Yama Siphon: TCA-3, TCA-5

Submitted by matt.galyon on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 15:11
Product Overview:
Aesthetics: 
10
Usability: 
7
Brewing Functionality: 
9
Resulting Cup: 
9
Overall: 
9

The Yama Siphons are classified as vacuum brewers. The brewers, which also take the spelling of "Syphon," originated in Europe in the 1830s and found their way to American soil at the end of the 19th century. The device faded from the American coffee scene in the middle of the 20th century but has made a recent resurgence in large part due to the booming interest and production of vacuum brewers in the Asian market. Vacuum brewers are now slowly making their way in to many new wave coffee shops and cafes, providing an entertaining and tasty alternative to other traditional brewing methods.

Aesthetics: 
10

The Siphon coffee brewer was made for an audience. Almost every aspect of this brewer caters to the senses, from the beauty of the glass to the smell of coffee brewing from the open top. The Yama TCA-3 and TCA-5 consists of hand-blown glass and a stylish metallic silver and black table-top stand. The TCA models can be displayed by brewing table-side for the customer or in front of friends at home.

Usability: 
7

The Siphon provides one of the most enjoyable brewing experiences on the market, but it does come with a bit of a learning curve. The brewing process may appear like a task fit only for the maddest of scientists or the craftiest of coffee connoisseurs, but after a few trial and error attempts the basics come easy. Other than the various Siphon parts provided one needs: water, grinder, coffee, timer, thermometer, and stirring stick. From set-up to clean-up it will take a comfortable operator about 10-15 minutes of hands-on time.

Brewing Functionality: 
9

As mentioned in the intro, this brewing device is a vacuum brewer. The device works via vaporized pressure and suction. Hot water is placed in the glass globe and the top chamber is inserted. When the heat source is added to the globe, the water begins to evaporate and water vapor fills the globe. As more water evaporates, greater pressure is created from the water vapor in the globe. This pressure pushes the water up the siphon tube through the filter and into the upper chamber. Coffee is then added and left to brew for the desired brew time. After this period of time, the heat source is removed and the bottom begins to cool. This causes the reverse of vapor pressure to occur. As the vapor cools, and even changes back to water, it creates a suction effect where the water is pulled from the upper chamber through the coffee into the globe.
This brewing method provides two ideal brewing parameter controls: full-immersion of grounds and temperature stability. Full-immersion helps provide a more unified extraction by ensuring that all coffee grounds share equal contact time with the water. Temperature stability has been one of the most sought after controls in coffee brewing. The Siphon provides this stability due to the constant heat source.
In summary, all of the aforementioned aspects of the vacuum method result in a unique and arguably superior cup in comparison to other brewing methods. The controlled aspects of the method (temperature stability and full-immersion) take a couple control factors out of the formula but do however provide a bit of a challenge. Since these factors are extremely controlled, they necessitate a decent amount of care and precision with the other brewing parameters. This means that it can take a good deal of fine-tuning with one’s coffee proportion, grind setting, stirring technique, and brew-time to bring out the best from your Siphon.
While maintaining one’s desired parameters may seem like a daunting task, the basics are simple and learning to tweak the other parameters provides an enjoyable challenge.

Resulting Cup: 
9

The superior brewing functionality of the Siphon translates over to the cup in a number of ways. First of all, because of the total immersion of the coffee, it is easier to avoid bitterness in the coffee. Bitterness often occurs because some or all of the coffee has been over-extracted. In other brewing methods, part of the grounds inevitably spend more contact time with the water than others, thus creating the likelihood that some will be over extracted. Secondly, temperature stability insures that all of the coffee is being brewed at a controlled temperature for the duration of the brew. Different coffees(depending on origin, processing method, and roast level) react differently to various temperatures. Sweetness of the coffee is one characteristic that is affected by temperature.

Finally, these particular models, the Yama TCA-3 and its bigger brother the TCA-5, come with two cloth filters. Cloth filters generally leave a cleaner cup than paper or metal filters. The clean, uniformed body that results from the brew leaves no residue or sludge and is void of any papery taste that might be yielded by a paper filter.

To summarize simply, the Syphon makes one yummy cup of coffee.

Overall: 
9

The Siphon provides one of, if not the best coffee brewing experience available. In our opinion it communicates both the beauty and complexity of specialty coffee better than any other method. What may merely appear like the newest attempt to lure non-coffee geeks into the specialty coffee circle, is in all actuality an over 100 year old way to produce one the most complex yet delicate cups of coffee you'll ever taste. The slight learning curve is the only factor that keeps the syphon from taking a 10 overall.

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