James Hoffman and the Siphon Bar

Pre-reading reading: James Hoffman on Italian Terminology
and
Blue Bottle's New San Fran Siphon Bar

Both of these posts excite me in different ways. Here in the Beaver Valley, drip brewed coffee is king. Espresso, far from being a novelty (we have Nuova Simonellis in our gas stations), is still viewed--it seems--as a fancy-schmancy way to act "above your place." Many folks just want "a regular cup of coffee," which is just fine with me. Espresso, while being a fine way to brew coffee, is not for every palate and is too easily susceptible to being masked by sugary syrups and too much milk (I had a nice, chocolaty macchiato earlier today--just right). Plus, I'm not too sure it is the "pure essence of coffee" as every brewing method (whether technology driven or not) produces different aspects of coffee, with none that I have tried bringing all out at once.

Since the crew and I have started working/experimenting with manual methods we have seen a rebirth in our palates towards non-espresso coffees. This is part of the reason that we will soon be adding Aeropress, Chemex, and (someday, if I can get my Schyndel on) siphon options to compliment our Americano, drip, and French Press methods already available.

To bring James Hoffman into this, his post concerning our way of using Italian inconsistently brought to my mind the problem of American coffee culture: we don't have one. The Blue Bottle piece talked about importing a Japanese siphon bar (even thought siphon was very popular in the U.S. before the "convenient" percolator); Starbucks made Italian-style (or -esque) commonplace. But distinctly American coffee culture, as far as I can tell, is still in its infancy, if not in utero. We should not, in my opinion, be totally enamored with one culture's coffee style. Much like our post-modern sensibilities, our fusion of many may produce something even better. Having such varied local cultures (which are, again in my opinion, of much more importance than our mass, national culture), different ways can certainly thrive and change for the better in our places. What about integrating Turkish/Greek/Cypriot/so on into our offerings?

I see, everyday, people becoming more educated about coffee in this area. When we introduce our varied ways of getting your "regular cup of coffee" I hope to see a veritable renaissance in coffee-brewing, as each method produces something different for different palates. Also, it will cause the perception of barista (or, as I'm thinking about it more and more, bartender) to be enhanced, since they will have skill sets not usually seen in coffee bars. Lastly, it will cause an increase in the quality of roasting since defects are more easily seen using different methods--especially as home-brewers become adept at using their favorite methods.

The espresso craze, if it is coming to an end, might well be replaced by the Chemex or Siphon or French Press craze, but hopefully we can get off the pendulum swinging from culture to culture and settle down with our favorite method and favorite coffee for a good cup and a good conversation.