Leave it to San Francisco to experiment with a new way to brew the perfect cup of java. Coffee nervana? Perhaps, if you can believe the publicity.
Called a siphon bar, it was imported from Japan by San Francisco’s newly opened Blue Bottle Café at a total cost of more than $20,000. The cafe has the only halogen-powered model in the United States, and getting it here required years of elliptical discussions with its importer, Jay Egami of the Ueshima Coffee Company.
Professionals have long been willing to pay prices in the five figures for the perfect espresso machine, but the siphon bar doesn’t make espresso - It makes brewed coffee. Here’s how it works: A siphon pot has two stacked glass globes. As water vapor forces water into the upper globe, the coffee grounds are stirred by hand with a bamboo paddle. The goal is to create a deep whirlpool in no more than four turns without touching the glass.
Siphon coffee has a brewing cycle of 45 to 90 seconds. Is it really “all that?” James Freeman, owner of the Blue Bottle, is betting it is. And he may be right. Another system, the $11,000 Clover, has been gaining in popularity. Still something of a cult object with just over 200 machines scattered around the world, it makes one cup at a time. But it might soon become a common sight: Starbucks has just bought two.
Dawn and I plan on dropping by the Blue Bottle next time we’re in the City. I’ll let you know if we think the siphon bar really brews the perfect cuppa.