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How Important Is Coffee?

How important is Coffee?

  • Total voters
    211
Filed under "never thought of that" the issue of not being able to brew coffee in microgravity.

But, and I'm to a coffee drinker, why doesn't infusion work like it does for tea? Simply because coffee is not as readily brewed as tea is? Doesn't the water just pass through the grounds and.. voila.. coffee?

Couldn't you make "coffee bags"? (I know those exist, but they're instant coffee not "real" coffee)
 
Gravity would be a necessity for drip, pour-over and percolator brewing. "spin gravity" would suffice, I'd think. The amount of acceleration affects time of contact between grounds and water.

Espresso, Aeropress, and French press methods don't necessarily need gravity. A caulking gun could be a REALLY big Aeropress, which is what made me chuckle.
 
whartung said:
Filed under "never thought of that" the issue of not being able to brew coffee in microgravity.

But, and I'm to a coffee drinker, why doesn't infusion work like it does for tea? Simply because coffee is not as readily brewed as tea is? Doesn't the water just pass through the grounds and.. voila.. coffee?

Couldn't you make "coffee bags"? (I know those exist, but they're instant coffee not "real" coffee)
Click to expand...

Infusion works just fine for coffee... and both have the issue that the rate of infusion is due to differential concentrations of chemicals (and the increased capacity of hot water to dissolve chemicals). See, all the methods are infusions.

The four most common modes are Automatic Drip Coffee-makers, Percolators, loose grounds (which is how a french press is done, and bagged or meshed grounds (just like teabags and teaballs).

Percolators use a thermal cycle... water flows under the foot, turns to steam, which drives the water up the pipe, it falls through the grounds, and more water flows in... repeat. A peroclator, especially one with a rheostat temperature setting, can make the most of grounds.

ADC and Espresso are one-pass. It's the same temperature ranges, typically, but the flow rate is usually aimed to be about 5-30 seconds in the grounds. Most, like the $10 machine behind me as I type this, use a thermal cycle to drive the water. Some use pumps... I've used pump driven machines, too, and they're faster, but the result is the same - hot water single pass over grounds with the grounds kept out of the desination

Loose grounds can be used. Temperature and brewing times vary similarly to tea. Just like loose tea, how many grounds, how hot, how finely ground, and how long determines how strong and what flavor profile.

There are commercial coffee bags.

Most people seem to prefer the flavor profile of the single-pass ADC method. I prefer cold-brewed, then loose grounds is my second choice, and percolated a very close third. I use my ADC for tea...

But, excepting pump-fed ADCs, they all use thermal circulation to a degree.

So in zero G, you need to circulate the water to get good brewing. And teabag-style produces a different flavor profile, even in gravity, due to the usually unheated brew container, and the reduced dispersion...

NASA's brewer (at least the one I read about) uses pods, and pumped hot water, and is a single pass. Many aircraft also do likewise. High pressure steam makes for a different flavor profile... I like it, many don't, and a few navy guys I've know swear by it. (Some ships tapped the steam system for the preinstalled coffee machines for the mess.)
 
aramis said:
Infusion works just fine for coffee... and both have the issue that the rate of infusion is due to differential concentrations of chemicals (and the increased capacity of hot water to dissolve chemicals). See, all the methods are infusions.

The four most common modes are Automatic Drip Coffee-makers, Percolators, loose grounds (which is how a french press is done, and bagged or meshed grounds (just like teabags and teaballs).

Percolators use a thermal cycle... water flows under the foot, turns to steam, which drives the water up the pipe, it falls through the grounds, and more water flows in... repeat. A peroclator, especially one with a rheostat temperature setting, can make the most of grounds.

ADC and Espresso are one-pass. It's the same temperature ranges, typically, but the flow rate is usually aimed to be about 5-30 seconds in the grounds. Most, like the $10 machine behind me as I type this, use a thermal cycle to drive the water. Some use pumps... I've used pump driven machines, too, and they're faster, but the result is the same - hot water single pass over grounds with the grounds kept out of the desination

Loose grounds can be used. Temperature and brewing times vary similarly to tea. Just like loose tea, how many grounds, how hot, how finely ground, and how long determines how strong and what flavor profile.

There are commercial coffee bags.

Most people seem to prefer the flavor profile of the single-pass ADC method. I prefer cold-brewed, then loose grounds is my second choice, and percolated a very close third. I use my ADC for tea...

But, excepting pump-fed ADCs, they all use thermal circulation to a degree.

So in zero G, you need to circulate the water to get good brewing. And teabag-style produces a different flavor profile, even in gravity, due to the usually unheated brew container, and the reduced dispersion...

NASA's brewer (at least the one I read about) uses pods, and pumped hot water, and is a single pass. Many aircraft also do likewise. High pressure steam makes for a different flavor profile... I like it, many don't, and a few navy guys I've know swear by it. (Some ships tapped the steam system for the preinstalled coffee machines for the mess.)
Click to expand...
I've heard in said that during WW2, the british tank crews would stash metal canteens either on the engine radiator or another hot location, In order to have hot water ready for brewing up when they got into location. i've even heard stories of them siphoning off water form the radiator itself for this purpose, but im not sure I believe that (surely that water was full of anti-freeze?).

Either way, this practice was apparently one of the drivers to the UK tradition of installing Boiling Vessels (insulated kettles) into their armoured vehicles, as it stopped the crew doing stupid things to get hot water. that, and the NBC threat made them realise that a tank crew might need to spend several days inside his tank without the ability to get out and use a cooker.


even today, when I was out in Oman on exercise, when out driving around, we found it easier to simply stick our food on the bonnet and led the waste heat warm it than mess around with cookers. only worked if you'd been driving and the engine was hot, but it worked.
 
wbuthod said:
Gravity would be a necessity for drip, pour-over and percolator brewing. "spin gravity" would suffice, I'd think. The amount of acceleration affects time of contact between grounds and water.

Espresso, Aeropress, and French press methods don't necessarily need gravity. A caulking gun could be a REALLY big Aeropress, which is what made me chuckle.
Click to expand...

Argotech and Levazza developed an espresso machine for use on the ISS, works great in microgravity. Probably TL8.

ISSpresso

 
Last edited by a moderator:
One of these days, I need to grid and try the "most expensive coffee in the world" that my son got me when he was on Bali. Then, hopefully, my dearly beloved and extremely accomplished daughter bought me some Jamaican Blue Mountain while in Jamaica.:coffeesip::coffeesip::coffeegulp:
 
Xerxeskingofking said:
I've heard in said that during WW2, the british tank crews would stash metal canteens either on the engine radiator or another hot location, In order to have hot water ready for brewing up when they got into location. i've even heard stories of them siphoning off water form the radiator itself for this purpose, but im not sure I believe that (surely that water was full of anti-freeze?).
Click to expand...
I've done that (the canteen) with a metal canteen and a early 1980's Chevy Blazer.

Many older vehicle designs used just plain old tap water; still, the piping is likely to have used a soft lead-tin or lead-tin-antimony solder, as the piping is likely to remain under 150° C... tastes sweet, kills slow...

Modern designs use toxic antifreeze.
 
In World War 2, ground vehicles pretty much all used straight water for the radiator. Prestone, i.e. anti-freeze, was reserved for aircraft use. The British for the desert developed a water-condensing system to run truck exhaust through to recover the water created by burning gasoline, with the recovered water going into the radiator, as it was not quite potable.
 
nobby-w said:
Not Luwak (civet poo coffee) is it?
Click to expand...

Maybe, maybe not. The top entry (at bottom, ironically) on this list of the five most expensive coffees in the world says that "Black Ivory" sells for more than twice the cost of Kopi Luwak, and furthermore is considered "animal cruelty-free". Another article, not linked, puts the cost ratio at more than 3:1. [DISCLOSURE: link above is to blog entry on "The Manual", a recommendation/lifestyle blog that reads like a wealthy millennial that was parented by GQ, The Robb Report, and Wirecutter in a polyamorous commune]

All I have to say on the matter is, "elephants... what is it with coffee and animal scat?"

There are also a couple of Central American producers with a net annual product in the tens of pounds, at ~$500/lb.
 
Tiikeri said:
I'd be safer locked in a dark room with a [defecating] civet. Can I say [defecating] civet?
Click to expand...

220px-Paradox_hermaph_060924_ltn.jpg

"I'll allow it. The Mods may say otherwise."
 
"Look kids, the civet's making coffee!"

"Please ma'am, step behind the observation screen. He requires absolute privacy."
 
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