Coffee has been essential in our daily lives for hundreds of years, and it address, still addresses, and will continue to address our tastes with many methods of brewing, from past to present. The techniques of brewing coffee and the accessories used have a significant influence over the taste. As Espressolab, we wanted to take a quick look at the history of methods for brewing coffee.
Briefly, the methods of brewing coffee:
THE ADVENTURE BEGINNING WITH TURKISH COFFEE
“Turkish Coffee” is known as the world’s first method of brewing coffee.
Two stories prevail about the initial arrival of coffee in the Ottoman Empire. The first is that Hukm from Aleppo and Şems from Damascus brought Turkish coffee to Istanbul in 1554. They opened a shop in Tahtakale and began selling coffee. This coffee shop went down in history as the first known coffee shop in the world. It became an essential beverage, gaining a seat in the palace kitchen and in homes in the Ottoman Empire.
According to another story, Özdemir Pasha, the Governor of Yemen in 1517, brought to Istanbul coffee whose taste he adored. The coffee brought from Yemen moved into the Palace thanks to Özdemir Pasha.
Turkish coffee holds an important place on Ottoman Soil, and it crossed borders and spread throughout the world by Venetian merchants in 1615 and Marseillais merchants 1650 toward Europe.
But, the reason the reason that the originally Turkish coffee took root in Europe was the Siege of Vienna. The Austrians were introduced to coffee thanks to the Ottoman Army’s Siege of Vienna in 1683. Retreating from the gates of Vienna, the Ottoman Army left behind about 500 sacks of coffee. These sacks of coffee were actually going to be poured in the Danube, because the Viennese soldiers thought it was camel feed. However, George Kolschitzki, an agent of Austria who was closely familiar with Turkish culture, opened a coffee shop in Vienna with these coffees and thus quickly spread Turkish coffee culture to the west, assuming an important place.
While Turkish coffee was prepared in those years, raw coffee beans were roasted and then ground up finely, being smashed in mortars, and it was then cooked in coffee tins over coals or a wood fire and served. Turkish coffee takes its form in which we consume it today with the roasting temperature, cooking, and watering. The method of brewing Turkish coffee uses no filters of any kind. While brewing, the coffee is brought to a boil a couple of times, and the brewing process is completed.
POUR OVER
Drip brewing, filtered coffee, or pour over, a Drip Coffee method, is formed from the process of drizzling water at a certain temperature and for a certain length of time and pouring it over coffee, and it was a process that has been quite popular since the early 1900s and whose start has shown even brighter, particularly with the spread of quality coffee. It is the clearest state of the dance of the barista with coffee. It requires professionalism, and you must know the coffee. It is quite open to producing different tastes by creating more than 10 brewing profiles with one type of coffee. It is a method of brewing in which you completely and accurately produce the structure and character of the bean.
ESPRESSO
The first version of the espresso machine emerged around 1901 along with the industrial revolution in Europe, but this of course did not resemble the espresso machines of today.
The original concept of espresso was something that could quickly be prepared, and the word “espresso” comes from the word express. Milanese inventor Luigi Bezzera succeeded in making the first espresso machine after years-long studies. Today’s form of the espresso machine was created with Gaggia’s invention of the spring piston in 1947. In the 1960s, the Italian Carlo Ernesto Valente developed the E61 model. With this machine, the automatic pumping system replaces the spring piston. This machine completed the system necessary for a good espresso by applying 9 bars of pressure. The rate of 9 bars of pressure is fixed today in models produced for home. This rate rises up to 15 bars in more professional machines.
SYPHON
Loeff discovered the Syphon in Berlin in 1930. It is a heating system that has a two-component structure. Fundamentally, the coffee brews by pushing water heated with steam pressure from one chamber into another chamber where the coffee sits. The Syphon method of brewing helps you attain a hotter coffee compared with other methods of brewing. We ended up dissolving the bitter substances in coffee with this method of brewing. The syphon, became common after being discovered in Europe and gained admiration of a culture stretching to America and from there to Japan.
FRENCH PRESS
The French Press is the both the most classic and the most commonly used piece of equipment around the world to brew filtered coffee. Although the Italians appear to have filed its first patent appears in 1932, the French frequently used it throughout the 1800s. It has a very simple structure. It comprises a glass container and, at the end, a metal filter that separates the coffee grounds from the coffee you drink. A brewing period of a minimum 4 minutes should be recognized, and based on that, and the beans should be ground a little bit thicker than for filtered coffee. It’s possible to get the bitter taste of coffee when it comes into contact with water, and you must separate the water and coffee after 4 minutes. It’s a method of brewing that allows you to see coffee oils in your cup.
MOKA POT
What’s a Moka Pot? Bialetti is a company that has been producing simple and useful kitchen appliances in Italy since the early 1900s. Alfonso Bialetti in 1933 invented Bialetti’s iconic Moka Pot Express model. The Moka Pot Express is made from cast aluminum with an octagonal lower chamber, filter, and brewing section, and it has won numerous design awards for its simple and chic design.
The Moka Pot Express is a coffee-brewing pot that helps you brew coffee with 2.5-3 bars of pressure created by steam inside it on the stove and with which you get the taste closest to espresso.
CHEMEX
German Dr. Peter Schlumbohm discovered Chemex in 1941. Dr. Peter Schlumbohm was an inventor who had filed about 300 patents. MOMA chose Chemex as the best design in 1943. The Illinois Institute of Technology also selected it as one of the best 100 designs of modern times.
While brewing, there are a few things you should look out for. First, the point to which from which the filter paper leaks must be quite small. The unity of the coffee and water is thus prolonged by slowly brewing the coffee. You must brew your coffee larger than filtered coffee but larger than French Press. Another item to note is to use a timer while brewing. The time always confirms and corrects you.
The most important rule of the Chemex technique of brewing is the rule of 2 minutes and 30 seconds. If you follow the rule of 2 minutes, 30 seconds, you’ll minimize your margin of error. Start the timer the moment the water meets the coffee, and stop the timer the moment the water and coffee are done. The result will help you regulate the size of the coffee particles. If it lasts for longer than 2.5 minutes, grind it a little thicker, and if it lasts shorter, then you can grind it a little finer.
AEROPRESS
The American toy-designer Alan Adler discovered the Aeropress method of brewing coffee in 2005. Aeropress will allow you to brew your coffee with the pressure method. It will be enough to brew coffee at 2-3 bars of pressure. The aroma of the coffee becomes more intense in this regard. Because it brews quickly, coffee that is comfortable and soft to drink, without acidity or bitterness, is acquired.