Only after one achieves the proper stance and attitude, will the Kobe, Japan-based Ueshima Coffee Company consider a selling you a siphon bar, an oddly mesmerizing contraption that looks like it would be perfectly at home in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

When the water starts to boil in the large glass globe on the bottom, forcing water into the upper glass container and the halogen lights flicker, it looks like a lab experiment about to go terribly wrong. But with the precise hand of the Olympic-level barista stirring (and apparently this is the secret) – no more than four turns without touching the glass with a bamboo paddle – it creates the perfect cup of brewed coffee.

According to siphon aficionados, the coffee produced changes with each sip as the temperature changes. And many describe a cup of siphon coffee with much of the same devotion wine lovers use to describe their favorite vintage of Napa Cabernet.

Let my coffee training begin. Or maybe I’ll just go to Blue Bottle Coffee in San Francisco – one of just a few places on the planet with a siphon coffee bar – and let the masters work their magic.