Vacuum coffee makers

[ronhic]

Well, having never seen one in Oz, I thought I would investigate....lo' and behold, Peters Of Kensington had a Bodum Santos in their range for a reasonable price so I grabbed it....

To the best of my knowledge, these were either not available or just not popular here in the 30's-70's when most of the major electrical manufaturers had them in their range. I have never, as an example, seen a Sunbeam version here, yet have seen most other Sunbeam appliances through the years....

Anyway, have brewed first pot and, apart from needing to increase the coffee in comparison to a French Press, it is certainly smooth....ahhhhh

http://www.petersofkensington.com.au/Product/ProductInfo.aspx?id=1632773
View attachment ronhic++12-5-2009-00-02-35.jpg

 

[tomturbomatic]

Coffee makers that suck, but in a good way

Chris, Congratulations and welcome to vacuum coffee brewing. No vaccum brewers for all of those years?! Amazing. Was everyone down there just drinking tea? They were sort of everywhere else and during the war years when metal was rationed, the fact that they were originally made of glass was another factor in their popularity. Their fragility was the most frustrating thing about them. In this country, electric percolators soared in popularity as their price came down in the 50s and they took over the coffee brewer market, but during the 20s through the early 50s, there were many different brands marketed here. Even in the early 60s, it was possible to buy one pound cans of coffee from the major coffee brands and even some store brands that were ground for all three types of brewers, perk, drip and fine for vacuum brewers. The A&P stores had a big coffee grinder at the end of every checkout lane where your bag of beans (Bokar, 8 O'Clock or Red Circle)was ground to order by adjusting a big dial on the side of the grinder for anything from the coarsest grind for open pot steeping (like Sweedish coffee) to almost powdered for Turkish coffee. Beside each selection was a picture of the type of brewer. Even our Kroger store had a grinder with all of those selections in the coffee aisle. I was the kid who always had to stop and stick my nose in the area where the coffee came out to inhale that wonderful aroma and mom would always let me inhale the aroma when she opened a new can of coffee.

By the way, ground coffee is the best refrigerator deodorizer you can use. The amount of surface area on the coffee cannot be beat for absorbing odors. Every few weeks, you give the shallow container a shake to redistribute the grounds and they will keep absorbing odors for months. I keep mine in a shelf on the door of the freezer where the air stream from the fan hits them. My ice cubes never pick up food odors.

What about in England? Has anybody here seen ads for vacuum brewers in magazines or remember seeing them anywhere? I realize that most of you are too young to be able to remember seeing them in homes or stores.

I hope you enjoy your new Bodum. Vacuum coffee makers were always said to produce a superior cup of coffee because the water was kept below the boiling point in the upper bowl. I just like them because they remind me of a washing machine the way the water fills the upper bowl, agitates and then drains with lots of visual, olfactory and auditory stimulus.

 

[jasonl]

Bodum Santos

I lost mine to Hurricane Katrina but it was my daily driver.

Now I do own 2 vintage Sunbeams. BOTH work but one has a bad rubber (LOL).

Besides French Press, those pots make GREAT coffee.

 

[jasonl]

Before Katrina

Here it is, back in the day doing its thing. I miss living in that little traila.

Amazingly that trailer is still there and the people that I sold it to are still living in it.

But when I moved back to Chalmette the coffee pot (and everything else) got destroyed.

 

[jasonl]

Also, if you can find a Silex glass coffee filter rod on ebay, it works well in the Bodum.

Use coarse ground coffee (like for perc or french press). Get the water boiling by itself on the stove. Put the top on. Lower the heat. Let it bubble for about 3 minutes. REMOVE from the heat (put it in its plastic holder, it won't hurt it) and it will do its thing. Remove the top and enjoy.

 

[whirlcool]

We certainly do love our Sunbeam C-30's. They do make the smoothest cup. And the aroma they emit while brewing is just great.

Jason, we bought one of those new replacement seals a guy on Ebay sometimes sells. They work perfectly.

One thing we found with our Sunbeam is that the coffee we originally drank (Guatmalan Antigua) didn't taste the same brewed
in the Sunbeam. We tried another one we thought was just ok and it tastes just wonderful via the vacuum method.

I feel that these Sunbeam vacuum pots will last forever. They are a bit messier to clean than a regular drip pot, but the better flavor all makes up for that.

 

[jasonl]

You can definitely hear it when the Sunbeam's thermostat trips. CLANK! A few minutes later... coffee.

 

[ronhic]

It is....

....the smoothest coffee that I have made. I don't use anything fancy as far as coffee goes...Actually, is Aldi's Amaroy - Dark Roast....seems to work a treat either plunger or now, with vacuum....

 

[bendixbubba]

Electric Santos

Vacuum pots are the best! This is my daily driver

 

[bajaespuma]

Tom, you hit a chord

An incredible sense memory: standing at the end of a checkout aisle at our local A&P and waiting for someone to ask for their Bokar or Eight o'clock beans(what was the name of the beans in the yellow bag?) to be ground by a checker. The aroma was intoxicating! Inspired a love of coffee that I've carried with me through life. I miss the A&P, it was like an extension of home.

I love vacuum pots, but to this day I remember that eventually, we ended up with nothing but carafes as all the brewing bowls broke.

I will look for that Bodum model. I have collected a few antique pots and I like the look of that one.

Have any of you tried the Chemex drip pots? I have a friend who makes terrific coffee out of one.

 

[rp2813]

Chemex

My sister swears by her Chemex automatic. It uses a 70's Norelco brewing mechanism with a couple of tweaks to it, and a Chemex carafe and filter. I can't believe it has held up for so long.

The Safeway stores in this area used to have, I believe, Nob Hill brand coffee that had the same bag & grinder system at the end of the aisle. I'd love the smell of those chutes the ground coffee would come out of.

If I ever come across an old Sunbeam C-30 that's reasonably priced, I'll probably snag it. That was the first coffee maker my parents owned after getting married in 1949, and it probably lasted a dozen or so years before being replaced with a Corningware percolator. As I recall, the Sunbeam was accidentally turned on without any water, and the strange smell that resulted is something I'd recognize instantly (no pun intended). I think that was the end of the line for the Sunbeam.

 

[ronhic]

Electric Santos...

...would have been fantastic, but they were never brought in here AND I didn't feel like paying several hundred dollars to have one shipped from the US (wrong voltage anyway) or Europe (appaulingly high postage cost)....

 

[whirlcool]

What do most people use for filter media in their Sunbeam pots?

 

[whirlcool]

I wonder if these would fit the C-30 too?

http://cgi.ebay.com/26-VINTAGE-SUNB...all_Kitchen_Appliances_US?hash=item1c0e636067

 

[tomturbomatic]

The stainless steel web filter with 180 wires per inch is a very effective filter on its own. If you have the perforated plate that goes over it, you can sandwich a cloth filter, fuzzy side down between the two pieces of metal. It is important to have the correct filter cloth. Those made for the C20 brewers have a larger hole in the center than those made for the C30 and C50 models. They require a lot of extra care, though. After each use, the filter has to be taken apart. The sludge on the top of the cloth has to be rinsed off with the forceful stream of the faucet sprayer. The cloth is then removed from the filter and has to be kept in a covered container of water in the refrigerator to keep the coffee oils from going rancid. With daily use, the cloth needs to be boiled weekly with an UNSCENTED dishwasher detergent or STPP solution to remove the oils. Thorough rinsing after this is necessary. This procedudre applies to all coffee brewer filter cloths, whether Silex, Cory or other brands.

As you know, the early automatic Coffeemasters used only a cloth filter. After they came up with the permanent stainless filter, Sunbeam found that with water from certain water softening systems, the stainless steel web filter did not perform well so they recommended using the filter cloth with it to improve the filtration.

 

[whirlcool]

Thanks for the info, I didn't know that.
We have an ample supply of the C-30 filters. I just rinse them liberally in hot water, ring them out and hang them on a hook over the sink to dry. They don't have any odor at all when they are dry. About once a week, I put them in a mug of water and boil them in the microwave. It does seem to remove more from the filter.
We do wash and rinse all the coffemaster components after each brewing.

 

[maytagbear]

The OTHER A&P coffee

was Red Circle, and I didn't like it much. Eight o' Clock, or Bokar.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[whirlcool]

They recently opened a new grocery store near us(HEB). In the coffee section they have a choice of about 50 different coffee beans and a grinder like A&P used to have with 8 O'Clock. But the beans are in sealed container dispensers so you can't really tell what each bean smells like. But when you walk through the area, you are almost overwhelmed (in a good way) by the aroma of freshly ground coffee.