You needn't even know what they are. In fact, you could straight up loathe coffee and probably still be unable to take your eyes off them. They're just that flipping cool. Watch this video of one in action at Blue Bottle in San Francisco and you'll see what I mean:
Like sushi, Nintendo and countless other helplessly and unarguably cool things, they came from Japan and commanded a cult following sooner than they even hit our shores. Appropriately, in similar fashion to my friend and I's moms regularly trekking to the Asian import mart in Cupertino to score us Power Rangers back in the day, you'll only find them for sale in specialty spots few and far between —though it may be merely a matter of time before the first one hits Williams-Sonoma.
Mind you, the multi-burner bar above cost in excess of $20,000 USD, but those so inclined can score a single-globe Hario unit for roughly $150. Blue Bottle sells them via their webstore (branded Bonmac for legal reasons, though they swear they're the real deal), and I recently spotted some for sale at popular Coffee Labs Roasters in Tarrytown, NY, a half hour north of New York City. A handful of Amazon.com partner stores are also now selling siphons, from the $33 Yama stovetop model and its butane burner-equipped counterpart to the sexily sleek $299 Size D Cona, a gadget of such utilitarian beauty it gives my inner designer a funny feeling in its proverbial pants. (I hate to spew sacrilege, but tell me those lines don't challenge the Chemex at least a little bit). Hario makes tea siphons, too.
For more on how these glass vessels of awesome suck only in the literal sense, I recommend this piece by resident New York Times java junkie and my personal journalistic idol, Oliver Strand (an article which actually predates the adoption of his nationally-known nom de plume).
The next time I'm craving spicy tuna rolls and instead sit down to blog: Kyoto slow drip brewers.
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