Extraction: the one word that can sum up every coffee-making process in existence.

You add a solid (coffee grounds) into a solvent (water), and voilà, you can enjoy an infused liquid (coffee).

Unfortunately, extraction’s not always easy—or quick! The process can take seconds, minutes, or even days, depending on how it’s done. While investing time into getting the perfect coffee is commendable, I happen to have a ridiculously short attention span and am incredibly impatient—I’m not waiting 12 hours for a drink! So I turned to science, which helped me make cold brew in a fraction of the time it usually needs.

Rapid Extraction

The key to extracting espresso in mere seconds is manipulating the pressure. So how do you do that? Well, I rely on one piece of kitchen equipment: the chamber vacuum machine.

Standard vacuum chamber machine

Credit: Dapper Coffee

What the Heck Does a Chamber Vacuum Machine Do?

The chamber vac, typically used to seal bags, can do a lot more than that. Importantly for us impatient coffee-lovers, it:

1. Decreases pressure to extreme levels, and then decompresses to return to atmospheric pressure.

2. Forces surrounding liquid into a porous solid, and then sucks the liquid back out.

Not sure what that has to do with extracting coffee? Well, let’s explore that now.

Making the 60 Second Cold Brew

“The Cold Fashioned”—vacuum infused cold brew served at Dapper Coffee

Credit: Dapper Coffee

It’s time to look at the method of making a rapidly infused cold brew coffee. The jargon may sound a bit complex, but trust me, the process is actually simple.

Step 1: get a regular plastic container—any kind will do, so long as it fits in the machine—and put your grounds in it. I prefer to use a pretty fine grind with a 1:9 ratio of coffee to water.

Credit: Dapper Coffee

Step 2: add water. Any temperature and any kind of water is okay; I often use tap water at room temperature.

Credit: Dapper Coffee

Step 3: cling wrap the top of the container to prevent spillage. Ran out of cling wrap? I’m afraid you need to go out and buy some. Don’t be tempted to use the plastic lid that came with the tub instead; cling wrap is better because it allows more room for stretching during the vacuuming.

Credit: Dapper Coffee

Step 4: it’s time to set your machine. I normally set it to 60 seconds, which gives me a great syrupy tasting brew. Alternatively, 35 seconds gives me a cleaner liquid, almost like I’ve used a Chemex. However, different vacuum machines have different settings so feel free to tweak with yours.

Credit: Dapper Coffee

Step 5: close the lid and listen to the sweet vacuum action

Credit: Dapper Coffee

Step 6: for the first 15 seconds, it won’t look like anything is really happening. Don’t panic—that’s normal.

Credit: Dapper Coffee

Step 7: Bloop bloop bloop bloop!

Suddenly, your liquid will come to a rolling boil. This is because the pressure has been lowered so much that room temperature has become the boiling point for the liquid—kind of like how water boils at a lower temperature up in the mountains because of lower atmospheric pressure. Cool, right?

Credit: Dapper Coffee

Step 8: Pssscchhhtttt! Decompression just happened. This step is handy because it takes all the air out of the liquid at once.

The cling wrap has been completely sucked in

Credit: Dapper Coffee

Step 9: your coffee has been extracted. Remove the cling film and then filter the coffee with a strainer. If you wanted to remove all the sediments, you could even pass it through Chemex or V60 paper. And once you’ve done that, it’s time to enjoy your refreshing cold brew.

Credit: Dapper Coffee

For the Home Barista

While chamber vacuums are super cool, they are also pretty pricey. Don’t worry, because a hoover actually works just as well. All you need is one of those vacuum bags with one-way valves—the kind you pack your clothes in when travelling.

As seen on Heston Blumenthal’s Blackforest Gateau episode on “In Search of Perfection”

BBC Food Channel – YouTube

Aerated chocolate – the result of vacuum action!

Don’t Limit Yourself to Coffee

While we all love coffee, there’s also plenty of other things you can make with vacuum infusion.

The process works with any porous solid and any solvent. At my bar, we whip up a deliciously fresh tasting strawberry syrup, which retains the juicy acidity of the fruit (as no heat is involved), and also a spiced rum using white rum, dried oranges and a variety of sweet spices. And of course, all of it is done in a minute or less.

Too Good to Be True?

So aside from the brevity, why is vacuum infusion so good? Well, it doesn’t compromise the flavours of the coffee, unlike the nitro-method (which I find makes the coffee taste really metallic). All the pure, beautiful flavours and aromas stay true.

It’s easy, it’s quick, and it produces delicious coffee. What’s not to like?

Next week, check in to learn how to filter coffee to crystal-clarity without using a single piece of filter paper!

Written by Christine Seah.

Perfect Daily Grind