1961 Documentary Proves Siphon Coffee Brewing Isn't For Hipsters

Add a 1960's, Mad Men feeling to your coffee routine, and voila — you get the 1961 documentary, This Is Coffee. The old-timey 12-minute film doesn't just show the history of coffee, how it's exported to the U.S., and how it's roasted. The hypnotizing narrator (what is it about that 1960's voiceover?) proves that the pourover coffee and siphon brewing technique you think is so hip and fresh really isn't all that new. After all, as the narrator points out at the end, "Yes, North Americans really do love their coffee." He also shares that back then, Americans drank more than 122 million cups of coffee per year — we can only imagine how much that number's gone up since the evolution of coffee shops (not to mention Starbucks).

Check out This Is Coffee, made for the Coffee Brewing Institute, and get a taste for how your cup of joe has evolved since coffee's heyday. Is this how you brew your coffee?