Brewing Coffee by Siphon

Brewing Coffee by Siphon

Visiting new coffee shops is like unwrapping boxed gifts; you don’t really know what to expect inside until you open their doors. It’s always exciting to discover what kinds of beans they have, what drinks they serve, and what methods they use to brew their coffee.

Among the different brewing methods, perhaps the most fascinating to watch is the siphon.  For people who have never laid their eyes on a siphon brewing method set-up, the equipment can look like it was taken straight out of a scientist’s laboratory. And watching a barista prepare coffee by siphon with all its intimidating burners (or halogen lights), spherical water-holding contraptions, and gravity-defying liquid movements can definitely seem more like watching a chemist doing an experiment! All the complexities and mystery of the siphon method is good for one thing though, producing an unbelievably delicious cup of coffee.

One of the coffee shops in the Greater Vancouver Area that offers coffee by siphon is Rocanini Cafe  in Richmond, BC (besides their Richmond coffee shop, Rocanini also has their own roastery in Vanouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood). I recently got to chat with Adrian, one of their baristas, about the siphon brewing method.

Adrian’s Keys to Preparing Great Siphon Coffee

While my conversation with Adrian didn’t go too in-depth with a step-by-step guide to brewing with a siphon, he was able to give me some of the key elements to watch out for in order to produce a great tasting brew:

• Grind setting: Like other brewing methods, the coffee beans used for siphons should be ground just before brewing the coffee in order to preserve as much of the flavour of the beans. Use a grind setting that is finer than what is used for standard drip coffee machines.

• Proportion of coffee grind to water: To make sure the coffee produced is as flavourful as possible, try to have a proportion of 25g of coffee to 16oz of water. You try to play around with the coffee-water proportion to suit your taste, but 25g-16oz is recommended.

• Temperature of water: After all the water from the bottom chamber of the siphon has been pushed up to the upper chamber and meets with the coffee grind, you should be vigilant about the extraction time. The extraction time should only be for around a minute; a longer extraction time would damage the oils from the beans and affect the body of the coffee.

Beans Recommended for Siphon

You can really use any bean you want for the siphon method, Adrian himself prefers making siphon coffee with beans of Kenyan origin. Here’s the thing though: the method of brewing with a siphon really brings out the flavours of beans that are light and citrusy, and with high acidity. This means that making coffee by siphon with Sumatran beans, with their earthier and more nutty flavours, will still produce delicious coffee, but you won’t get as much of the flavours out of the beans as you would get from the lighter, more citrusy varieties.

So the next time you enter a coffee shop and see scientific-looking coffee equipment, don’t be shy, and ask your coffee to be prepared by siphon. It might take a bit longer to prepare compared to other brewing methods, but you’ll definitely enjoy the show and the cup of coffee you’ll have in the end.

Thanks to Adrian from Rocanini for sharing his knowledge of coffee!

Know other coffee shops that serve coffee by siphon?
Leave us a comment and tell us where they are!

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