WEBVTT - Techstuff Classic: How Coffee Machines Work 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from My Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.360 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:17.000 job in Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.159 Radio and how the tech are you? It's time for 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.639 a classic episode of tech Stuff. This episode originally published March. 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:29.000 It is one of the topics nearest and dearest to 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:34.560 my heart, how coffee machines work? Enjoy. This is something 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:36.600 that a lot of listeners have been requesting. They We 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.720 received a couple of different requests from listeners to cover 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.720 coffee machines. So in order to do that, I thought 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:46.080 it'd be fun to first talk about coffee itself, kind 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:49.240 of the history of coffee and where it comes from 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.319 and how it's grown and what it's like, and then 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:56.760 we'll transition into the various ways human beings have used 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:01.440 coffee to make a beverage that we all know and love. 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:03.680 Most of us, I mean, well, I mean those of 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:07.280 us that aren't wrong. Right. Maybe you're a tea drinker. 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:13.360 We don't pass judgment. I drink tea as well, yeah, both, yeah, 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:17.080 and in fact sometimes mixed because well it's not necessarily 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:19.920 on purpose. I just I have a problem, alright, So anyway, 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:24.480 where does coffee come from. Well, coffee plants are very particular, right, 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:27.800 they need specific types of soil. They need a certain 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:31.200 level of of of richness to that soil. It needs 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:35.360 to be nice fertile ground, and they need really mild temperatures. 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:37.880 So they don't do well in climates where you get 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:40.640 a lot like there's a big difference between the highest 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:42.520 of the highs and the lowest of the lows. So 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.959 you're talking something in the tropic kind of area. Yeah, 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:50.160 the equatorial area, you know, somewhere around the equator. That's 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:54.520 where your weather does not different change that dramatically from 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:55.880 one part of the year to the other part of 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:59.480 the year. And there's actually a band that you could 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:02.400 look at with the the very the the two the 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:05.160 two borders would be the Tropic of Capricorn in the 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:09.520 Tropic of Cancer. And we refer to this band with 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:13.400 a particular little nickname as far as coffee goes, the 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:17.160 bean belt bean Belt. And so that sounds like a 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:21.120 fabulous fashion accessory, it does, doesn't it. Yeah, I doubt 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:23.600 I could rock the bean Belt. I just I'm not 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:26.760 confident enough in my look. But the only state in 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:29.520 the United states that actually falls in that range where 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.560 you could grow coffee is Hawaii, and the Big Island 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:34.840 of Hawaii is a place where coffee has grown. There 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.080 are many plantations there. The volcanic soil, as it turns out, 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.720 is great for growing coffee in general. Higher altitudes are 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:45.080 really excellent for growing coffee. And they have a mountain 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.520 or two on the Big Island. I've I've visited the 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:53.079 Big Island. I have actually visited coffee farms, coffee plantations. 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:56.639 I've never been to a coffee farm. It's so awesome. 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:00.359 You know, you get to actually see how the plants 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:04.440 are grown, how how people are harvest the coffee cherries. 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:06.600 The one the tour I went on, they let you 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:08.880 pick a coffee cherry and actually taste it so you 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:11.160 could get to experience what it was like. Oh, which 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.520 is how you have a recommendation for maybe not eating 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:16.920 a whole lot of coffee cherries. Coffee cherries, by the way, 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:21.000 are how coffee grows because it doesn't just grow in 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:24.399 a little pre roasted bean on a bush. That's ridiculous. 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:26.680 It's not a it's not in a pod. Now, it's 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.360 not like like beans like green beans. It's not like 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:32.359 that right right there. Their seeds really, and so they 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:36.040 grow in what's called coffee cherries or coffee berries sometimes, 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:38.400 which looks a little bit like a like a cherry 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:41.640 or a grape. Like it's sort of olive size. Yeah, 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:45.120 rap out that size, maybe a little for the smaller olives. 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:48.920 Not not like those ginormous olives. Nonster olives. You defy 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:52.360 the laws of man. Uh, these are these They do 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:54.320 look kind of like grapes, kind of like like like 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.040 a grape, and the cherry really got friendly and had 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:02.480 little babies and the skin is kind of tough, but 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:06.040 then once you pierce the skin, it's all like juicy 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:09.040 and birsty. The skin is also very bitter, so I 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:12.960 don't recommend chewing on the skins so much. Um. And 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:17.479 the fruit is very sweet, it's very sticky. It's gonna 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:21.280 subtle flavor to it. I think of it kind of 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:25.480 like rose water and watermelon. Yeah, I think I want 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.000 to eat that. Actually, that's got to be careful though, 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:32.559 because those coffee beans, the seeds are really super hard 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:36.600 and if you're just crunching, you could crack a tooth. Yeah, 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:40.480 we recommend. I do know that in some places they save, 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:44.200 They save the fruit once they've used the rest of 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:46.479 the of the bean for coffee purposes, dry it out 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.120 and use it for tea. Oh interesting, so you can 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:53.120 brew a tea using that. Now, once you strip that 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:55.960 fruit away, you still have some layers on top of 0:04:55.960 --> 0:05:00.280 the bean itself, right, so skins kind of. Yeah. So 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.599 you have to actually go through a process to get 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:05.200 to the point where you can get to the beans. 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:07.560 So you harvest the coffee. So you pick these cherries. 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.400 Those are either dried in the sun over the course 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.039 of a week to ten days something like that, or 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:15.679 they're placed in a pulping machine to remove the fruit 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.840 and then uh, those beans are dried by the sun. 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:21.960 Usually you can do it in other ways, but the 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:25.400 sun is right there. Yeah, the ones I've seen that 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:29.320 they put them in like these big uh sieves almost, 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:32.120 and then they rake them occasionally to make sure that 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.640 they're all drying evenly. Yeah, sort of like a like 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:36.640 if you've ever been gold panning, sort of like a 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:39.760 very large gold panning thing, right, and hey, this stuff 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:44.200 it's it's like just as valuable as gold in my eyes, 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:48.200 so other black gold. Yeah, after you dry it, that's 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:50.080 when you can get those other elder layers of the 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.919 being removed in a process that's called hulling, as in 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:56.520 removing the holes around the beans. They are graded and 0:05:56.600 --> 0:06:00.720 sorted by size and density, and then the this coffee, 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.359 which is referred to as green coffee, the beans have 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:07.880 a kind of greenish tinged them, then is shipped to roasters. 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:11.680 So you often don't have a coffee plantation and roaster 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:15.120 on the same premises you would. You would some of 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:17.800 the coffee plantations sell their own coffee, but it's a 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.839 kind of interesting thing because they'll send the green coffee 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:23.520 off to roasters. Roasters will send the roasted coffee back 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:26.160 to the plantation, and then the plantation can sell it well. 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.559 The roasting is a very specific process and different people 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.920 have very specific ideas about exactly how much a coffee 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:36.000 bean should be roasted, and depending on the type of 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.880 coffee plant and there are like six thousand species within 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:41.560 the coffee a genius, so you've got a lot of 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:44.560 options in there. Yeah, it's it gets very particular. So 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:46.440 how does how does the roasting process go? All? Right? 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:50.039 So you get like a a roaster that can rotate, 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:52.800 so it's got a tumbling kind of kind of like 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.640 a clothes dryer. It tumbles because you want all the 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:58.960 beans to uh, to roast evenly. You don't want to 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.720 end up with like a bottom layer that is roasted 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:04.120 to one degree and the stuff above it is to 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:06.680 a different one than you have. You don't have consistent coffee, 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:09.200 right right. Yeah. My first thought that I was like, 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:11.440 it's like a rotisserie. And then I was like, but 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:13.520 that would be terrible for beans, because you know, you 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:15.720 can't like spit them like you can't chicken. And then 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:17.320 he said and then he said, like a clothes dryer, 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:18.640 and then I just thought of like a clothes dryer 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:20.480 foot full of chickens. And then I was like, this 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:22.800 is a terrible I'm just oh, I just need to 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:24.600 share this with someone to get this idea out of 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:27.080 my head. It's like the ring sounds like a rejected 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.200 Gary Larson far side cartoon, Like, you know, this is 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:33.560 too horrifying even for me. Close dryer full of chickens, 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:37.240 well at any rate. So the roosters, they are put 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.920 to a temperature of around five degrees fahrenheit, which is 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:43.400 about eight celsius to get the beans to the right 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.920 temperature and Once the beans are hot enough, they undergo 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:52.840 a process called pyrolysis. They expand kind of like popcorn. 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:56.080 They actually pop out and get much larger than they 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:58.840 normally are. And the longer you roast the coffee bean, 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:02.720 the more intense the flavors become, the more intensive aroma becomes, 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:06.600 those oils become really concentrated. You do. However, if you're 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:09.000 the longer you roast them, you also lose more and 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:13.360 more of the caffeine that's inside them. So so darker 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:19.080 beans are actually less caffeinated by the lighter flavored greener beans. Yeah, 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.920 so if you have a light roast coffee, you typically 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.160 have more caffeine in it than a dark roast. Keep 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:27.840 in mind that it also depends upon the species of 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.440 the coffee planet, right, Some have more caffeine than others, 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:34.760 and depending upon the process that they're using, sometimes coffee 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:40.559 makers will actually add caffeine back into the mix afterward, 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.080 because you want to make sure that you have that kick. 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:48.400 But yeah, some people prefer the the robust flavors of 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.280 a dark coffee. They do have stronger flavors. Some people 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:53.599 prefer the lighter flavors and the caffeine kick from the 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.320 lighter coffee. Uh, and in general, lighter coffees have more caffeine. 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:01.720 And we've been doing this or a while as human 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:06.000 beings have been harvesting coffee for quite some times. Yes, 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:11.000 not just Jonathan and I. We've been spending literally hours 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:16.720 harvesting coffee today in preparation for this podcast. By harvesting coffee, 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:21.480 we mean breating articles and drinking it. Yeah. Legends placed 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:24.480 the discovery of coffee a couple of thousand years ago. Um. 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.280 Supposedly when a goat hurd in what would become Ethiopia 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:30.800 noticed that his herd got real perky when they ate 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.080 the berries off of this one particular plant. The goats 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:40.440 seemed to dance, dancing, dancing the name of a of 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:44.000 a brand of coffee. Yeah, local, local roaster and seller 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:47.400 here in Atlanta, right. Actually, they're they're very local. They're 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.960 right there. They're a ten minute walk from our office. 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:54.960 Good good coffee if you ever get into Atlanta. Like, um, 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:58.280 people have probably been eating coffee for a long time. 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:02.200 East African tribes used to make uh, these balls of 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:05.480 like animal fat plus coffee berries. Um. So if you 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:07.240 thought that putting butter in your coffee was a whole 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:10.520 new fangled thing. Then you're you're actually late to the game. 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.760 Historians think it was developed into a drink somewhere around 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.679 one thousand CE on the Arabian Peninsula, and it became 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:23.360 hugely popular with Muslim populations there. They do not consume alcohol, 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:25.800 so I assumed that this was a thing that they 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.880 were kind of like, yeah, drugs are good. Um, yeah, 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:31.120 this is an alcohol, and yet it gives us an 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:36.640 interesting energetic feeling. Um. And it spread as the religion 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.880 spread throughout the next few centuries. Legend also has it 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.840 that coffee growers were so protective of their crops that 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:46.560 they didn't allow plants or even fertile seeds to leave 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:51.000 the Arabian Peninsula for for hundreds of years until a 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:53.679 man smuggled some seeds out of Mecca by strapping them 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:57.880 to his chest. Interesting um, whether or not that is true. 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:02.680 India definitely had some coffee crops growing by about sixteen hundred, 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.360 and European travelers around that time started catching on to 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:10.120 this whole coffee thing. The Dutch were the first to 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:13.600 the first Europeans to start up a coffee estate that 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:17.200 was on Java, Java Island in sixteen sixteen, and we 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:21.480 think it arrived over in the America's, possibly also through smuggling. 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:25.880 Around the seventeen twenties. Brazil and Columbia are now the 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:30.240 largest producers of coffee, followed up by Indonesia and Vietnam. 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.520 I remember hearing a story at one point about uh 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.880 that smuggling of of coffee beans into the America's through 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:42.480 uh being hidden in flowers. Yeah, yeah, I heard that. 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:50.280 Um Uh Brazilian foreign dignitary uh talked real pretty too 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:54.800 to the wife of someone over in a coffee growing 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:59.120 estate and then to smuggle them back to back to 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:04.199 Brazil where it flourished. But so smuggling big in the 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:06.160 coffee world, as it turns out, like one of those 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:11.840 things where this belongs to the world for freedom, for free. Up, 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:15.760 We're gonna take a quick coffee break from this episode 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.160 to grab ourselves a cup of Joe. Suggest you do 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:28.920 the same, and we'll be right back. So let's talk 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.760 about the history of the action of the coffee machines, 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:34.080 the various devices we have used to make coffee. Some 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:37.480 of these, you know, you might argue, UH take the 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.840 term machine pretty liberally, but it is interesting to note 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:45.920 that even the most simplistic methods of making coffee have 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:51.160 a relation to the standard coffee drip machine that a 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:53.240 lot of people have in their homes. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:55.800 these first two are not electronic forms, but I would 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:58.959 remind you that even a lever is a machine. That's true, 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.280 although the first one I hesitate to call a machine. 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:04.719 It's really more like a device or a prop Um. 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:07.760 The simplest way to make coffee or yeah, it's just 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:12.360 by pouring hot water over or through some grounds. Um, 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.720 I'm very fond of my drip cone personally. It's just 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:18.160 a cone shaped thing and you put a filter in 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:20.680 it to contain the grounds, and you place the whole 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:22.640 contraption on top of a coffee cup and then you 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:24.880 pour hot water through it until the cup is full 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:28.280 of coffee, and then yeah, everything is better in the universe. Um. 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.480 A little bit more complicated than that is what's known 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:34.760 in the US as a French press and more generally 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.600 around the world as a coffee press or coffee plunger 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:42.000 or cavitieri, a piston. And this is a very simple 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:48.160 manual machine, uh, manpowered or woman powered, person powered really, um, 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:52.120 consisting of you know, cylindrical chamber and a fitted filter 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.720 that's attached to a rod. You steep the coffee grounds 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.120 in hot water in the chamber, and when it's brewed 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.200 to your liking, you just push the filtered down own 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:04.520 into the chamber. That the water flows up through the 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.480 filter and it collects the grounds at the bottom of 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:11.040 the chamber. Which let's see, pour non chewy coffee off 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.200 of the top and you, uh, you gotta make that. 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:18.200 You've got to make both the pressing uh very smooth 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:20.960 and slow and the pouring you need to make nice 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:22.760 and smooth and slow so that you make sure you're 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:25.440 not stirring up a lot of sediment. You can get 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:29.160 sediment from French press. Coffee definitely usually tends to end 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.360 up in the cup no matter what. The first time 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:33.760 I ever used a French press was at a restaurant 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:37.160 in Las Vegas with lots of people all around me, 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:39.480 and I just felt like, I've got to do this 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:44.040 right or everyone will judge me. And I know that 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:46.080 what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but I'm not 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:48.080 even comfortable with that. To tell you the truth, I 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.720 want to make sure and um, yeah, so you are 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:55.880 just pushing the grounds further and further down to the bottom, 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:58.560 while the water is allowed to go through the filter 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:00.920 or the brood. Coffee at that point's night and water. 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.680 It's brewed coffee is able to pass through the filter 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:05.840 so that you can pour it into your cup. And 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:07.840 a lot of people like this method because they think 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:11.600 it brews a particularly smooth cup of coffee. Yeah, and 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:15.920 unlike unlike coffee that eases paper filters and it's processing 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:18.760 even like with my drip cone. Uh, you're allowing all 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:20.720 of the oils and the coffee to make their way 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.040 into your cup. Oil is kind of where the flavor 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:25.680 is residing. So if the paper is absorbing some of 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:27.520 the oil, you're losing a little bit of something and 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:29.640 getting a tiny little bit of paper fiber in there. 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:33.040 And and some people are just like, that's just not acceptable, unacceptable, 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:37.520 purest form of coffee oil to go into my system 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.280 as possible. I do. I do prefer French press to 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.440 all other forms of coffee. That might be a coffee snob. 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.560 The idea of fixing a screen like straight to a 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:49.600 pot in order to avoid getting grounds in your cup 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.920 probably goes back aways. But the first patent on the on. 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:57.520 The actual plunger device was granted in France in nineteen nine, 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:00.360 hence the term French press. Now, if we go back 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:04.000 further to the early eighteen hundreds, that's when we get 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:07.240 the first inventions of the percolators. Now we may be 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:09.760 familiar with a percolator that if you've ever seen a 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:13.240 coffee pot's got a little like knob type protrusion on 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.560 the very top that's clear. Yeah, it looks sort of 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.479 like a sort of like do you remember the board games, sorry, 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.320 from when you were a kid that popmatic bubble? Yeah, yeah, 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:23.640 I always when I was a kid, I thought that 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:27.000 my grandmother's percolator coffee cup would probably had a popomatic 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.280 bubble and she was like, don't touch that, it's hot. 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:32.360 Yeah yeah, And in fact it would be hot. And 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:34.920 the reason why it's clear is so that you can 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:38.400 see when the coffee has been has finished percolating, in 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:41.360 case you could not hear it finishing. So this is 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.600 a really simple machine as well. You've got a chamber 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:45.600 at the bottom of the pot. This is the one 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:47.600 that's you know, closest to the source of heat. This 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.480 is where the water goes, and a tube leeds up 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:53.920 from this chamber to the top of the pot. You 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.320 put the right amount of water in and coffee grounds 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:58.680 go into another chamber. That's it's at the very top 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:03.240 of the pot. So you've got a filter at the 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:07.160 base of the coffee grounds chamber. So here's the deal. 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:11.840 You've got the whole coffee pot on a heat source. 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.240 The heat source heats the water to boiling. That boiling 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:19.240 water starts to push water up the tube. It forces 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:21.399 water up that tube because there's nowhere else for it 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.280 to go. So the water goes up the tube where 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:26.119 it bubbles over the top. That's where you see on 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:28.160 the top of the percolator a little water bubbling over. 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:30.840 When it bubbles over the top, it goes down into 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:33.040 the coffee grounds, and so the coffee grounds and the 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.760 water get having a little party up there. It absorbs 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:41.720 some of those coffee oils. Uh the now coffee or 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:44.800 very weakly brewed coffee at this point starts to seep down, 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.399 eventually going down through the filter and back into the 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:53.680 chamber below. It continues this process as the cooler water 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.600 is sinking closer to the heat source, getting a heated 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:00.960 up boiling going up through that tube. The process continues 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:03.879 in a cycle until you're getting to a point where 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:07.840 all the water inside the percolator is near boiling temperature. 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:10.800 Now you don't want it to actually boil boil, because 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:14.800 they say that boiled coffee is spoiled coffee's not gonna 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:18.040 taste good. But you want, like like any other food, 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:20.159 you can totally burn coffee. Oh yeah, and you know 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:23.399 it when you've had it, you're just like, it's a 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:25.879 flavor of failure. It is, it is, and it's you know, 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.159 you're like, I'm still gonna drink it, but I'm not happy. 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:33.680 So this this continues until that percolating sound stops. That's 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:35.919 a signal that the water has reached this temperature of 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:38.920 near boiling, and you remove it from the heat, and 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.520 then you're able to remove the grounds and pour cups 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:45.520 of coffee and uh and a lot of people really 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:50.280 still prefer percolator coffee, whether it's one some percolators have 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:53.280 a heating element actually in the coffee thing, so you 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:56.240 just plug it in and an electric kettle, yeah, and 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:58.760 then others are meant to go directly onto a heating element, 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:01.320 whether it's an electric stove, gas, though maybe even a 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:04.200 fire if you're a cowboy, because is that the cowboys 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:08.359 made coffee? Or a camper yeah, or a camper um um, 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:15.159 So that again popular but very simple yeahs. And but actually, well, 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:17.960 I mean most most coffeemakers are very simple. I hadn't 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:21.160 thought about it very much until we started doing this research. 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:25.800 And the next one is a vacuum drip, yeah, which 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.239 looks like it's something super cool and hip history and 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.520 chemistry related. Oh yeah, yeah. When the first time that 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:36.800 I saw one was in a relatively fancy restaurant down 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:42.320 in St. Petersburg, I believe, actually and Florida or Russia, Florida, 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:45.960 just just checking and and and it looked it looked 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:49.680 like this crazy like like fifties era space age kind 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:52.879 of thing, or possibly like something from like from like 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:57.000 gas Light sci fi kind of which which is true 0:19:57.000 --> 0:19:59.240 because that's about when it dates from it even it 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:02.199 dates before flight sci Fi because it comes from the 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:05.000 eighteen thirties. But it's one of those that we've seen 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:08.440 a resurgence in recently as people have you know, gone 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.040 on the quest for the perfect cup of coffee. And 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:13.440 this is another one that is based on a very 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:17.200 similar principle as to the percolator uh in several ways. 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:19.800 So if you looked at one of these, they tend 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:22.399 to look something like kind of like an hourglass shape. 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.480 The bottom chamber is one that holds the water. It's 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:29.360 connected via a tube that has a filter in it 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:32.800 to an upper chamber. The upper chamber is open to 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:38.560 the atmosphere. Is not closed, Yeah, exactly, it's not. It's 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.840 not sealed like an hour glasses. You put the coffee 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:44.320 grounds in that. Now the filter keeps the coffee grounds 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:47.880 from going down into the lower chamber. UH. And you 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:51.199 would then turn on the heat allow the water in 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:53.640 the bottom chamber to start to boil. That would make 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:57.119 water vapor that would force it creates an increase of 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:00.359 water and air pressure weather because the water vapors taking 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:03.520 up more space than the water was. That's forcing water 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.480 up that tube through the filter to mingle with the 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:11.280 coffee grounds. With these vacuum drip sets, you are supposed 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:14.480 to stir the coffee grounds and water together a little 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:17.359 bit so that you get a good amount of coverage 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:20.840 and you get the coffee grounds sufficiently wet so that 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:24.639 those oils seep into the water when it cools down, 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:28.080 the water vapor in the bottom chamber begins to condense. 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:31.360 That creates a vacuum which starts to pull the coffee 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:34.520 back down the tube through the filter so you don't 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:38.439 get any grounds, and it fills up that lower chamber 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:41.800 not with water but now with brood coffee. So that's 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:43.920 why it's called a vacuum drip. It's because that water 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:48.359 vapor wentzn condensing creates the vacuum pulling the coffee back down. 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:52.200 It looks like magic. It looks like fancy coffee science 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:55.080 magic while that's going on, and it definitely looks like 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:57.919 you know, you're like I have had a mad scientist 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:01.560 brew me a cup of coffee, and uh, it's very pretty. 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.719 Like a lot of these are very very The design 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:07.840 just makes it look really appealing. There's a very strong 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:11.719 aesthetic appeal to these, certainly more than you know, an 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:14.760 average coffee maker. Right, A lot of those coffee makers 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:17.760 are very functional. They're not necessarily pretty. You can come 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:20.000 pretty ones, but right, right, but most of them are 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:23.840 pretty uh utilitarian, not pretty pretty, not pretty. Mine mine 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:28.240