Old Coffee Machines

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Old Coffee Machines goes into how they evolved into what is used today. Read all about it below...

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Old Coffee Machines are interesting. The first ones were simple pots. They were flat on the bottom and had a pour spout on top. Inside the pots were trappers which held the grinds back from the coffee when poured. They were very similar to modern Turkish coffee pots that use a standard stovetop burner.

Over time many types of coffee pots were invented and tested. They varied in size and shape, mainly with the goal of keeping the grounds out of the poured coffee.

Most of the old coffee pots, starting around 1600 AD, were primitive and had a bulged out center. Their pour spouts came out of the center, instead of the top.

In 1780, a new type of coffee pot emerged. It was a tall pot, oval in shape. Inside was a small filter shaped like a tea ball, but was made of a material like cotton. The pour spout was at the bottom. This worked pretty well until the cotton or other material used began to degrade and flavor the coffee. Also, the different materials that were tried out didn't always work with the grind size. In other words, sometimes the water didn't pass through the filter easily enough to make good coffee. If the grind was too course and water passed through the filter too quickly, very little flavor was extracted from the grind leaving a weak brew.

Twenty-two years later, France developed an old coffee machine with metal filter which sort of worked but left quite a few grinds loose and floating around.

Next a new coffee innovation was developed which compressed the coffee, without damage to the grinds. It was called the Rammer.

France also created the vacuum pot. Coffee grounds were kept at the top while boiling water and steam rose to make contact with the coffee grounds. A separate cool area of the pot (where pressure was less) would create a vacuum, in contrast to the expanding heated steam. This vacuum would pull down the liquid coffee (once it met the coffee grounds) and into this cooler area. Some of these pots were made of metal, some of glass. Sometimes the glass would break because they were not made as well as pots are today.

There is an old coffee machine known as "balance-beam" vacuum pot too. It was different in that it turned itself off using the balance beams as a switch, when the coffee was done.

In the 1930's the percolator pot came into widespread use in the U.S. Unfortunately, this pot continually boiled the coffee, overcooking it.

France came out with the French Press, also known as a coffee press, or a plunge pot. The French Press is still the preferred way to brew coffee today. It uses a metal filter on the end of a plunger. Coffee grounds and hot water move freely while brewing. When the coffee is done brewing. The plunger, which has a filter with holes in it, is slowly pressed down. The filter catches the grounds and pushes them to the bottom while the holes in the filter allow the coffee to move through.

Germany created the drip version of the electric coffee maker in 1910. It heats the water, brews the coffee, and turns itself off when the water is used up. It uses a paper filter that holds coffee grounds while heated water drips on it and through it into a container.

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