August 20, 2013

Drip Pot/ドリップポット

I have a Kalita 600S, with a capacity of 600 cc (ml), bought in 2004 from Flavor Coffee. As I mentioned previously here, the pot has had three modifications made to it by Nakagawa-san. He explains how to make the modifications on this page (Japanese only) of the official website of Flavor Coffee.
You will need:
4mm stainless steel countersunk screw
Wooden knob
Silicone tube with an inside diameter of 4 mm to fit into the spout root with an inside diameter of 6 mm
Screwdriver
Pliers
Drill
File
Tweezers

1. Remove the metal knob from the lid, using a drill or something similar, and replace it with a wooden knob.
2. Bend the end of the spout downward to make it drip-proof, using pliers, and finish it with a file.
3. Fold one end of the tube inside out, cut off the other end diagonally, and insert the diagonal end into the spout root. In this way, you can reduce the water flow by half.

Nakagawa-san has a Kalita 1000S, with a capacity of 1000 cc (ml). He has made another modification to his pot as described here: bending the end of the handle upward. The purpose is to prevent the end from being heated when the pot is put on the stove to boil, but he has found that this has an additional effect of making the pot very stable when holding it because he can place his thumb on the bent end.

CAUTION: If you bend the end of the handle, the plating may come off. If you order a Kalita 1000S with a thermometer attached from Flavor Coffee, Nakagawa-san makes all the three modifications to the pot, and makes the fourth modification only if you accept the risk.

In Shukan Flavor No. 113, Nakagawa-san explains the greatest difference between 600S and 1000S, starting at around 34:00.
Shukan Flavor No. 113/週間フレーバーNo. 113
In short, with the 600S, the water comes out of the spout rather diagonally; with the 1000S, it comes out and straight down.

Kalita Drip Pot 600S
Kalita Drip Pot 1000S

Thus, the 1000S is superior, but I still prefer my 600S because it's cuter.
***
私はカリタの600S(容量600 cc)を持っています。2004年、フレーバーコーヒーから購入したものです。ここで述べたように、このポットは、中川さんにより改造が三か所行われています。フレーバーコーヒーのオフィシャルサイトのこのページに改造の方法の説明があります。
次のものが必要です:
4mmのステンレスのさらネジ
木製のつまみ
内径4 mmのシリコンチューブ(内径6 mmの注ぎ口のつけねに挿入する)
ドライバー
ペンチ
ドリル
やすり
ピンセット

1. 蓋から金属のつまみを、ドリルなどを使って外し、木製のつまみと交換します。
2. 注ぎ口の先をペンチを使って下に曲げ、水切れをよくし、やすりで仕上げます。
3. チューブの片方を折り返し、一方を斜めに切り落とし、斜めに切った方を注ぎ口のつけねに挿入します。これで、水量を半分にできます。

中川さんはカリタの1000S(容量1000cc)を持っています。ここで述べられているように、中川さんのポットは、もう一か所改造されています。取っ手の先端を上側に曲げてあります。目的は、ポットを沸騰させるためにコンロにかけた時に先端が熱くなるのを防ぐためですが、曲げた先端に親指を置けるので、ポットを持った時にポットがとても安定するという、もう一つの効果が得られました。

注意: 取っ手の先端を曲げると、メッキがはがれる場合があります。温度計つきのカリタ1000Sをフレーバーコーヒーに注文すると、中川さんは改造を三か所行いますが、四つ目の改造はそのリスクを承諾した場合のみ行います。

週間フレーバーNo. 113では、中川さんは600Sと1000Sの最大の違いを、34:00あたりから説明しています。
Shukan Flavor No. 113/週間フレーバーNo. 113
簡単に言うと、600Sでは、水が注ぎ口から斜めに出ていきますが、1000Sでは、水は出てからすぐ下に落ちます。

Kalita Drip Pot 600S
Kalita Drip Pot 1000S

1000Sのほうが優れていますが、600Sのほうがかわいいので好きです。

13 comments:

  1. Hiroyuki,

    Good post on drip pots..I dont have one so I just get the job done with a chopstick ..Anyways I read an article about this guy in Tokyo..and apparently he makes the best cup in the world ..He has elavated the brew like to that of a whiskey ....and he reheats the brew before he serves ..Wondering if he is following Yasunaga method ...Just though of sharing ..and if you know about his brew methods please let me know..and its hard to get an appointment in his coffee shop :-)


    http://travel.cnn.com/fine-art-perfect-tokyo-coffee-684001

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  2. Dan: Thanks for the link. I did some googling, but found no clues about this guy's brewing method.

    I, for one, would never want to go to his coffee shop.

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  3. You are funny hiroyuki ....when you say you would never go to his coffee shop :-)

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  4. He also got a blog with various articles ...its all in japanese ...He was in cnn( us news) ..and that got my attention !

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  5. Dan: OK, then you should know more about the guy than I do.
    I have nothing against him, but I am not interested in that type of person/shop/restaurant.
    I found two blogs that contain some information about the shop:
    http://wataqoo.blog15.fc2.com/blog-entry-3715.html
    http://blog.sutohpiano.com/?eid=439627
    The first one says 36 g (coffee beans) for 30 cc (coffee)
    The second says that when he brews 100 ml coffee, he transfers it to a pot and reheats it to 45C, at which the guy says the coffee brings out sweetness. It takes 20 minutes for him to brew a cup of coffee from start to finish, so for a group of 4 people, the last one will have to wait for 1.5 hours to finish his/her coffee. The guy uses about four times the amount of coffee beans usually required, and the resultant coffee is almost as strong as espresso, but is less bitter.

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  6. Hiroyuki,

    Thats a lot of coffee he uses and I don't know anything about him either ...I thought he was interesting as he was on CNN( news) ...Thanks for doing some research for me ...Much appreciate all your helps ....I would not go to that kind of shop either ..Sounds way too expensive :-) and too much coffee for single cup ..Not practical !

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  7. http://yubisaki.exblog.jp/

    This was his blog Just for your reference...I forgot to post it earlier ...Thx Hiroyuki ...

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  8. Dan: Thanks for the link. I didn't tell you that I had browsed it before my first comment here and I got rather irritated while so doing. Well, there will be people out there who may be intrigued by the guy's philosophy, but I'm simply not one of them.

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  9. No worries hiroyuki ...we have our Nakagawa-san as our reference and benchmark when it comes to all things coffee ...I just wanted to share this guy with you ...Have a good one :-)

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  10. No offence, the best coffee of the world (for me) I had in an ethopian clay hut, brewed in a clay pot over charcoal burning in a special small clay oven - prepared by a lovely ethiopian lady.
    Just finest ethiopian mountain coffee beans, freshly roasted in a flat iron pan over open fire, ground still hot in a slender and high wooden motar and brewed in a clay coffee pot reminding on the drip pots. The brew went into very small cups. She burned some incense too and the fragrance seemed to seep into the coffee. All in all it took nearly 1 hour. Just like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3UzrCED5yU
    The coffee pot seems to be the same.

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  11. Kiki: Thanks for the link. The brewing method is not apparent from the video or the article linked to, so I had to rely on this entry in Wikipedia for a description of the brewing method:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_ceremony
    Attending such a ceremony should be interesting and fun!

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  12. Coffee with popcorn ...I guess you can't beat that...There is a Ethiopian restaurant in my city ...I am going to try this soon ...Ethiopia is the birth place of coffee afterall ...and human race as a whole has evolved a lot in its method of brewing ..Its mind boggling :-) ..

    http://www.cluesheet.com/All-About-Coffee-XXXIV.htm

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  13. Dan: Thanks for the link. A comprehensive site on coffee!

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