This is a great alternative for those who have an aversion to the taste of the paper filters from drip brewers or for people who dislike the sediment in the bottom of the cup from the French press method. The Syphon/Vacuum Pot was fashionable from around the first world war through the 1950s, also known as a coffee syphon it has two glass globes with one sitting on top of the other with a filter between them and the entire set up is suspended over a spirit lamp. Water in the lower globe is forced through heat into the upper globe where the ground coffee is contained. Heat removal after brewing will create a vacuum, thereby drawing coffee back into the lower globe. What makes the vacuum pot method of brewing unique is, among others, its extraction. The right extraction of coffee solids, the soluble solids which are needed to give the coffee its flavour and body, will yield the ideal coffee. The extraction rate depends on how hot the water is, how long the ground coffee remains in contact with the water, and how fine or coarse the grind is. Coffee connoisseurs consider the vacuum pot method far superior to drip coffee due to the fact that in the drip method hot water is simply poured over ground coffee in a filter, thereby under-extracting the coffee solids. The vacuum pot is noted for its brew because as the coffee is brewed in the upper globe, the water temperature is found to be in the range of 198 to 200 degrees, well within the ideal temperature of 196 to 205 degrees f. This range reveals the full spectrum of aromas and flavours in the ground coffee, thereby giving a denser-textured, fuller-flavoured cup than one otherwise probably used to.
