CHICOPEE - Chemex Corp., makers of the elegant hourglass-shaped glass coffee makers with a cult-like following, has seen sales grow 41 percent year-over-year for the past three years.

The family-owned company has also seen its backlog wait time to get coffee makers delivered through high-end distributors like Williams-Sonoma and Restoration Hardware grow to an admittedly unreasonable eight to 10 weeks, said Jennifer Grassy, the director of organizational development.

"We aren't doing it to be snobs," she said. "This is as fast as we can get them out the door. We swear. We'd love to fill the orders faster."

The White House did recently get its shipment of 150 Chemex coffee makers all etched with the Presidential Seal. The order came to Chemex through a specialty coffee roaster in Washington that uses Chemex coffee makers, Grassy said.

Chemex has grown in recent years without a traditional sales force. There are no sales people and Grassy is one of two people who who do marketing along with other duties. It's not due to celebrity spokespeople or endorsement. The only sporting event Chemex sponsors is an annual competition for coffee baristas.

So what's at least part of the secret to the company's success?

"It's hipsters," she said.

More specifically, its the type hipster who has elevated coffee from beverage to a lifestyle expression. Were talking the kind of person who's elevated making that morning cup of Joe from chore to ritual and the task of making a pot of coffee after a dinner party from routine host duty to performance art.

This of course is not the first time the Chemex has been cool. Author Ian Fleming described James Bond having his very strong coffee brewed with a Chemex in "From Russia with Love." For the record, Bond drank his coffee black, no sugar so there is no shaking and certainly no stirring.

It's this ethos, and a lot of chatter on social media like Facebook and Twitter, that has a 75-year-old coffee makers squarely on trend and of the moment. Search for Chemex on the site Pinterest and be flooded with hundreds of images of people making Chemex coffee on distressed barn-wood tables in tastefully earth-toned kitchens.

The Coffee makers sell for $39 to $110 depending on size and if a customer wants one hand blown by a glassblower without aid of a mold.

"It's all natural, our coffee makers are glass, wood and a leather tie. The filter is paper. They are not made in a machine. Everything is touched by human hands," Grassy said. "There isn't any funny gurgling noise when you use them. It's for people who want to know what they are eating, what they are drinking and how it is made."

The wood and leather tie -- sometimes called a girdle -- helps the user pick up the coffee maker by insulating the hand form the heat. The hourglass and girdle shape becomes even more of a metaphor for the female form because each Chemex has a belly button, a small nob that marks the half-full point of the flask.

That's because, with the exception of Chemex's "Ottomatic" coffee maker that pumps heated water over the grounds, Chemex Coffee makers make people do most of the work.

The coffee maker is an hourglass-shaped carafe of Borosilicate glass similar to the stuff lab equipment is made of. Chemex users insert their special Chemex-made filters, 2-to-30 percent thicker than normal coffee filters, then their coffee grounds (a "sea salt" grind is perfect, not too fine and not too coarse), before pouring hot water over the grounds.

Just how to pour that water is a point of some debate. Do you pick one spot? Move the kettle spout around?

"Check out the videos on Youtube," Grassy said. "There are dozen s of techniques. Some people make a little pool in the middle of the grounds for the water. Some people go in a pattern."

As the water pours, the grounds changes color or "blossoms" in Chemex parlance and bubbles form as gas leaves the carafe.

"Then its magic and your whole hose smells wonderful," Grassy said.

That's the effect Chemex's inventor Peter Schlumbohm, was going for. An eccentric German scientist and inventor living in Brooklyn, Schlumbohm turned to borosilicate glass and an unbleached paper filter as a way of making coffee that would impart no outside flavors. but would remove oils fromthe coffee that can give it a bitter or burnt taste.

Borosilicate glass can go on the stove top as well.

"He was a scientist who enjoyed the good things in life," Grassy said of Schlumbohm. "He had more than 300 patents, everything from cocktail shakers to automobiles."

He pushed the Chemex relentlessly, giving it to presidents and demonstrating it for housewives at Macy's. The Chemex got so popular that coffee grinders in grocery stores had a "Chemex" settings with an hourglass picture to make it easier for users to get the right grind.

The Chemex became part of the permanent design collections at the Brooklyn Museum, the Corning Glass Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The Chicopee plant is filled with Mad Men-era mid-century modern advertisements for the product.

When the childless Schlumbohm died 1962, he gave the company to his secretary. It changed hands and locations a few times before the Grassy family took over in 1980 and established it in Pittsfield.

Jennifer Grassy is an in-law of the owner, working with her husband and mother-in-law in the family business.

By 2012, Chemex had outgrown its 7,000-square foot space in Pittsfield. It moved to Veterans Drive in Chicopee in 2013 with just two employees. The Chicopee location has 17,000 square feet.

Soon, Chemex had hired 12. Now its up to 28 employees having added a second shift, Grassy said.

Little is manufactured in Chicopee, however. The glass comes from sand mined in New Jersey but shipped to plants in Taiwan and Germany to be turned into glass. Each carafe is mouth blown, either by hand or with the aid of a mold.

"We have tried to get them manufactured in the United States," she said. "It's just not possible. No one does it. All the manufacturers here want to do it with a machine."

The glass comes into the country through the ports of Boston and New York City.

In Chicopee, workers inspect the glass and tie the wood -- also from Taiwan -- with a leather tie from Tennessee, package the coffee maker and add instructions. Chemex uses local packaging manufacturers and printing houses.

The filters come from specially made paper. In Chicopee, workers convert desk-sized rolls of filter paper into stacks of round filters, then run those filters through folding and packaging machines.

Some customers come by and pick up more filters in person. Chemex would like to create a cafe and retail area in its Veterans Drive location. Grassy said some folks show up unexpectedly and ask for tours.

"We've already outgrown the space," Grassy said. "We've already met with a contractor about expanding. We are also looking at more warehouse space."

But what happens to Chemex when and if the craze dies down? If the hipsters move on to a new trend?

Grassy said Chemex is already branching out to explore diversifying its product lineup.

"We are also making t-shirts and accessories," she said. "We have a lot of fans."

For more information, visit the company's official website at www.chemexcoffeemaker.com.