A first class instrument capable of awesome, jaw dropping results.
Positive Product Points
a very short learning curve
no disposable filter paper or cloth to wash and condition; gold plated siphon tube
very fast extraction
kickdown is automatic
sweetness to the brew that is very different from the French Press
fast clean up
by allowing 5 to 10 minutes extra, can be used on a daily basis
almost bullet proof and nearly indestructible; an heirloom to be
tin plated kettle internal maybe inert and less reactive than stainless steel
stunning presentation at the table.
Negative Product Points
very expensive
photocopied manual
grinder dependent that requires a higher end grinder
the metal which composes the bulk of the kettle is a mixture of copper and plain brass (called massif) which is soft and easily marred
makes enough coffee for 4 or 5 people max, not for large parties of people
large
Detailed Commentary
There are many different reasons to buy a vacuum pot for coffee brewing. One of the more commonly cited ones is the resulting clarity of the brew, as in crystal clear. I don't drink out of glass cups and the minimal sludge at the bottom of the cup in using a French press has never been an issue for me. With the Royal, there is fine silt, but much less than from a French press. If you don't like that, then scratch the Royal from your list of vacuum pot candidates.
Initially, I was not nearly impressed by the look of the Royal, once unpacked, as others have been. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the reddishness of the massif did not get me excited. Couple that with the easily scratched surface that requires careful cleaning, one might conclude that it is not worth the price and perhaps the Cafetino would be a better choice with its stainless steel components and lower price. One could say that the Royal is a throw back to times that have long since vanished. There is an aristocratic air to it that maybe anachronistic in most settings - unless one has the interior space of an older, high end French restaurant with its old world flavor.
Do read the manual, first, before proceeding with its use. What follows is not typical usage for the Royal. It is an attempt to generate a full throttle, in-your-face coffee that makes someone think: WOW!
The actual brewing cycle is very short with an attendant very short kickdown time. The standard amount of grind into the crystal vessel is around 60 grams for a full load of 800 ml. I home roast and the output from 3 oz of green beans with the Hearthware Precision is approximately 2.6 oz or 74 grams. I always use that output in the Bodum 8 cup French press and saw no reason not to do the same with the Royal. The extraction time cannot really be fiddled with all that much and it is unnecessary. Given its brevity, the evenness of the grind becomes a necessity. Hence, a higher end grinder in the $200 retail range is needed, in my opinion. I use a trusty La Pavoni PGB/C for my French press and decided to also use it with the Royal. This grinder has no doser so that the grind can be directed into the crystal glass brewing vessel. It is a matter of trial and error to determine the proper fineness of the grind. It is not the fineness required for espresso nor the coarseness of the typical French press. The only variable that I am controlling is the grind - not attempting to lengthen the extraction time or even presaturating the grind with hot water.
The gold plated siphon and the cover for the crystal glass vessel are removed and set aside. Measure and pour 750 ml of preheated water into the metal kettle. It is easier if you use a funnel. Be sure that the spigot is closed and in off position. Raise the kettle via the balancing bar and position the lid of the denatured alcohol filled burner so that it is behind and held open by the bottom of the kettle. Light the burner. Be sure that the removable stop is fingered tightened and set in position. Grind the coffee either directly into the crystal glass or transfer it manually while the kettle is being heated. Position the grind inside the vessel so that the gold plated siphon will easily slip into place. Most of the heating time is spent bringing the metal kettle up to temperature. It takes about four minutes. Put the gold siphon to place prior to the four minutes being careful to make sure that the siphon's stopper is sealed against the kettle's hole. Somewhere after the four minute mark, the extraction process will begin to transfer the heated water into the crystal glass. Take a wooden chopstick and stir the grind into the incoming heated water, being certain to thoroughly wet the grind. Once there is enough water into the brewing vessel, you can rotate the crystal glass vessel to help saturate the grind. If you use more than 750 ml of water, the initial bloom could overflow the rim of the crystal glass, especially if you are using freshly roasted beans. At about the six minute mark (it could be longer, dependent upon ambient temperature), the process, including kickdown, is completed.
What ends up in the cup is amazing. It is a no holds barred, intense cup because of the optimal temperature extraction. A revelation! The coffee has body and, with some beans, a syrupy sweetness that is startling. There is a purity of flavor that has to be experienced, words cannot do it justice.
The Royal is something that can be used daily. Although the Royal has the looks, it is what is in the cup that is truly stunning. Think of the Royal as a fine, high quality instrument with incredible resolution. Durable. Heavy duty. Professional. The Royal takes a back seat to nothing.
In terms of esthetics, you will either love it, hate it, or get used to it. In terms of function, it is superb. Whether or not it is better than any other vacuum pot, I don't know. For the moment, the ability to emphasize the more attractive flavor/taste components of freshly roasted beans is unique to my palate and will relegate my tried and true French press to storage. The Royal will spoil you and make one an even more discriminating coffee consumer (or is that snob?). If one is reasonably careful, the Royal should last a lifetime. The Royal Balance brewer is nothing less than first class.
The defining moment in coffee is what occupies the space in the cup and how it tastes. This IS coffee. Brilliantly designed and executed by Patrick Van Den Noortgaete, it is both elegant and simple. The Royal Balance brewer is a tour de force in coffee makers - a stunning achievement and well worth the cost.
Revised 3/31/02
Buying Experience
Bought directly from Patrick via e-mail. I had to wait for its arrival in San Francisco. All questions answered by Patrick. Shipment was immediate and was in Los Angeles in two days.
Three Month Followup
This extra blurb amounts to a 25 month followup. Somewhat after one year's worth of usage, I noted a decidedly bad downturn in the taste of the coffee that was coming from the Royal Balance Brewing system. Looking inside of the metallic vessel, I could see accumulated brown coffee gunk sitting on the bottom as well as on the sides of the tin lined vessel. As we coffee snobs know, accumulated gunk in the form of oil and invisible debris will inevitably impact the taste of what ends up in the cup. My only conclusion was that the tin lined interior was not as impervious to residual coffee debris, even if the container had been thorougly rinsed after each and every use. The question then became what could be used to get rid of it. Vinegar didn't work. I couldn't use Urnex because its primary active ingredient would wreck the tin lining. The same drawback applies to Oxi Clean. After four weeks or so of considering the problem and asking around, I eventually tried baking soda, the stuff straight out of the Arm & Hammer orange box. Baking soda is quite well known as a great cleaner upper for a variety of food cleaning problems with cooking implements such as pots and pans. This is probably not the only possible solution to this problem, but must be one of the cheapest one's.
My current technique is:
Assemble the Royal as if one is going to make coffee. Pour in four ounces of baking soda into the metallic container with a funnel. Pour in 600 ml of hot water. You might be able to use more water, but the last thing that you want is to have the metallic container overflow, creating a small mess. Take off the gold plated siphon. Screw the teflon top into place. Lift the levered arm, like making coffee, and light the alcohol lamp. Do a five minute timed reheating, boiling. The purpose of the boiling is to get all of the baking soda into solution. At the end of five minutes, reattach the siphon and let the Royal goes through its brewing cycle, including kickdown. Upon completion, let the entire apparatus stand for, say, twenty minutes. This allows it to cool down as well as making it highly unlikely that one is going to crack or fracture the crystal brewing receptacle. Then completely wash and rinse out the various components of the system. This amounts to a full cycle cleaning. The siphon is gold plated and the baking soda will attack that plating. Hence, I would only put the siphon through the complete cycle once a month or possibly less often. I think that the metallic containers, if used on a daily basis, probably requires a 5 minute timed boiling with the baking soda once every two weeks, although I do it once a week.
A general over all comment. It is too bad that very few coffee aficiandos will ever buy this system simply because of cost. It has been specifically designed to appeal to restaurants because of its unique presentation that is sure to dazzle the customer. Those restaurants will never be able to hit the acme of coffee because their mentality is always the bottom line and may use decent roasted beans, but hardly ever freshly roasted and high end green beans. Coffee is more akin to Coca Cola in its profit margins to restaurants. This is one time in which the edge clearly goes to the home roaster because no restaurant today will be able to brew up some out- of-this-world, super high end Kenyan beans (or whatever your favorite happens to be) and present it with optimal flavor characteristics that amount to coffee nirvana.
Revised/add-on 6/27/2004
One Year Followup
See the above add-on for my one year plus comments. I would also like to emphasize that there is no substitute for a high end grinder such as an Anfim doserless. What is equally important is quality home roasting which at this point comes down to a Hearthware I-Roaster. The I-Roaster is certainly a quantum leap over the Gourmet and Precision, both of which I have used and both of which are now non-functional. The I-Roaster in conjunction with the Anfim and Royal Balance Brewer produces an awesome cup of coffee that is head and shoulders above what the Precision or the Gourmet did in the past. 6/27/2004
