Twin Peaks, Part 3

We got a new coffee gadget...a Hario Cold Water Coffee Dripper!

A year or so ago there was an article in The New York Times that introduced us to the concept of cold-water extraction of coffee. I can't find that article but here is their illustration of the products described in it. The brief description says that the cold water dripper makes coffee that is "dense and sweet, almost like aged rum." That sounded good.

The contraption has a reservoir and a valve that lets you slowly drip water through the grounds beneath it. The water goes through the grounds, picking up the their goodness, and drips into the pot at the bottom. We're supposed to set the valve to let out 1 to 1.5 drips per second. This is supposed to leave behind some unpleasant parts of the coffee that hot water extracts. The instructions say the process takes about five hours to complete.

A five-hour process that doesn't have a lot of action is a natural subject for a time-lapse movie, don't you think? I did. Here it is!

It took longer than five hours. My drips took more than a second to drop. It ended up taking nearly seven hours.

I started taking pictures at a rate of one per second. After a while I increased the interval to take a picture every other second. Then I periodically increased the interval to take a picture every four, eight, 16, 32 and finally every 64 seconds. The first three-and-a-half-hours of the action take a minute to see and the other 3½ hours take nine seconds.

The video looks a lot better on YouTube's page when you watch it in HD and full screen than in the embedded player below. But for your convenience, here it is.

What you see is about four servings for us. I don't know how to describe flavors but "aged rum" might not be too much of an exaggeration. It is nice tasting coffee.

When you visit we can make you some. Just give me a little advance notice!