Roll over Clover, and make way for the Hario dripper
Posted by TheShot on 12 Oct 2009 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Machine, Starbucks
Ever since Starbucks announced their outright purchase of the Clover brewer supply, it was a mere matter of time before replacement filter-coffee-brewing setups were anointed by the coffeeshop elite. From the Chicagoist today, at least Intelligentsia seems settled on the Hario ceramic coffee dripper and kettle: More Change Brewing at Intelligentsia – Chicagoist.
Ah, yes. The Clover brewer: what got everyone excited about filter coffee again — with countless citations of its $11,000 MSRP price tag that not a single café (at least to our knowledge) actually paid — was suddenly reclassified as “Oh-so-second-wave” by proxy of ownership. So some coffee shops are turning to a Japanese twist on the old Melitta bar. (And yes, this is the same Japanese company behind the siphon brewing systems you can find at Blue Bottle Cafe, for example.)
Another upside to the Hario? The home version of this game show doesn’t require car payments and dedicated plumbing — so your favorite café doesn’t have to tell you, “Don’t try this at home, folks.”
Call us a little jaded, but we haven’t jumped the bandwagon on these just yet — despite how much they have permeated the coffeesphere since Black Wednesday. But in due time, even with so much coffee to consume, we’ll be sure to give one a test drive. At Chicago’s Millennium Park Intelligentsia if nothing else…
UPDATE: Oct. 13, 2009
It seems that even Starbucks is getting in on the act of phasing out the Clover brewer. According to boston.com today, Starbucks is removing Clover machines from seven of its Boston area stores: Starbucks tweaks test of Clover brewing system – Daily Business Update – The Boston Globe.
2 Comments »
I thought chemex brewers were the next hot item… I’m confused, are these pourovers any different from the beehouse porcelains at blue bottle? Or do they feature more of a cylindrical shape like the chemex.
Funny you should mention the Chemex, as I just got a hand-blown one this past week. But the Chemex is pretty old school. After all, it was invented back in 1941. And it’s the brewing equipment my 67-year-old Portuguese uncle-in-law — whom I jokingly call “Tio Café” — has used exclusively for eons.
Akin to Christopher Columbus telling the Lucayans that he “discovered” America, it’s details like this make me roll my eyes at the “Third Wave” term — as delusional, fabricated nonsense perpetuated by people who think they just invented good coffee or just discovered consumers who appreciate good coffee.
If you follow the link in the top of the post, you’ll see it at the Intelligentsia online store. I like the fact that their site expresses that they don’t know why, yet, the believe it to brew a better cup.