Vacuum coffee maker
Vacuum coffee maker
A vacuum coffee maker brews coffee using two chambers where vapor
pressure and vacuum produce coffee. This type of coffee maker is also known as vac
pot, siphon or syphon coffee maker, and was invented by Loeff
of Berlin in the 1830s. These devices have since been used for more than a
century in many parts of the world. Design and composition of the vacuum coffee
maker varies. The chamber material is borosilicate glass, metal, or plastic,
and the filter can be either a glass rod or a screen made of metal, cloth,
paper, or nylon. The Napier Vacuum Machine, presented in 1840, was an early
example of this technique. While vacuum coffee makers generally were
excessively complex for everyday use, they were prized for producing a clear
brew, and were quite popular until the middle of the twentieth century. The
Bauhaus interpretation of this device can be seen in Gerhard Marcks’ Sintrax
coffee maker of 1925.
As
temperature increases, the vapor pressure of water increases, increasing the
pressure in the bottom vessel and pushing water up the siphon. At the normal
boiling point of 100 °C, the vapor pressure equals the standard atmospheric pressure
of 760 Torr (760 mm of mercury).
A vacuum coffee maker operates as a Siphon, where heating and cooling the
lower vessel changes the vapor pressure of water in the lower, first pushing
the water up into the upper vessel, then allowing the water to fall back down
into the lower vessel. Concretely, the principle of a vacuum coffee maker is to
heat water in the lower vessel of the brewer until expansion forces the
contents through a narrow tube into an upper vessel containing coffee grounds
(as water temperature increases, dense liquid water increasingly converts to
less dense water vapor gas, which takes up more space and thus increases
pressure); when the water reaches and exceeds the boiling point (so the vapor
pressure equals and then exceeds atmospheric pressure), the (water vapor)
pressure in the lower vessel exceeds the (atmospheric) pressure in the top
vessel and water is pushed up the siphon tube into the upper vessel. During
brewing, a small amount of water and sufficient water vapor remain in the lower
vessel and are kept hot enough so the pressure will support the column of water
in the siphon. When enough time has elapsed that the coffee has finished
brewing, the heat is removed and the pressure in the bottom vessel drops, so
the force of gravity (acting on the water) and atmospheric pressure (pressing
on the liquid in the upper vessel) push the water down into the lower vessel,
through a strainer and away from the grounds, ending brewing. The coffee can
then be decanted from the lower chamber; the device must usually be taken apart
to pour out the coffee.
The iconic Moka pot coffee maker functions on the same principle but the
water is forced up from the bottom chamber through a third middle chamber
containing the coffee grounds to the top chamber which has an air gap to
prevent the brewed coffee from returning downwards. The prepared coffee is then
poured off from the top.
Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans, the seeds of
berries from certain coffea species. The genus Coffea is native to
tropical Africa (specifically having its origin in Ethiopian and Sudan) and
Madagascar, the Comoros, Mauritius, and Reunion in the India Ocean. Coffee
plants are now cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in the equatorial
regions of the America, Southeast Asia, Indian subcontinent, and Africa. The
two most commonly grown are C. Arabica and
C. robusta. Once ripe, coffee berries
are picked, processed, and dried. Dried coffee seeds (referred to as
"beans") are roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired
flavor. Roasted beans are ground and then brewed with near-boiling water to
produce the beverage known as coffee.
Coffee is darkly colored, bitter, and slightly
acidic and has a stimulating effect in humans, primarily due to its caffeine
content. It is one of the most popular drinks in the world, and it can be
prepared and presented in a variety of ways (e.g., espresso, French press, café
latte). It is usually served hot, although iced coffee is a popular
alternative. Clinical studies indicate that moderate coffee consumption is
benign or mildly beneficial in healthy adults. click here to order from amazon