Remodelista recently posted about a new trend: Artful Coffee Drippers. By “dripper”, they mean the funnel-shaped cone, lined with a paper filter, that sits on top of a coffee pot or cup and allows the brewing coffee to drip through. We use the method ourselves so were interested to see the 10 stylish itereations. Japanese designer Masanobu Ando’s pleated version, above, is like an austere scupture. Artist Elizabeth Benotti’s herringbone pattern Porcelain Drip Coffee Maker; $44 on Etsy, has great charm.

The only problem with most of the Remodelista coffee cones is they don’t allow for ways to keep the coffee hot. Once it hits the vessels, it will start to cool, unlike our own homely rig.

Our own version is much more nuts-and-bolts, and as always, backed up by our personal logic. We like to drip our coffee directly into an unbreakable stainless steel insulated thermos bottle so we it will stay hot as we drink small cups of coffee over the course of an hour or so in the morning.  To drip the coffee, we use a simple plastic coffee funnel that fits the thermos’ opening; it has grooves that allows air to escape from the flask and keeps the coffee moving into it. Although we bought ours years ago, this filter cone from RSVP for carafes and thermoses should do the trick. We also like to cook our coffee slightly rather than just pouring boiling water over dry grounds. We learned the technique from coffee mavin David Saltman, who learned it from his Brazilian ex-mother-in-law who grew up on a coffee plantation. We stir the freshly ground coffee to a saucepan of simmering —NOT BOILING—  water to extract more flavor. THEN we pour it through the funnel.

LA-based ceramicist Ben Mendansky made a satin white glazed dripper that would work with our thermos. He places it on a brass stand to drip into a vessel (available from The Primary Essentials in Brooklyn):