The Vacuum Coffee Pot

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The vacuum pot

The most fashionable of all the brewing types, the Vacuum Pot garnered considerable success during the early 1900’s and lost much its steam by the 1950’s. Invented in Germany, designers experimented with vacuums, vapor pressure and fluid dynamics. First utilized with early percolators, it was designed and expands upon the ideas of the percolator with a glass casing. Seeing the coffee rise into the upper chamber only to get sucked back into the lower can be a bit of wonder and amazement, but the brewer is very portable (stove top version) and requires very little counter top space. It’s best to look for a vacuum pot that works on a stove top, but if your looking for something electric you're going to have to sacrifice some counter space as they tend to get somewhat large.

How it works:

Within the upper casing, the grounds are placed over the filter. The lower chamber holds the water. As the water is slowly heated, gas pressure forces the water through a tube into the upper chamber to come into contact with the grinds. After the water has steeped with the grounds, the heat source is removed. The cooling and contracting of the air creates a vacuum that sucks the coffee back into the lower chamber with the used ground sitting loosely in the upper chamber. The lower chamber is removed and used to serve the coffee.

Grind: Medium to Medium Coarse

Tips:

Never let the water completely boil through the chamber as it puts unwanted stress on the pot and can lead to the bottom chamber cracking. Also aim to brew around the exact capacity for the vacuum pot to ensure the best balance of coffee.