James Freeman of Blue Bottle Coffee doesn't care how long it takes -- he wants to make sure his customers enjoy the best possible cup of coffee, as reported by Oliver Strand in the New York Times (3/3/10). He must really mean it, given his approach to making iced coffee, which takes 12 hours. For this, James uses a Japanese slow-drip device, standing three-feet tall and consisting of "a network of glass globes and adjustable nozzles that mete out liquid at 88 drops a minute."

As James explains: "You precariously take that glass sphere, fill it with cold filtered water, then you stand on a stepstool and nervously and quickly invert it over the reservoir." He adds: "It's theatrical ... It's incredible tasting, too. It wouldn't be worth the show and the hassle if it didn't taste great." His customers think it's worth the trouble; James has had a devoted -- and patient -- following since 2003, when he first started selling coffee from a puschart in San Francisco.

James now has four Blue Bottle coffee bars "and a small fleet of pushcarts" in San Francisco as well as a roaster and coffee bar in Oakland. He just expanded into Williamsburg, Brooklyn, at 160 Berry Street, where he's making 'nel drip' coffee using Japanese flannel filters (video)" James says he'd like his coffee bar to recall San Francisco, but not too much. "The thing about coffee," he says, "is that coffee is local. I'm not just showing up in New York. I'm showing up on Berry Street."