Peter J. Schlumbohm, Ph.D

As you might have guessed, the Chemex was invented by a chemist.  In 1941 Peter J. Schlumbohm, Ph.D was inspired to create the Chemex coffee maker.

Born in 1896 in Germany, a graduate of the University of Berlin, he moved to New York City in 1936.  A prolific inventor he holds over 3,000 patents.  Fusing a glass funnel and an Erlenmeyer flask he modified them to include an air channel and a pouring spout. This displaced air from the dripping water bypassing the filter paper.

The famous “bellybutton” bubble mark shows the halfway mark of the bottom of the coffee pot.  Made of borosilicate glass the Chemex is laboratory grade and heat proof.

Simple and elegant, the Chemex only requires a filter, coffee and hot water.  You can accessorize with a wire grid for electric stovetops, a glass cover to keep the coffee warm, a long handled brush to clean, and a wooden collar to safely grip.

In 1956 the Chemex was selected by the Illinois Institute of Technology as one of the best-designed items in modern times.  It is in permanent collections in MOMA, New York City, the Smithsonian, the Philadelphia Museum and the Corning Museum, NY.  It has been recognized as an outstanding example of American Design.

Simple, elegant and a great cup of coffee can be enjoyed with the Chemex.

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Melitta

German housewife Melitta Bentz from Dresden thought there was a better way.  And in 1908 it occurred to her one day, “Why not use paper to filter out what I don’t want in my coffee?” 

Inspired, she took a brass coffee pot and poked a few holes in the bottom and lined it with blotting paper from her son’s notebook and voila the Melitta coffee filter was born.

The result was a filtered cup of coffee minus the grounds and the bitterness.  She knew her invention was brilliant and applied for a patent in Berlin which was granted on July 8, 1908.   It was called “Filter Top Device lined with Filter Paper”.  Not too catchy but the 35-year old created the Melitta Bentz Company knowing she was on to something.

Consequent improvements came onto the market.   The cone-shape developed in the 1930’s which had a larger filtration area and ribbed lining.  With environmental issues at hand the natural brown filter was born in 1989.  The white filter remained popular and in 1992 a new bleaching method was developed using an oxygen-cleansed filter paper. 

In 1997 Flavor Pores™ was developed with microfine pores offering a tastier cup of coffee and released in 1999 to North America. The Safety Crimp was added for extra durability in 2002 insuring easy disposal and no breakage during brewing.

Bamboo filters were released in 2007 for the Natural Food client base made of 60 percent bamboo fiber.  This same year the patented Flavor Enhancing Micro Perforations improved upon Flavor Pores with a more efficient extraction technique.

Just goes to show how a woman brewing a cup of coffee in 1908 could become the leader in coffee filters today with a little imagination and a desire to make a better cup of coffee.

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Nescafe

One of the best ways of preserving the taste of coffee is the Freeze-Dried Coffee method.  More of the volatile oils remain in the product giving it that “real” cup of brewed coffee flavor.

Invented in 1901 by a Japanese scientist by the name of Satori Kato it was later marketed around 1920 by George C.L. Washington.  Nescafe was developed 18 years later in 1938, the first name brand on the market.

Post WWII America saw the advent of instant coffee and since then freeze-drying has grown in popularity as it is a higher-quality product and more expensive.

The method of making freeze-dried coffee involves brewing large vats of coffee and placing them through evaporators making highly concentrated liquid. 

To preserve the aroma and flavor “foaming” gases are infused through the coffee removing oxygen.  The wet coffee granules are then rapidly frozen and placed in a drying chamber on metal trays. 

The frozen coffee is ground into particles and the ice crystals are then removed by sublimation meaning transference from a solid state to a gaseous state without the liquification phase.  A vacuum is created in the chamber is warmed, usually by radiation. 

The frozen water in the coffee granules expands to ten times its size and is removed as vapor from the chamber.  Volatile aromas are sprayed on the coffee granules.

The product is then packaged in a low-humidity, low-oxygen environment to maintain its integrity.  The process is environmentally friendly.

The advantage of freeze-dried coffee is that it is portable and can be taken anywhere and mixed with hot water gives you a nice fresh tasting cup of coffee.

Technorati Tags: coffee, Freeze-Dried Coffee, types of coffee

Percolator

The first documented percolator coffee pot was invented in the 18^th century, not in one place but in different parts of the world.  Coffee had become a popular drink and people wanted to find a way to make it easier to brew a good cup.

The first known inventor of the percolator was by none other than a New Englander by the name of Benjamin Thompson (1753-1814).  A physicist and inventor he served in the Loyalist forces as a Colonel during the American Revolution.  In 1784 he was knighted by King George III.  He later relocated to Bavaria becoming a government servant where he was appointed Bavarian Army Minister and was thereafter known as Count Rumford of the Holy Roman Empire.  There is no exact date of his percolator invention.

A bit later in France there is record of a percolator being created in 1818 by a metal smith by the name of Laurens.

In England a few years later in 1840 James Napier created the vacuum pot which was comprised of two glass globes. The bottom one boiled the water and the vapor would rise into the upper globe brewing the coffee.  When removed from the heat, the lower globe cooled and the vacuum created pulled the brewed coffee down into it.

In America cowboys would make coffee by boiling water and the grounds together and letting the grounds settle to the bottom.  Later people began to put the coffee in a cloth bag to keep the grounds from mixing in the water.

James H. Mason patented the first percolator in the United States in 1865.  His device incorporated a basket on top of a hollow stem where the grounds were placed inside of a pot of water.  Boiling water would travel up through the hollow tube and drip down over the grounds, “percolating” them back into the pot.

This method of coffee brewing gave way to the “drip” coffeemaker and in 1972 Mr. Coffee hit the market.  Designed by Vince Marotta and endorsed by Joe DiMaggio it became a best seller. 

But if you are out camping there is no beating the good old percolator; its portable, needs no electricity and produces a great cup of coffee over the camp stove on those brisk chilly mornings outdoors – the old-fashioned way.

Technorati Tags: coffee, methods of brewing coffee, Percolator Coffee Pot

Turkish Coffee

Until 1554 to 1555 coffeehouses did not exist nor did coffee for that matter.  In the city of Constantinople a man by the name of Hakam from Aleppo and a woman by the name of Sems from Damascus came to the city and started the craze, so it is said, of Turkish Coffee.  The Turkish word for breakfast , kahvalti means before coffee.

One of the best things about Turkish Coffee, besides the thick sweet end result, is the vessel it is made in.  They are ornate and beautiful and referred to as kanaka.  Typically the way it is made is with any kind of finely ground coffee, cardamom, cold water and sugar. 

You’ll  need a pot which is usually copper with a wooden handle and a teaspoon to stir and measure with.  In the old country it was made on a wood fire or a tray filled with sand placed on the fire.  When the sand was hot the coffee pot was placed in the sand for better heat transference.

Using sand could get messy in the house so we’ll avoid that step.  For each cup of coffee add one to two teaspoons of sugar.  In Turkey there are four stages of sweetness; sade meaning no sugar, az sekerli little sugar or half a teaspoon, orta sekerli medium or one teaspoon, and cok sekerli a lot of sugar or one and a half or two teaspoons. 

Place the coffee, water and sugar into a pot, stir them slowly and bring to a boil on medium high heat to extract the flavor and then don’t stir anymore.  Just as the coffee comes to a boil remove from the heat.  Keep off the heat for a short time and repeat the boil two more times.  Getting a thick layer of foam is the desired effect and considered an art.  Pour slowly and lift the pot high as the pouring continues, it’s the dramatic ritual that makes the coffee all the more enjoyable. 

The coffee is served with a chocolate stick and a glass of cold water to freshen the taste buds. The thick sludge at the bottom of cup is not drunk; this is where the fortune-telling comes in.  The cup is turned over into the saucer to cool and then the patterns of the grounds are read.

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Espresso

A nice creamy cup of espresso begins by forcing hot water through finely ground coffee.  It may then be used as a base for many specialty coffee drinks or enjoyed as is with a lemon rind to rim your cup.

Espresso has more caffeine per typical 30ml (1 fluid ounce) cup than other beverages.  Compared to a 6 ounce cup of drip coffee it has about half of the caffeine.

In Italy espresso bars provided a place for socialization with the advent of growing urbanized areas.  Local authorities controlled the price of espresso with the understanding that it would be consumed standing, hence the “stand-up” café.

Due to the equipment that was needed to make espresso they were only available in cafes or restaurants with the machines.  The domestic espresso machine was popularized in the 1970’s but was still large, expensive and required a bit of know-how to use them.  In recent years the espresso machine has evolved through the introduction of the coffee pod concept.

The origin of the word is debatable but it has been said it means “pressed out” or similar to the English word express meaning a quick coffee. 

Express can also mean to squeeze the flavor from, espres can refer to the speed of a train and espresso can mean especially for someone. 

The first espresso machines the Bezzera and Pavoni from 1906 took 45 seconds to make a cup of espresso, one cup at a time, “just for you”.

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French Press

As with many inventions, the French Press was an accidental design caused by a Frenchman who forgot to add coffee grounds to his boiling water as was the method in the 1800’s.  Boiling water required staring a wood fire so to conserve his resources he added his coffee to the water already boiled.  It floated to the top so he used a screen and pressed the grounds to the bottom discovering the flavor was much better than the old method.

But leave it to the Italians to make a better mousetrap, in 1929 Attilio Calimani patented the first design of the French Press and it was further refined by another Italian Faliero Bondanini.

The French call the French Press “cafetiere a piston” or piston coffee maker.  In the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands it is known as cafetiere, the word for coffee maker or pot in French. 

Consisting of a narrow cylindrical beaker made of either clear glass or plastic the French Press is a plunger style coffee maker with a plunger made of metal or plastic snugly fitting in the cylinder with a mesh filter at the bottom.  Its elegant and simple design lends itself to serving after dinner coffee at the table.  It’s always a bit of drama pressing the plunger and pouring the thick, delicious coffee.

A course grind is needed for this method and the coffee is brewed by placing the grounds in the beaker, pouring boiling water over them and letting them sit for 3 to 4 minutes.  Press the plunger and the grounds are filtered to the bottom of the beaker leaving you with a rich cup of coffee.

This method of brewing retains the essentials oils from the beans delivering more of the coffee’s flavor.  It is usually a stronger and thicker coffee with more sediment than traditional drip-brewing which uses paper filters.  After 20 minutes the coffee is considered to have expired as it can become bitter if not enjoyed right away.

French Presses are portable and there are versions on the market made in travel cups.  Hikers also enjoy this method of brewing to take with them on their adventures.

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