50 beans | the SoMa coffee crawl

clockwise from top left: eggs florentine from Stacks on Hayes St., gelato from union square, bacon waffle from Stacks, Owl logo on the office door at Sightglass Coffee

One of the great coffee cities in the world, san francisco is home to many superb small-batch roasters. For decades, coffee has protected local residents from the steely, low-60's temperatures that plagued the city. Yesterday, I took a friend and met with a few locals to take a journey through SoMa in SF to taste the different coffee places that I've read so much about! The plan was to meet at Stacks in Hayes Valley for brunch, and then walk on over to Blue Bottle and back-track through SoMa and visit three of the best independent roasters in SF.

We were almost completely successful:

Blue Bottle Coffee - clockwise from top left: affogato, the kyoto cold-brew drip, the siphon contraption, the kyoto drip (left) next to the siphon coffee (right), blue bottle's slightly understated logo

Blue Bottle Coffee – 66 Mint Street
Blue Bottle has a few locations in SF and it’s roasting kitchen is in Oakland. Blue Bottle has been touted by folks at CNN for being possibly the best coffee you’ll ever drink (here’s a NYT slideshow on this shop and it’s siphon coffee and a CNN article about blue bottle). The 66 Mint St. location is located near union square in SoMa, tucked away in the alley behind the old US Mint building. This location features the halogen light Japanese siphon (the only one in the US).

The story is that the founder of Blue Bottle, James Freeman, wanted to purchase a siphon from the Japanese beverage giant UCC. They stipulated that he could purchase one of the machines on one condition: that he go to Japan to learn the art of stirring the water. He spent months learning to stir the water (apparently a good stirrer can create a cyclone in four flicks of the wrist) before he was able to finally purchase one. This machine sits at the end of the bar, and has different operating hours than the rest of the coffee shop (depending on when the operator takes breaks). Next to the siphon pot is the kyoto cold-brew drip contraption. This is also a japanese produced machine that does cold-brew a little differently than what I do (mason jar --> french press --> chemex filter). This machine drips cold water through coffee in such a slow painstaking process that it takes the water about 14 hours to make the journey through to the carafe.

Since I was at the only location that featured the siphon, I ordered the ethiopian tuktant (single origin) siphone coffee. My friend ordered the Kyoto, but out of fear of a caffeine headache, left me most of it as well. The siphon had a sweet fragrant taste, but it's very similar to the taste you get from brewing fresh roasted coffee in a moka pot (without the aluminum flavoring). The kyoto was similar to my cold-brew coffee, and was incredibly refreshing after walking through downtown SF looking for this place. Seeing as this contraption costs a bit more than my mason jar method, I think I'll only enjoy kyoto coffee as a rare treat, and do cold-brew the old-fashioned way. We also got an affogato (espresso poured over a scoop of honey-almond gelato). The gelato was incredibly light and airy, like someone had taken a whisk to it before serving, and the espresso mixed with the gelato to make the best coffee ice cream flavor. All in all this place was so impressive that I submitted my resume on the spot and asked them to take a chance on a coffee-nut with no barista experience. They nodded and smiled and said maybe (also read: maybe not).

random artwork on the side of a building depicting crap flying out of the windows

Ritual Coffee Roasters – 1050 Howard Street  somewhere too far to walk
One of the best known SF coffee roasters, Ritual Coffee is a popular meeting place for start-ups. These folks take their coffee seriously. Too bad we actually turned up at their old location (or the roaster facility) on howard street. All that marked the location was a little sign with an "R" on it. Since it didn't have Ritual Coffee's hammer and sickle on it, we figured it wasn't the right place. It's would've been nice to visit Ritual though. Maybe next time...

Sightglass, from across the street

Sightglass Coffee - clockwise from top left: their cool looking menu, the vintage Probat roaster, their water comes in a mason jar!, the espresso bar

Sightglass Coffee – 270 7th Street
One of the newest micro-roasters in SF (opened last august), this coffee shop is run by two brothers who both came from Blue Bottle Coffee (here’s some pictures from their opening). Set into the bland beige and white exterior of the rest of the 7th street block, Sightglass Coffee's dark brown exterior sticks out like a sore thumb. The interior of the roaster/café has a warehouse feel to it, with seating at natural tree-trunk plank tables in the loft spaces above the espresso bar. To the left of the bar is their vintage Probat roaster on display.

I got a Los Rosales (columbia) in a V-60 drip straight over ice. It came in a to-go cup since I wasn't sure if i'd be able to finish my third cup in the shop. The ice was a welcome break from the heat (low 80's is hot for SF) and the sweetness was a little surprising. It almost tasted like there was some hickory added to it. We found a table in the loft upstairs and took in the sights and smells of this new coffeehouse.