Apollo Coffee Machine

[Hiroyuki]

The former president of Matsuya Coffee in Aichi prefecture, Japan, was the inventor of the Apollo coffee machine.

He once made coffee in Kilimanjaro, drank it, and found it was good. He thought and thought why it was good, and assumed that the atmosphere was related to this. So, he made a machine that brewed coffee under reduced pressure. It was in 1969, when Apollo landed on the moon, so he named it the Apollo coffee (machine).

The machine looks like this

Look at the machine on the left.

Mr. Nakagawa of Flavor coffee has studied brewing under reduced pressure for years. When I asked him about the percentage of completion of his Apollo coffee machine, he replied that it was about 80%.

I also asked him if there was anyone in Japan or abroad studying brewing under reduced pressure. He replied that there were probably no one but him.

So, my question is: Do you know of anyone who studies coffee brewing under reduced pressure?

[phaelon56]

I linked the referenced page to a Gooogle language translation service.

The Japanese to English version is in beta and is still rather primitive but I did glean some information that was of interest.

If you're trying to detemrine whether other manufacturers or coffee technologists are studying coffee brewing under pressure but under less pressure an espresso machine uses I suggest looking at the new machine offered by the Coffee Equipment Company of Seattle WA

The Clover 1 Coffee Machine

It uses both steeping by immersion and also vacuum pressure to achieve excellent extraction in very short times and produces coffee by the single cup. I missed my oppiortunity to see a Clover demo in my area this past January as I was out on travel. But I look forward to checking one out when I next visit Portland OR or Vancouver WA.

[Hiroyuki]

Thanks for the link, Owen. I checked the specifications of the machine but I couldn't find any mention of air pressure.

What Mr. Nakagawa means by extraction or brewing "under reduced pressure" is to reduce the air pressure in the container containing a coffee brewer and then brew coffee under reduced pressure. He has found that the lower the pressure the stronger the coffee, but also the more the unpleasnt flavors, and that approximately 0.8 atomospheric pressure results in good coffee.

I hope I can provide some more information when and if his machine is completed.

[phaelon56]

More info on how the Clover works can be seen here - scroll down the linked page to the January 27, 2006 entry by Andy Schecter to seee the illustrated explanation of how the Clover does what it does.

How the Clover works

Pressure at sea level is 1.0325 bars. I find it quite interesting that as small a change as going to 0.8 bars would have a distinct impact on the quality of the coffee.