Brewed beverages, such as coffee or tea, are very popular and common among many types of people in various cultures and in numerous countries around the world. Getting the best quality brew in the most efficient manner has been the goal of many coffee and tea brewers for many years.
Over the last two decades the coffee and tea industry has evolved from a commodity based industry to one of specialty products, retail outlets and consumer driven increase of quality and cost. Starbucks Corporation sparked the evolution within the industry in the United States resulting in retail concept and beverage concept innovation, the birth of the US style “Cafe Culture” and consumer demand for better quality coffee products. However, this entire evolution of the coffee industry was built on the methods and technologies developed over 80 years ago.
The French press was invented in the 1850's. The espresso machine was created in 1822. Emerson's vacuum brewer was invented in 1922. Melitta Bentz's coffee filters were invented in 1908. There have been numerous modifications, improvements and automations to these processes and apparatuses over the years. However, despite the explosion of beverage and retail innovation over the last two decades not one significant new brewing/infusing process has emerged.
In 2006 The Coffee Equipment Company launched “the Clover”, which is an automated French press, capable of making a hot beverage in less than 60 seconds. The apparatus proved that there is a need for single serving, quick turn over and created a niche in the industry where ultra premium coffees could now be brewed and served by the cup in an acceptable retail turnover rate. The Coffee Equipment Company was soon recognized for their “Clover” by Starbucks and was purchased in 2008. The purchase created a void in the market for a single serving brewer capable of creating ultra premium drinks in under 60 seconds.
The “cold brewing” of coffee and tea has also been practiced for countless years in countries around the world. This process involves the soaking and or brewing/infusing of coffee or tea with room temperature water in a vessel for 12 to 24 hours. This process is considered by many as the optimal method to extracting the right solid from the dried media. However, the process takes too much time for the typical consumer.
The niche created by the “Clover” and the “cold brewing” method became the inspiration for the development of the inventive process and apparatus described herein. The goal was to create a process that could be versatile enough to be used to brew both coffee and tea, as well as to brew using both with hot and cold water. The invention is a completely new and unique process which does not adhere to any of the restrictions or methods of anything that has ever existed. The process, which brews in a vacuum environment, has tremendous range in all the parameters and can be utilized to brew as quickly or slowly, as hot or as cold as desired in less time then conventional methods allow.
The term “vacuum” has been used in the past in connection with the brewing of coffee. For example, in 1922 Emerson was issued U.S. Pat. No. 1,674,857 for a “vacuum” brewing process. This conventional process involves an upper and lower vessel. The lower vessel holds water and is placed above a heat source. The upper vessel holds the dried media or coffee. The upper vessel, resembling a funnel with a long neck, sits atop the lower vessel. The long stem from the upper vessel goes down into the lower vessel below the water level. The two are connected via an airtight seal at the top of the lower vessel and the beginning of the neck for the upper.
When the water is heated it rises through the tube into the upper vessel and saturates the dried media in the funnel of the upper vessel. Once the heat is removed a “vacuum” occurs in the lower vessel as the water vapor contracts as it cools. The resulting vacuum creates a suction which pulls the liquid from the upper vessel back down to the lower vessel. Therefore, the “vacuum” acts as a mechanism to create extract or to suck the liquid through the coffee and filter in order to separate the two. There is no point where the coffee or dried media brew inside a vacuum during the process defined by Emerson. Similar systems are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,295,920 to Barden et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 2,467,817 to Dietz.
Automated “vacuum” brewers such as Starbucks's “Clover” operate under the same principal of brewing under normal atmospheric conditions while using suction/vacuum pressure below a filter as a mechanism to separate liquid from solids. There is no suggestion of brewing the water and dried media completely inside a vacuum chamber while negative pressure is occurring.
In 1935 Davis was granted U.S. Pat. No. 2,079,603 that describes a coffee maker wherein a “vacuum” is partially created to aid as a mechanism to create movement within the brewing apparatus. During the brewing process the heating of the water creates steam pressure which actually suspends the upper vessel like a hot air balloon above a steaming pot of water. When the heat is removed the steam pressure cools thus creating a vacuum, allowing the upper vessel, with dried media (coffee) to descend into the hot water. When the vacuum has pulled all available water inside the vessel, outside air is pulled in through the open spouts through the coffee creating a bubbling action.
The liquid in the Davis system is not boiling or bubbling due to a lack of surface pressure, but is bubbling due to the air which is getting pulled in through available vents into the process chamber. Since the entire apparatus is not sealed there is no possibility for the brewing to occur in a stabilized vacuum. Nor is there any mention of the brewing process occurring in a vacuum.
Although coffee, tea and other beverages have not previously been brewed in a vacuum, it has been suggested to use a vacuum to cook other food products. For example, in 1940 Smaltz was granted U.S. Pat. No. 2,203,638 for a “Vacuum Cooking and Cooling” process for the processing of pie fillings, fruit preserves or the similar food products. According to the patent, a vacuum is pulled until all evaporation is complete. This is achieved by continuously running the vacuum pump and expelling the vacated vapor and air while the vacuum component of the process is being applied. There are no one way valves or manual valves that would allow for the vacuum to be regulated at anything other than the maximum capacity of the pump which is −29 Hg in.
As the Smaltz patent states, 29 inches of mercury vacuum will cause the pie filling to rapidly cool thereby halting the cooking process while allowing the product to cool rapidly without separating. He mentions that the vacuum/cooling process is a part of the process to reach a final finished product, whereas the removal of water vapors and temperature is defined as part of the “cooking” and “cooling” process. Cooking is defined as preparing under the application of heat. Therefore, Smaltz is only cooling with a vacuum, not cooking and there is no suggestion therein that his process can be used to brew coffee or tea or other beverage.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,885,294 issued to Larson in 1959 for an invention entitled “Oven and Method of Preparing Food”. The patent describes the beginning of the cooking process where a super atmospheric cycle or a “downward displacement” method are utilized to remove ambient air, which is replaced by steam pressure to cook the foodstuff quickly, without contaminants and without “impregnating” or saturating the interior of the foodstuff with water molecules. The ambient air is removed to prevent the loss of vitamins or nutritional elements as well as to avoid the “impregnation” and or saturation of the foodstuff with water molecules during the cooking process.
Larson mentions using a vacuum pump in the beginning of the cooking process for the sole reason of removing ambient air. This void is then filled with the expanding gasses of steam which is heated further by the heated walls of the oven, thus resulting in a positive pressure atmosphere. The cooking, therefore, does not actually take place in a vacuum. Furthermore, there is no suggestion in Larson that his process can be used to brew coffee or tea.
A need clearly exists for a beverage brewing machine and process that can provide a quick and efficient method for brewing or infusing a high quality beverage. It has been found that this can be accomplished by the proper use of a vacuum. To Applicant's knowledge, no one has attempted to brew coffee or tea or other beverage utilizing a vacuum in the chamber in which the beverage is brewed.