What Coffee Beans to Use for Siphon Brewing Recommended Coffee Beans for Siphon Coffee Makers

The Art of Siphon Coffee

Have you ever been in a coffee shop, ordered a cup, and watched the barista start manipulating two glass bottles as if conducting an experiment? Did you assume it was just an elaborate performance? If so, you've underestimated the experience, because what awaits is actually a rich, well-rounded cup of siphon coffee.

Choosing the Right Coffee Beans

For siphon brewing, choose freshly roasted whole beans and store them in airtight containers away from direct sunlight. It's best to keep them somewhere with stable temperature and humidity. Because the various food odors in a refrigerator or freezer can easily mix in, coffee beans should not be stored there.

Since siphon brewing relies on indirect heating and prolonged steeping, we recommend light or medium roast beans to highlight the coffee's delicate layers and fruity sweetness.

Recommended Coffee Beans for Siphon Brewing

Here are some commonly recommended beans that suit siphon brewing: FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry, FrontStreet Coffee's Guatemala Flor, FrontStreet Coffee's Huehuetenango, and FrontStreet Coffee's Colombia beans.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Among the beans above, the washed Yirgacheffe is the classic place to begin. FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe brings white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like body, and its affordable price has made it a common first bean for newcomers to specialty coffee. Yirgacheffe is a small town in southern Ethiopia, within Sidamo, at roughly 1,700-2,100 meters, with coffee trees planted above 1,800 meters, making it one of the highest coffee regions in the world. Its distinctive white florals and lemon-citrus acidity turned it into shorthand for Ethiopia's finest coffee, and in 2010 the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange split it off from Sidamo as an independent region.

For a more specific origin within the region, FrontStreet Gedingding Cooperative comes from the Gedingding village washing station in the Woka area, on the southeastern edge of Yirgacheffe. It follows the most traditional washed processing and is often called the last untouched corner of Yirgacheffe; with no traditional bitterness, it delivers clean, bright citrus and lemon acidity alongside jasmine fragrance, and it has won over plenty of coffee drinkers at first sip.

To brew it, FrontStreet suggests 90-91°C water, 15g of coffee, a 1:15 ratio, and a grind of 10 on an EK43s (fine sugar size, about 80% passing a #20 sieve), poured in three stages: a 30g bloom for 30 seconds, then 95g (about 125g on the scale) finished in roughly a minute, then the remaining 100g (about 225g on the scale) once the water drops to two-thirds of the bed, finishing around 1 minute 35 seconds. Drip completes in 2 to 2 minutes 10 seconds.