Wouldn't knock it till you try it! The drink kinda had it's moment a couple years ago - "Aerocanos" or "Steamed Iced Americanos" are the names I've heard for the drink. Often made with the kind of post-brew chilled cold brew that OP was railing about. Cold coffee, steamed to frothy, then either pour over ice to re-chill or serve warm.
Wouldn't try to randomly talk a barista into making one, but if you see them on the menu at a shop or have an espresso machine, they're pretty neat.
Coffee nerd, I like to play with this stuff.
Steaming cold brew (flash or regular) will give a very smooth frothy texture - almost nitro like foam. You can serve them over ice to get them back to cold, or serve warm.
Tasty if you use good coffee, and pretty unique honestly - "steamed iced americano" or "aerocano" are the two names I've heard if you want other people's reports on them.
You're right that it's very different from the experience of microwaved cold brew, and a customers response can be all over the place depending on what they're expecting.
If any HNers are looking for a cheap entry point into the style without spending $250+ on a beautiful bunch of laboratory glass ware, there's the puckpuck[1], which sits on top of an aeropress and turns it into functionally the same device as the Yama towers - slow controlled valve dripping cold water at a controlled rate onto a bed of coffee and a paper filter over the course of hours.
I've found it a nice way to play with the style without investing the money and space. Still want one of those towers if I ever see them cheap though.
Look, my coffee routine is _perfectly reasonable_.
Fractional gram dosing, multiple pours at different temperatures, timed switch from immersion to percolation, and benchmarking different filter papers has a _measurable impact_ on my coffee.
And I have the data and refractometry measurement data to show it.
... Admittedly the refractometer was expensive, and incorporating it into the routine is complex and not very intuitive.
I can also assure you that I don't look cool while doing it.
BC Hydro (British Columbia electric power utility, government owned) was 98% renewable sources in 2022, ~91% of that hydro[1] - for the entire province.
that last 2% is going to take a lot of work to replace, but I'd be surprised to see it backslide.
I think another notable difference is that Vancouver Specials are nominally single family detached homes, but the design does lend itself to turning the main floor into a decently sized, above ground rental suite. All without requiring the kind of major renovations that cause city inspections.
Agreed, and a permutation of what you describe is the conversion of side-by-side duplex Vancouver Specials, particulary in Burnaby, into four-plexes by doing the same upstairs-downstairs split.
You may also like the Espresso Forge, which manages to go even more reductive than what you propose, forgoing the pumping, or any sort of leverage, in favour of a piston for you to push on with a basket on the end.
I recall at launch just about the only implementation detail that _was_ publicly given was that it did not involve tape. That's going to be difficult to dig up a cite on years later.
No idea how it's evolved over the years, so for all I know it's tape based these days.
I've had a copy of his coffee table books for a few years. It's fun for people flipping through a looking at the paintings for places they know - the familiar backdrops, but without the run makers or other clutter.
close, but not quite - Niche is using the burrs out of the Mazzer Kony, the Robur's slightly smaller sibling. 63mm for the Niche/Kony vs either 71mm or 83mm depending on which Robur model.
Wouldn't try to randomly talk a barista into making one, but if you see them on the menu at a shop or have an espresso machine, they're pretty neat.
Video on them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD_4hOg_SWU