The Coffee Siphon

Mad science isn’t just for breakfast anymore.

My pal Erik is a coffee snob aficionado, who is constantly laboring to educate me in the ways of the bean.  He’s thinking about stuff like roasting times and water temperature, while I’ve just recently stopped drinking coffee flavored sugar and cream.  I’m basically a coffee luddite.  It’s hot.  It has caffeine in it.  I’m happy.

Or so I thought.  Every once in a while, and almost always when hanging out with Erik, I’ll have a cup of something that surprises me.  Something more than just a cup of scalding bitterness. Something that makes me think that there might actually be something to this whole coffee thing.

The picture above is from today’s lesson in coffee: the siphon.  We stopped in at Ascension Coffee in Dallas and had the gurus there perform some coffee magic for us.  I have to admit, the whole thing was kind of surreal to me, but the coffee was excellent.  I’m all about experiencing new things, especially if it involves food of any kind, and this was without a doubt the most delightfully cool coffee thing I’ve ever tried.

Here’s what the whole operation looks like if you’re curious: