The Theater of Making Coffee
Coffee has the potential to be so much more than just your morning caffeine fix. With the new found desire people have found to portray their lives in more interesting ways, coffee (and tea) have become theatrical ways to express oneself. Let's take a look!
Pour-Over Coffee
One of the most common methods of brewing coffee that has the potential to be theatrical is the pour-over. You can choose a coffee cone that fits on your mug for a single serving, or you can choose a coffee vase all-in-one with a carafe. Pour-over cones come in a variety of materials like ceramic, metal, plastic, silicone, and glass. You can choose what works best for your aesthetic. You can also choose the mug to work with your pour-over cone. The pour-over vase is typically made of glass with a protective sleeve at the narrowest part to protect your hand. This sleeve is often made of cork or wood, but you might occasionally see one made of leather.
Your kettle is another point to show off your aesthetic. Normally, a gooseneck kettle is used for pour-over due to the ability to control the pour of water. There are countless designs and models of gooseneck kettles with various metals, colors, and even stovetop or electric.
French Press
Another common method of brewing is the French press. In addition to being interactive, the myriad of French press carafes means you can match any decor you desire. The French press also has the flexibility for steeping teas. Don't underestimate how beautiful an unfurling tea leaf or a mixture of flowers and leaves can look floating in a glass carafe. In addition, the act of pressing the plunger to filter out the coffee or tea makes this a fun way to make your brew.
Espresso Machine
Not quite as interactive as the French press or the pour-over, the espresso machine still has a fair amount of drama. Freshly grinding the beans, tamping down the grounds, extracting the liquor, and steaming milk (for those espresso-based drinks) make for a fair amount of theater. Add a design in your latte, and you've got a mini show.
Vacuum Pot
The vacuum pot is an interesting if much less used brewing method. Using displacement to move hot water to the grounds then brewed coffee back into the serving carafe can be visually mesmerizing.
Siphon Coffee Maker
Hands down, the most dramatic of the coffee makers is the siphon. The intricate system of heating water, brewing coffee, and siphoning the liquor off to the carafe is interactive and fun. There are countless siphon machines with some much more basic than others. The most drama-filled siphon machines include an alcohol burner. This heats the water then metal tubes transport the resulting hot water to the coffee grounds and the brewed coffee back to the carafe. Some machines need human intervention to snuff the flame, while others use hinge mechanisms to raise and lower the coffee and move a snuffer over the flame in the meantime.
So there you have it. Not only is coffee a necessity to keep some of us going it can also be a way to share in the beauty of creating. What's your favorite way to brew your coffee?