bitter.
What a retarded concept...let's reserve it for the "holier than thou" Starbucks clientele.
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1-24-2008 @ 2:12PM
Gobo said...
I think what folks like "armmat" aren't taking into account is that while brewed drip coffee and vacuum/siphon coffee will both be excellent cups of joe when made with good, fresh beans, a drip coffeemaker looks pretty ugly... but a vacuum/siphon machine is by far the coolest-looking way to make coffee there is.
If I was at a swank restaurant and probably dropping three or four bucks on a cup of coffee, it'd be totally worth it if I got to watch it being made in front of me with one of these mad-scientist contraptions.
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1-26-2008 @ 1:15PM
swag said...
Unfortunately, if you were at a swank restaurant, the person in charge of preparing the coffee would have had about 10 minutes of training several months earlier, and he/she would completely botch and mangle any positive properties in the coffee itself.
1-26-2008 @ 1:15PM
swag said...
And better still, you've got the Times' article headline of:
"At Last, a $20,000 Cup of Coffee"
What? Is the siphon bar disposable after single use???
Is this analogous to the $120,000 tank of gas in a Porsche?
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1-28-2008 @ 2:29PM
nicole jones said...
Hi all,
I've done some looking and there are two different styles of vacuum pots out there. One is electric and one is a stovetop style. Both aren't terribly expensive.
Aabree Coffee has a 50oz electric Bodum Santos Vacuum Pot It's pretty retro looking -http://www.aabreecoffee.com/Bodum/bo_santos_50.cfm
and then Whole Latte Love has a stovetop 2-chamber glass brewer that heats up on the stove.
http://www.wholelattelove.com/Bodum/santos_gift.cfm
I've heard both make really good coffee.
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