A coffeemaker, coffee maker or coffee machine is a cooking appliance used to brew

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

. While there are many different types of coffeemakers the two most common brewing principles use gravity or pressure to move hot water through coffee grounds. In the most common devices, coffee grounds are placed into a paper or metal filter inside a funnel, which is set over a glass or ceramic coffee pot, a

cooking pot Cookware and bakeware is food preparation equipment, such as cooking pots, pans, baking sheets etc. used in kitchens. Cookware is used on a stove or range cooktop, while bakeware is used in an oven. Some utensils are considered both cookware ...

in the

kettle A kettle, sometimes called a tea kettle or teakettle, is a type of pot specialized for boiling water, commonly with a ''lid'', ''spout'', and ''handle'', or a small electric kitchen appliance of similar shape that functions in a self-contained ...

family. Cold water is poured into a separate chamber, which is then boiled and directed into the funnel and allowed to drip through the grounds under gravity. This is also called '' automatic drip-brew''. Coffee makers that use pressure to force water through the coffee grounds are called espresso makers, and they produce espresso coffee.

Types

Vacuum brewers

On August 27, 1930, Inez H. Peirce of Chicago, Illinois, filed her patent for the first

vacuum coffee maker A vacuum coffee maker brews coffee using two chambers where vapor pressure and gravity produce coffee. This type of coffee maker is also known as ''vac pot'', ''siphon'' or ''syphon coffee maker,'' and was invented by Loeff of Berlin in the 1830s ...

that truly automated the vacuum brewing process, while eliminating the need for a stovetop burner or liquid fuels.

Cafetiere

cafetiere A French press, also known as a cafetière, ''cafetière à piston'', ''caffettiera a stantuffo'', press pot, coffee press, or coffee plunger, is a coffee brewing device, although it can also be used for other tasks. In 1923 Ugo Paolini, an Ital ...

(coffee plunger, French press in US English) requires coffee of a coarser grind than does a drip brew

coffee filter A coffee filter is a filter used for brewing coffee. Filters made of paper (disposable), or cloth, plastic, and metal (reusable) are used. The filter allows the liquid coffee to flow through, but traps the coffee grounds. Paper filters remove oi ...

, as finer grounds will seep through the press filter and into the coffee. Because the coffee grounds remain in direct contact with the brewing water and the grounds are filtered from the water via a mesh instead of a paper filter, coffee brewed with the cafetiere captures more of the coffee's flavour and

essential oil An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the o ...

s, which would become trapped in a traditional drip brew machine's paper filters. As with drip-brewed coffee, cafetiere coffee can be brewed to any strength by adjusting the amount of ground coffee which is brewed. If the used grounds remain in the drink after brewing, French pressed coffee left to stand can become "bitter", though this is an effect that many users of cafetiere consider beneficial. For a cafetiere, the contents are considered spoiled, by some reports, after around 20 minutes.

Single-serve coffeemaker

The single-serve or single-cup coffeemaker had gained popularity by the 2000s.

References

External links