Science, Theatre, Artistry! Coffee making with the Hario Syphon

Hario Syphon Coffee Maker in use

There’s something of the science lab about making coffee with the Hario Syphon Coffee Maker!

You don’t need to understand the science to enjoy coffee making this way – and it’s not complicated, but it is incredible. Not understanding the science of air pressure, vacuums, and heat effects just actually makes it appear to be magic! And therefore enthralling.

The Hario Coffee Syphon is not based on new ideas at all – in fact the first syphon coffee makers are traced back to origins in the 1800s.

The thrill of seeing the water bubble up to the top chamber of the coffee maker is spellbinding. Then shortly after it will slowly seep back down into the lower chamber as brewed coffee. It really does seem like magic.

The device comes with a small alcohol burner which is the main control over the process. There’s a lower borosilicate glass chamber where you place pre-boiled water, and an upper chamber where the coffee grounds are placed (with a filter held in place by a clever weighting mechanism). The whole thing is held on a stand to hold the coffee maker above the alcohol burner. Can you see why it feels like a science lab way of making coffee?

Hario Technica Coffee Syphon 3
Hario Technica Coffee Syphon 3 available at Artistry Coffee

The water is heated further from below, and (here’s a Mickey Mouse bit of science) the expanding pressure in the lower chamber forces the coffee up through the connecting pipe into the top chamber where the coffee grounds are sitting.

This mixes the hot water with the coffee and begins the brewing process. If you can draw yourself away from being mesmerised by this coffee making device, you can help the effectiveness of the process a little at this point by stirring the water and coffee grounds in the top vessel.

The heat source now needs removing and covering, to extinguish the flame. This starts to reduce the air pressure below ( which has almost become like a vacuum – because the contents that were in the lower chamber are now in the upper chamber).

The reduced pressure below now gives the brewing coffee somewhere to go –  down!

So gradually the contents of the upper chamber will sink into the bottom glass vessel – straining through the filter in the middle section to give a clean, clear brew.

The top section then needs removing, as its work is done – and the stand that the bottom glass vessel is held by becomes the pouring handle to pour out your coffee!

See the Hario Coffee Syphon at Artistry Coffee – we stock the 3-cup version.

Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions, which give full explanation of the device, how to use it and any safety requirements.

The New Twist Press from Barista & Co

Twist Press

This innovative new coffee maker – The Twist Press – is a great product for coffee on the go – it is compact, easy to use, and includes a coffee storage section under the silicone lid.

Twist Press Parts
Twist Press Parts

To use, you place the lower handle on top of a mug add a paper filter, attach the coffee making chamber – then water and coffee grounds and stir. Position the upper plunger handle and allow to brew for a minute.

Then TWIST !

Pull the handles together and let the coffee come through under pressure to the mug below. You should find a clean, strong, black coffee which you can enjoy espresso style or as a base for any coffee.

The device is easy to clean and (top shelf) dishwasher safe.

See the Twist Press online at artistrycoffee.co.uk or at our Duck Farm Court location in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

Twist Press
Twist Press Stacked

 

Supercharge your AeroPress with the Fellow Prismo

The Fellow Prismo AeroPress attachment

The AeroPress is a well renowned coffee maker which makes reliable good coffee very quickly. As we say it’s #QuickButNotInstant reflecting the fact that it’s far ahead of instant coffee yet doesn’t take much longer to make.

AeroPress
AeroPress coffee maker

The AeroPress is described as making espresso like coffee – recognising that it’s really good but not a pure espresso.

This new attachment device from Fellow products though can supercharge your exisiting or new AeroPress delivering more specific espresso shots.

The Fellow Prismo – attaches to the bottom of the AeroPress instead of the mesh cap. It features a pressure actuated valve which is the main bit of magic! It stays sealed until you press down – this helps facilitate the espresso shot, but also gives you other options for making cold brew or brewing with the immersion method without inverting.

The Fellow Prismo comes with a reusable fine metal filter and has a no drip seal too – giving you more control over generating an espresso shot (or the immersion method).

Press down and the coffee is forced under pressure through the central valve.

We stock genuine Fellow Prismo but do watch out for cheap imitations available by some online retail options – if you don’t see the Fellow logo (the O and bow tie mark underneath) on the product photos, it’s probably not genuine. Also the central valve and surrounding mouldings look a little different.

The genuine Fellow Prismo is available at Artistry Coffee in Duck Farm Court, Aylesbury or online.

The Stylish Compact Mini Slim PRO from Hario

Hario Mini Slim PRO coffee grinder

For many years we’ve stocked Hario’s Mini Mill Slim coffee grinder – which has been a popular choice with many.

The Mini Mill Slim a compact straightforward grinder, which is easier than many to adjust for the grind size you wish to use on your latest coffee beans.

Well it’s now got a new sibling!

The Mini Slim PRO from Hario is a timely update on the original, with some useful modifications.

The most obvious feature is the stainless steel in place of many of the plastic parts, and the version that we stock has a  black hopper and chamber rather than clear.

The clear acrylic lid has also been modified and the PRO version has a silicone grip around the circumference.

The important grinding burrs are still ceramic, which is helpful for good functioning and durability.

So the key thing is that many of the materials of the classic product have been upgraded, and it has a very stylish look about it!

They say “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” – but his shows that “if it ain’t broke” it may still be upgraded!

We have the Hario Mini Slim PRO coffee grinder at our Duck Farm Court location in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, or you can buy it online:

See the Hario Mini Slim PRO Coffee Grinder online

Handground the Precision Coffee Grinder at Artistry Coffee

Handground Black Precision Dial

The Handground Precision Coffee Grinder is back in stock at ArtistryCoffee.co.uk or in person at Duck Farm Court, Aylesbury.

We knew that the Handground Coffee Grinder would be a really interesting product when we first heard about it on Instagram, and then became some of the first backers of it on Kickstarter a few years ago.

It was an innovative approach to ask people who make coffee to contribute to the design from all around the world – with choices for the look, materials, accessories, and mechanics etc being made by the crowd through Instagram, Kickstarter and online surveys.

Two of the most useful features of the Handground Grinder are the side mounted handle, which makes the handgrinding of coffee beans a simpler process, and the grind control dial, making grind size less guesswork and more precise.

It is a large device, and will sit well aside your other coffee making products.

At artistrycoffee.co.uk we again sold out of the crowdsourced Handground Precision Coffee Grinders a couple of weeks ago – but we’re pleased to now have some new stock in.

So once more we’ll have the choice of Nickel or Black for this substantial, innovative, and easily adjustable manual coffee grinder.

You’ll be able to see for yourself at our Duck Farm Court location in Aylesbury, or order online.

More Details on Handground the crowdsourced Precision Coffee Grinder

The new Artistry Coffee base in Aylesbury

Artistry Coffee shop area with new display shelves at Duck Farm Court

We’re very excited to have painted and taken delivery of our new shelf units and set about stocking them with all our range of handbrew coffee equipment.

It is great not just to have a stock-room from where we have to get our products out one by one when we want or need to look at them or photograph them. Now we have permanent display for all our products so it will be easy to demonstrate, talk-about, showcase and feature the individual products.

It’s amazing how much the handbrew coffee sector had developed even in the time we’ve been operating Artistry Coffee – so there are always more products that we want to stock.

Our location in Duck Farm Court in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire was once one of the homes of Aylesbury Duck, dating back to the 18th Century. We’re delighted to have a small unit on the balcony area. There are lots of other interesting businesses and shops located here too.

We’d love to see people popping in to top up on specialist coffee beans, coffee filters, or select a new handbrew coffee device – or we’ll handle your online order from here.

Artistry Coffee shop coffee bag partition at Duck Farm Court Aylesbury
Artistry Coffee shop coffee bag partition at Duck Farm Court Aylesbury

We’ve worked hard on prepping the unit – making sure everything is clean and fresh – and setting our stall so to speak. You’ll find the products featured online with ranges of hario, aeropress, kilner, Chemex, and many others – plus a fun range of mugs, the reusable ecoffee bamboo fibre cups and plenty more.

After lots of planning and moving in the last few months – it’s great to be able to have a new home for Artistry Coffee in Aylesbury and we plan to expand our range of stock and upgrade our speciality coffee credentials as part of settling in here.

More soon….

Exciting new venture in Aylesbury

We’ve recently decided that having a small shop where people can actually come in and see our range of handbrew coffee equipment and select their coffee beans would be a great way to take artistry coffee forward.

We found a little unit in the lovely Duck Farm Court in Aylesbury and have recently set about giving a bit of a freshen up inside – so we’ve had the paint brushes, rollers and paint pads out as we have been getting the little unit ready to become our new base.

artistry coffee new base getting ready
painting Duck Farm Court ready to start the new Artistry Coffee base.

Duck Farm Court in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire is on the site of one of the original old 18th century duck farms where the famous Aylesbury Duck was bred. These days the site has been integrated into the developments around but some of the ancient charm remains.

It’s in fact pretty close to the centre of Aylesbury – on Station Way (unsurprisingly near to the station), and just behind Morrisons.

We’re excited to have a new base and look forward to posting on social media from there, and dealing with your orders and also enhancing further our knowledge of handbrew coffee and handbrew coffee equipment.

If your in Aylesbury Vale then why not pop in to our little shop and see what’s going on – we’re at:

Unit 25, Duck Farm Court,

Station Way, Aylesbury,

Buckinghamshire. HP20 2SQ

Our normal opening hours will be 11am to 4pm Wednesday to Saturday, but we’ll often be there outside of those times – so you can call on 01923 537547 to see if we’re going to be around.

Artistry Coffee's new base in Aylesbury
Sizing up the new base for Artistry Coffee
Duck Farm Court in Aylesburt the new home of Artistry Coffee
Duck Farm Court the home of Artistry Coffee

 

The classic Hario Mini Mill hamd coffee grinder.

Hario Mini Mill hand coffee grinder available at artistrycoffee.co.uk

Great for lovers of coffee – the #Hario Mini Mill Slim Grinder is a compact hand coffee grinder.

It has adjustable burrs to enable you to control the grind size that you need – very fine grind for Espresso coffee makers, to coarse grind for Cafetiere or French Press coffee makers.

It’s easy to use – simply pop your choice of coffee beans in the top mini-hopper affix the lid and grind handle and turn the handle. The ground coffee gathers in the plastic chamber below – the Mini Mill has capacity for two cups worth of ground coffee.

Hario have their origins in Japan – they design and making top quality handbrew coffee equipment. Find out more on artistrycoffee.co.uk.

It also has a bigger cousin: the Hario Skerton which is a coffee maker with more capacity in both the top hopper and the chamber below (this time made of glass): Find out more on our main website.