The Barisieur alarm clock brews coffee bedside to wake you up
No need to hit snooze.
- Patrick's play The Cowboy is included in the Best American Short Plays 2011-12 anthology. He co-wrote and starred in the short film Baden Krunk that won the Best Wisconsin Short Film award at the Milwaukee Short Film Festival.
The Barisieur is an alarm clock that brews a fresh cup of coffee for you, bedside.
Imagine waking up from a deep slumber to the gentle sound of water boiling and dripping onto coffee grounds. The air fills with the warm, welcome aroma of coffee. You open your eyes to see a clear glass cup on top of your alarm clock fill drop by drop with beautiful caffeinated gold. If you need cold half-and-half, no worries, there's a petite chilled cup inside the clock at the ready. For coffee lovers this scenario may seem like a dream, but it's the reality delivered by the Barisieur hybrid alarm clock/coffee maker.
The alarm clock initially got my attention at CES this year because it reminded me of the elaborate chemistry setup that Gale uses to make coffee on Breaking Bad. The Barisieur is absolutely stunning to look at, balancing the clean beauty of scientific glassware with the natural appeal of stained walnut. A drawer on the front holds ground coffee and a scoop, and there's even a tiny cup for cold milk submerged in the base. An infrared sensor regulates the temperature to keep the milk around 3 degrees Celsius, which converts to about 37 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Barisieur doesn't have Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Alexa or Google Assistant. The only thing it connects is you with the start of your day, awakening each of your senses.
The idea is to set the Barisieur up the night before by portioning coffee into a metal mesh cone filter and filling the glass flask with water. You can also steep tea in it if you prefer.
I saw the alarm clock all prepped to make coffee and it evoked a delightful alchemy feel, as if I had laid out ingredients to make a secret potion, which is what coffee is for many of us.
The brew process starts when the alarm goes off or when you push the button. The Barisieur lacks any kind of touchscreen, instead opting for physical buttons and dials. Also worth noting: You can set the alarm to go off without making coffee, just like a regular alarm clock. But why would you do that?
Once the alarm is triggered, the water inside the flask is heated and pushed up the siphon tube to drip over the grounds.
Imagine waking up to this every morning.
I tasted a cup of coffee brewed by the Barisieur and it was good. It had a smoothness to it reminiscent of coffee made with a Hario dripper. I was also impressed with how fast it was able to brew a cup. It's not as fast as something like a Keurig, but you're getting a much better cup of coffee.
Practically speaking, many kitchen coffee makers already let you set a brew time. An alarm clock that doubles as a coffee brewer seems like something the inventor Randall Peltzer from Gremlins would dream up. But the Barisieur's sophisticated design and straightforward operation should make it right at home at the bedside for many coffee lovers. It's also easy to envision it in a boutique hotel or a nice Airbnb rental.
My only gripe, and it's a small one, is that it makes just one cup. If you live with someone, there's bound to be an awkward moment fighting over whose cup it is. I mean, I guess you could share.
The Barisieur costs $445 or £345, which converts roughly to AU$625, and is available for purchase now.
