Golden roast

While most Indians still prefer espresso-based drinks, manual-brewing methods — cold brew, French press, pourover, siphon, aeropress — are gaining popularity thanks to the growing coffee shop culture. Such shops bring with them exposure and access, and are raising expectations that urban Indians have from their beverage of choice. A good beverage doesn’t just mean better beans or a fresher roast but also involves a certain level of theatrics; after all savouring begins with the eyes, and engages all our senses. This couldn’t be truer for a coffee maker than the 24-carat gold, semi-precious Royal siphon.

Siphons are known to deliver coffee rich in aroma and taste. However, they do have a bad reputation for being overcomplicated for homes. While more commonplace coffee siphons such as those produced by Hario are vacuum coffee brewers with a bottom and an upper chamber, the recently launched Royal Coffee Maker is a ‘balance brewer’. Functionally, this means that it does away with complications. Aesthetically, it means that it looks less like a chemistry lab contraption than other siphons. It has two ‘chambers’ — one with flame — elegantly balanced side-by- side on a plinth.

The artiste’s brew Turning the art of brewing coffee into a ceremony, ground coffee is first placed in the fine Baccarat crystal carafe, hot water poured into the boiler pot and then the Baccarat burner vase lit. Next, the fully automated system allows heat, steam and gravity to brew the coffee in the crystal Baccarat vase. Brewed at the perfect temperature with no artificial filters, and no place for the aromatic oils to escape, the resulting brew is crystal clear with unrivalled aroma and flavour.

Designed in collaboration with French artist Jean-Luc Rieutort by Royal Paris, the Royal Coffee Maker is an incarnation of the historic balancing siphon used by royalty in the 1800s. It is the only coffee maker that allows for customised coffee or tea; liqueurs and spices can be added before brewing. We can bet our humble Bodum press that even the king of Hungary who first introduced these in the 1850s, would’ve liked to get his hands on this bad boy.

Treasure trove And that is not factoring in the many precious metal and semi-precious stone combinations — the Royal Coffee Maker is the world’s first-ever bespoke coffee maker, and can be personalised in your choice of 24-carat gold, copper or silver options, a semi-precious black obsidian, azurite or malachite base.

“It’s taken us more than three years of research and development to produce this entirely unique coffee maker,” said Maria Tindemans from Royal Paris. All you deep-pocketed siphon-heads can even have your initials, company name, or family crest engraved on it. “This luxury coffee machine is an elegant echo of the opulent age of salon coffees when only the best coffee was reserved for the rich and famous. And unlike today’s modern coffee machines, a Royal leaves nothing to chance. Every minute process is an exact science and every coffee made is unlike anything you’ll ever taste,” she added.

At that price, we’d expect nothing less.

Retailing for upto ₹12 lakh a piece, only eight Royal Coffee Makers are produced by hand each month, with each numbered machine taking more than 50 hours of painstaking workmanship.

Dhiram Shahis the Mumbai-based founder of Luxurylaunches.com

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