How many baristas does it take to change a light bulb?

April 21, 2008 11:22 AM

Completely-random-question-filter: What's up with that glass bulb-shaped carafe some restaurants use to serve coffee and tea? Am I missing something?

What I'm thinking of is a single-serving glass vessel with a grip of black plastic around the narrow top end (I see it most often in sit-down delicatessens). It looks like nothing so much as a light bulb standing on end. It holds a little more than a cup's worth of coffee or hot water, so it doesn't seem to be tailored to a serving size. You always get a mug or cup with it, so you're not meant to drink directly out of it. It's not insulated, so it's not because it keeps the coffee or water hot. And the shape is awkward and ungainly, so I can't imagine that it's because it's a particularly easy shape to store.

What is this thing? Why is it used? Is this a regional thing (Baltimore, MD)? Is it traceable to a particular company (I just tried looking on some restaurant supply sites to provide an image, and couldn't find one)? Is there some way I'm supposed to be using it that I missed the memo on? I wonder about this every time I go out to lunch - it seems to be one of those things that has no identifiable reason for existing - and it's starting to drive me nuts!

posted by peachfuzz to food & drink (19 comments total)

Is it like this antique carafe (minus the fancy bits)? This website says, "VINTAGE SILVER PLATE COFFEE CARAFE FROM ITALY."
posted by wordsmith at 11:28 AM on April 21

I've seen them around Toronto too. It always struck me as a 70's kind of thing. Anyway, yeah, they're pretty much useless but I guess they're a little more stylish than those old-school metal pots they use to bring out hot water. Which are equally useless at their task - they always spill water and provide zero insulation. Compared to those I suppose the glass carafes have a little more insulation.
posted by GuyZero at 11:28 AM on April 21

Here's a photo of one. The restaurant supply place calls it a Hottle which I first read as "hottie" Apparently the word is a blend of hot + bottle. Apparently the big feature is the plastic neck so they can serve you near-boiling water without fear of spillage and without fear that you'll burn your hands pouring it, plus I bet they're easier to wash than other teapot like things.
posted by jessamyn at 11:30 AM on April 21 [1 favorite]

You mean one of these, right?
posted by GuyZero at 11:31 AM on April 21

D'oh!
posted by GuyZero at 11:31 AM on April 21

It's usually called a Hottle, it's like a little teapot, only made of glass. You brew your tea in it, and then pour it into your cup. Basically a hip modern version of the tiny metal teapot. Only it's not very hip, nor modern.
posted by gyusan at 11:33 AM on April 21

Those are the bottom vessels of vacuum pots. They can be used to brew coffee or tea. I believe this particular design was pioneered by Kona, famous British manufacturer of vacuum pots, but the ones you see are smaller imitations made by Hario of Japan (I have one of each, and I use the Hario all the time). You can see them in action here.
posted by jamjam at 11:37 AM on April 21

It also looks like they're a fairly old design, predating plastic. If this ad is to be believed, they were supposed to be served IN coffee cups, so you were delivered the cup + hottle o' coffee and then you could mix it as you pleased.
posted by jessamyn at 11:39 AM on April 21

Oops. Cancel that answer. I misread your question.
posted by jamjam at 11:40 AM on April 21

Wow! It's perfect to me that this thing has a cutesy nonsense name.

I maintain that it's pretty useless. You make the tea with your hot water, pour it into your cup, and then the two ounces of liquid left in the hottle rapidly cool to tepid-at-best...and who wants to "refill" his cup with a mouthful of cold tea? Why is it designed to hold just a little more than your standard coffee cup? Why would you go with a bottom-heavy handle-less shape, which no doubt prevents tip-overs but is SO awkward to pour with one hand? Why isn't the whole thing insulated, so it at least keeps the leftover liquid hot?

It's beautiful and kind of infuriating.
posted by peachfuzz at 11:46 AM on April 21

I think the design of the hottle is driven by:

a) it's cheap. restaurants, especially the kind that use hottles, like cheap serving supplies
b) it's easy to wash - it can be run through a dishwasher unlike a metal pot
c) less dribble from the spout versus a metal pot
d) less chance to burn yourself vs a metal pot - the glass is a marginally better insulator
e) it's not designed to be completely filled - if you server only filled the bulb and not the neck it would have the same amount of water as your cup
f) I would contend that it is a "modern" design in the sense of modernism, not in the sense of being recent or au courant. I imagine that in the 70's they were pretty fashion-forward.
posted by GuyZero at 11:50 AM on April 21

Those hottles spill. a lot.
posted by majikstreet at 1:36 PM on April 21

I usually have to wrap a napkin around the plastic/rubber neck as additional insulation, and find it really awkward to pour, with dribble a distinct possibility. I agree with GuyZero that the design offers a lot of advantages to the restaurant, but I don't think think any consumer likes it, beyond the initial novelty.

(I sometimes manage not to dribble tea from a metal teapot if I partially open the lid, but I think that only works with certain designs.)

But the last few ounces of brewed tea never go cool or wasted: just refresh your cup after the first few sips and the whole cup will be at a pretty good temperature.
posted by maudlin at 2:16 PM on April 21

Just a shot in the dark here, but maybe it's just more esthetically pleasing to be served your own little carafe of coffee as opposed to the server pouring it at your table from a big pot.

From a restaurant standpoint it makes sense to me in a couple of ways -
-you don't have servers looking for the coffee pots because other servers are pouring coffee at their tables.
-probably more sanitary than sharing a pot that has been used to freshen up another customers cup o' joe
-less servers running around with hot things if they bring the carafe and leave it, as opposed to bringing a pot over and pouring a cup and taking the pot back

Also, maybe the coffee or hot water is coming from something like a large coffee urn with the spigot and there is no pot to pour from?
posted by NoraCharles at 2:29 PM on April 21

Those hottles spill. a lot.

Yeah. But only when they're full up. If you only filled the bulb then the neck would be at a much better angle once the contents start pouring out. I think that a 10 oz hottle should only get filled with 6 or 8 oz of fluid. That would also leave the neck empty and make it less hot and easier to hold/pour without additional insulation. If filled mid-way up the neck it is impossible to pour the contents out without dribbling, yeah. And the neck gets too hot too.

To me that's the real design flaw with these things. They work great if you don't overfill them. But the design basically screams out "overfill me!" and thus we have the familiar hottle suckiness.
posted by GuyZero at 2:47 PM on April 21

The hottle also allows tea to steep nicely (and visibly) without losing a whole bunch of heat via surface exposure. And as mentioned above, it lets you "top off" your cuppa with another 1/3rd of a cup or so.

I've only ever encountered them as tea service, not coffee. The coffee usage makes less sense to me.
posted by Aquaman at 4:32 PM on April 21

I've seen servers top off the little container rather than risk messing the condiment ratio in a customer's cup.

That way they can refill when they have time and not at some time after the customer's cup is empty.
posted by Sallyfur at 4:54 PM on April 21 [1 favorite]

Is this a regional thing (Baltimore, MD)?

They always had them in the Hot Shoppes restaurants where we'd eat in the DC suburbs, in the 1960s. I don't think the coffee drinkers used 'em. My mother would receive one containing hot water, into which she'd put her tea bag. When properly steeped, she'd pour the tea into her coffee cup.
Like a one-cup teapot.
posted by Rash at 6:42 PM on April 21

Around here (CT) the Thai restaurants seemed to have cornered the market on using these to serve tea. I don't see them other places, but every Thai place has them.
posted by cobaltnine at 5:11 PM on April 23