Yama Glass Cold Brew Coffee Tower
You know how some fancy coffee shops always have one of those Yama Towers drip-dripping away for hours on end, producing cold brew in the most science-lab-looking way possible? Did you also know you can buy one of those things for yourself to use at home?
If you thought a siphon pot — that one’s made by the same company, natch — already made coffee look like a 19th-century chemistry experiment, this slow-drip contraption will only enhance that vibe in your kitchen, as long as you’ve got room for the thing.
The way it works is, you fill the top chamber with ice and cold water, fill the middle chamber with freshly ground coffee (medium to medium-fine works best), then open the drip valve just enough to let out one drop every 1.5 seconds or so.
As the top chamber slowly empties, you may have to come back from time to time and readjust this as needed to ensure a steady drip rate.
A few hours later, you’ll have a delicious, beautifully extracted batch of cold brew in the bottom decanter — up to 32oz of the stuff, enough for 6–8 cups — that will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks. (Not that it’s likely to last that long.)
If you’re used to immersion cold brew, you’ll likely be pleasantly surprised how bright this cold brew tastes in comparison. It’s more akin to the taste you’d expect out of a regular brewed coffee.
💡 Some people may discover that the dripping water tends to create channels in the coffee bed, leaving some of it still dry by the end of the brewing process. To avoid that, try this trick:
Load the coffee grounds a few tablespoons at a time, using a spray bottle to wet the grounds each time. Then, when you first start the dripper, open it all the way up for a few seconds before adjusting back down to the slower rate.
This way, you guarantee the grounds get nice and saturated so no channeling should occur. 👍
Curly glass tubes with fluids moving through them? You know what that means; it’s ⚡SCIENCE!⚡
As with other Yama products, the borosilicate glass components in this tower is hand-blown by master glass blowers in Taiwan like they’ve been doing for decades. Those glass pieces are elegantly held in place by your choice of a black or brown wooden frame. The result is a cold brewer that will impress any guest you decide to have over.
Get the Yama Tower for $255 on Amazon. They also make a larger-capacity 25-cup version for $479 if you’re intending to use one in a cafe setting or the like.