The Clover Brewer

This is the Clover Brewer:

It's not a very attractive machine (even with the Hipstamatic app), but it makes the best damn coffee I have ever tasted.

This particular machine is located at the Starbucks at the Barnes & Noble in Old Town Pasadena.  The barristas are very proud of the Clover Brewer.  They speak about it reverently, almost as if it is a religious artifact with healing powers. 

I hesitate to describe this coffee as "magical."  Chocolate can be magical; coffee is just tasty.  But this coffee is really, really, really, really, really damn tasty.  I always doctor my coffee with a splash of milk.  This coffee is so good, I drink it black. 

According to one friendly barrista, the Clover Brewer works like a reverse french press.  It's an expensive machine and only 100 Starbucks locations have one.  (Thank you, Starbucks, for sending one to Pasadena).

I am pretty certain that you can brew anything in the Clover Brewer - dirt, lima beans, old toothpaste - and it will still taste good.  If you are ever within a hundred miles of a Clover Brewer, you simply must get a cup.