mie

years ago, when part of my coffee fascination was about equipment just as much as the coffee in itself - i purchased a beautiful antique vacuum pot in a thrift shop. i started figuring it out just recently - in lieu with my 50s house wife style cake baking. the design is simple and has been done in countless variations. two glass bulbs placed on top of each other - the upper for ground coffee and the lower for water. in addition, the upper bulb has a rubber valve to keep the grounds where they are supposed to be while brewing and after. as water is starting to boil, the pressure forces the water into the upper bulb - it will stay there with the grounds until the pressure falls by the temperature being lowered. the cooling makes the air contract and this creates a vacuum in the lower bulb. coffee is sucked back into the lower chamber and tada! the lower bulb is full of fresh brewed coffee.

now, that's the easy part. and for me it seems like this might be the perfect way of coffee brewing - no paper, only coffee and water together. let the puzzle begin! i started by using some known parameters for brewing - around 50g per liter of water. however, there is always some water left in the lower chamber that will be mixed with the ready brewed coffee. therefore, some over dosing is necessary - around 60g per liter of water has been a better dosage. yes yes, i've only been using KAFFA coffee, and so far i've been experimenting with a pacamara from el salvador finca el porvenir coe # 3. creamy. milk chocolate. orange blossoms. yum. i use the universal grind i've mentioned before - coarser than what most people think of as appropriate for filter brewing, finer than for a french press. after a while it became obvious that the water should be boiled in a kettle and then used in the vacuum pot - i'm too impatient to wait forever for a small glass flame heating the water slowly. too slow! when the water from the lower chamber is pressured into the coffee in the upper chamber, i turn down the gas. the point is to have enough heat to have the residual water simmering, but you also have to keep the brewing coffee in the upper chamber from boiling. i gently stir the coffee into the water, supervises the temperature for 3,5 to 4 minutes and then turn off the gas. the view of the ready brewed coffee pouring down is creating enthusiasm i've never experienced with any filter method. maybe i'm also excited because so far, the results has been somewhat different from brew to brew - but i'm improving the method for every brew i make and that's why i'm still doing it. never perfect. never done.