Siphon vs Espresso

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• admin

  June 2011

  on 1263941951:

  Just wondered what people thought about Siphon going mainstream? A number of good cafes now offer Siphon as an alternative, and we all know it's the way to get the best out of a single origin, but it's usually a little more expensive; what do you think is the future of Siphon [vs espresso] in Australian cafes? A

  so, in relation to my original question almost a year-and-a-half ago, can we say the 'verdict is in now' and siphon will only be represented in a minority of the truly 'specialty' espresso bars [ie the top 1-2%]?

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• WotB

  June 2011

  Ever seen syphon takeaway?  If a place doesn't have seats, you more than likely will not see it.  So even some of the 1-2% may not even have it (because they are more of a bar, than a sit-down cafe).

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• beanflying

  June 2011

  on 1307486307:

  so, in relation to my original question almost a year-and-a-half ago, can we say the 'verdict is in now' and siphon will only be represented in a minority of the truly 'specialty' espresso bars [ie the top 1-2%]?

  Fairly right based on what I saw around Melbourne over a couple of days biking around recently. Pourover is certainly on the rise at coffee focused venues and becoming more widespread. Syphon as I mentioned earlier is only available as an option at a percentage of those. I am still of the opinion that most of the places with syphons are still only seeing it a novelty (exception being Sensory Lab). To make the Syphon Bar work it needs to be done Asian style with racks of spare tops and a totally dedicated bar and prep area. The problem with even trying that in Oz is we don't really have a culture of drinking brewed long blacks. The US and Asia on the other hand do have that background so a different answer may apply there. In Melbourne Syphon is only used the high end beans and then charged accordingly $8-12 per 200-240 ml generally. I think that pushing this device purely at the high end of the high end is limiting its use too. If the beans used were brought back toward a more mainstream type and style (circa 28-40/kg) instead of some of the more extra fancy ones ($70-80+/kg). Run 3 cup (360ml) syphons instead of 2's I think it would be possible to turn out a 10-12 oz T/Away at closer to $5 which may see the usage climb significantly if pitched correctly at the customers against say a $4'ish espresso based drink. On the T/Away front in the US when the clovers first came out a lot of them were going to T/Away's. at $5 and $6+ USD for a 10-12 oz so I don't see the syphon as necessarily anti t/away.

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• WotB

  June 2011

  The brew bar is usually an offshoot.  In most places that have one, you're lucky to see 5% takings through it.  The vast majority of Australians either take instant, or milk-based espresso drinks. I think I've stated it somewhere before, it would be a good experiment to see just how viable a "brewed coffee only" establishment is in Sydney or other capital cities.  The fitout would be cheap as chips compared to a top-notch specialty coffee outlet with an espresso machine.

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• DoubleRistretto

  June 2011

  I'm normally an espresso man, but I love the way you can distinguish different origins with Siphon. But it's clearly more for aficionados and it doesn't help that most cafes seem to charge a premium for it - presumably because of the extra time for set-up & preparation.

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