In many people's minds, siphon coffee pots have a unique shape like chemical utensils, and they always appear in film and television works with a sense of the times, giving people a somewhat mysterious feel. As a practitioner in the coffee industry, Front Street’s most important thing is of course the use of the siphon pot and the flavor characteristics of the brewed coffee.
The structure, extraction and principle of siphon pot
The general structure of the siphon pot can be divided into an upper pot, a lower pot and a bracket. The bracket is connected to the lower pot for fixation and support. The lower pot is roughly shaped into a sphere so that it will be heated evenly when heated. The upper pot is cylindrical, with a shrinkage treatment at the bottom, extending out a slender conduit, and a rubber ring at the shrinkage area. When the upper pot is placed on the lower pot, the rubber ring will act as a seal. When the lower pot is heated, the water is heated to generate steam, and the lower pot generates pressure, sucking the water into the upper pot. The upper pot is where the coffee grounds come into contact with the water. When the heating source disappears, the coffee liquid will return to the lower pot, and the siphon coffee is completed.
There are generally three types of heat sources: alcohol lamps, gas stoves and halogen lamps. The one used here on Qian Street is the alcohol lamp. There are two main types of equipment for filtering coffee grounds: flannel filter cloth and round filter paper. Flannel is a relatively traditional siphon filter material. Its characteristic is that it can retain the oil in the coffee. The disadvantage is that it is more troublesome to use and wash. Filter paper is a new type of filter material. Its characteristic is that the filter is relatively clean and can block out some tiny things (including but not limited to grease). If you only drink it personally, you won’t make coffee too frequently. Front Street recommends using flannel, so that you can experience the taste of siphon coffee more completely. A bead connected to the filter can prevent sudden boiling when the upper pot is inserted into the lower pot. The water temperature can also be judged by the small bubbles around the bead. In addition to the siphon pot set and heating equipment, making siphon coffee also requires a stirring spoon and a wet cloth.
The extraction principle of the siphon pot is realized through the pressure difference. First, the lower cup of water is heated to boiling, and then the upper pot is inserted, so that the lower pot is in a high-pressure state. Due to the pressure difference between the lower pot and the upper pot, the hot water flows up to mix with the coffee powder in the upper pot and extract. After the extraction process is completed, the fire source of the lower pot is removed, so that the pressure difference between the lower pot and the upper pot is instantly reduced. The siphon between the upper pot and the lower pot will cause the coffee extract to flow back to the lower cup. If you want the coffee extract to flow back faster, you can use a wet rag to wipe the lower pot. This will make the pressure difference between the upper and lower pots smaller and the coffee extract to flow back faster.
How to use siphon pot
To make a delicious cup of siphon coffee, you still need to pay attention to some brewing details. Here, Front Street uses its own roasted Front Street Brazilian Queen Manor coffee beans to demonstrate how to operate it.
Water temperature: 88℃
Grinding degree: No. 20 screen pass rate 90%
Amount of powder: 18g
Pink to water ratio: 1:10
1. Pour 180ml of warm water into the lower pot, and wipe the moisture outside the pot with a dry cloth (to avoid causing the pot to explode when heated). Light the alcohol lamp and place it at the bottom of the pot for heating.
2. Take out the upper pot of the siphon pot, fix the filter cloth on the upper pot, hang the fixed hook on the wall of the glass tube at the bottom of the upper cup, place it diagonally and insert it into the lower pot.
3. Observe the lower pot. When continuous small bubbles appear in the lower pot, straighten the upper pot and insert the upper pot vertically into the lower pot to make a seamless connection between the upper pot and the lower pot.
4. When the water in the lower pot rises to the upper pot, pour in the ground coffee powder and stir clockwise from the outside to the middle with a stir stick. This process lasts for 10 seconds to ensure that all the coffee powder is immersed in the water.
5. Then start timing, and after 40 seconds, use the stirring rod to stir the coffee liquid clockwise again for 5 seconds; then quickly remove the alcohol lamp and turn off the fire source, and the coffee liquid begins to flow back from the upper pot to the lower pot; during the backflow process of the coffee liquid, you can use a wet cloth to wipe the lower pot of the siphon pot to speed up the return of the coffee liquid. Total extraction time is approximately 1 minute and 10 seconds.
6. Then gently remove the upper pot, pour the coffee liquid from the lower pot into the cup, and you can taste it. The siphon coffee made in this way is very fragrant. Although it is not as thorough and clean as Pour over(V60) coffee, the oil floating on the surface adds a lot of mellowness.
What kind of coffee beans are suitable for siphon pots?
In the past, because people mainly pursued rich and mellow coffee flavor and taste, most of them used medium-dark roasted coffee beans when using siphon pots. The extracted siphon coffee has a rich aroma and a round and balanced taste. If you are also pursuing this type of flavor, popular products such as Front Street Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, Front Street Golden Mandheling Coffee, Front Street Brazilian Queen Manor Coffee, and Front Street Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise Coffee on the Front Street bean list are all very suitable for using a siphon pot.
Nowadays, as everyone pursues more exquisite flavors in coffee, there are more and more choices on the market. In addition to the ones mentioned above, more than 50 single-origin coffee beans on the Front Street Bean List can be used to make siphon coffee. Here Front Street recommends several more classic flavored coffee beans to everyone. You can choose the coffee beans that suit your taste according to your own preferences.
Tropical fruit refreshing and sour sweet forehead base sun-dried red cherry coffee beans
The Front Street sun-dried Yirgacheffe coffee beans on the Front Street Bean List were originally used for hand-drip drip brewing. The perfectly ripe coffee cherries retain their intact pulp and are dried in the sun. The core absorbs a large amount of pulp sugar. The coffee shows a very high sweetness and a strong fruity aroma. When Front Street extracts Front Street sun-dried red cherries by hand every day, you can taste the obvious sweetness and sourness of ripe fruits, which is reminiscent of red berries, and the finish has the smell of fermented tea. Extracted using a siphon pot, the black coffee has a ripe fruit taste, a pleasant sweet and sour taste, and almost no bitterness. It tastes like a cup of fruit tea.
Rich, fermented, fruity Front Street Costa Rican Mozart coffee beans
Raisin honey processing is a method of retaining 100% pectin and zero water treatment of coffee. The mature and plump fruits retain the pectin layer for closed fermentation before drying, maximizing the sweetness of the coffee beans. The Front Street Costa Rica Mozart coffee beans recommended by Front Street present a rich aroma of roses, raisins, and high sweetness of white wine when brewed by hand. The coffee brewed using a siphon pot presents the rich sour and sweet flavors of tropical fruits, with a round, pleasant sour and sweet taste.
Front Street Ethiopian inflorescence with refreshing floral and fruity fragrance TOH washed champion coffee beans
This coffee bean is produced in the Guji Uraga production area of Ethiopia, and the geology of this area is rich in nutrient black soil. The coffee beans produced have a fragrant fruit aroma. They are washed to highlight the clear floral and citrus flavor of the coffee. The Pour over(V60) coffee made by Front Street Ethiopian inflorescence coffee beans has the refreshing flavor of jasmine, citrus and grapefruit. The siphon coffee will have a more rounded green tea flavor, increasing the overall mellowness and cleanliness.
Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account cafe_style)
For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on private WeChat, WeChat ID: qjcoffeex
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
