Better Living Through Engineering
Irradiated by Stingray
Mmmm, a fresh bag of your favorite coffee, waiting for the loving application of carefully measured and precisely heated water to bring forth the best possible flavor and aroma. It’s going to be a good day.
But… wait… if I open the bag, the vacuum seal will break, and oxygen will reach my precious beans! The delicious oils will begin to break down and produce sub-optimal coffee! What will I do? How can I avoid this stark nightmare of inadequate caffeine delivery?!
BAM.
Know what that is? That’s modern freakin’ technology kicking ass in a compact package, that’s what that is. No longer a slave to the petty whims of atmosphere, that little can will pump out a pretty dang respectable amount of air from around your precious beans to keep them at peak flavor for longer.
See? Even got a little filter for dust. Pour in your favorite recently-opened bag o’ beans, flip the latch down, and the little button on top…
Yeah, that one at the back. That’s your vacuum indicator right there. Flip the clamp up, lever it down into the closed position just like any other regular kitchen jar, and you’re rewarded with this ridiculously cute little “chug-chug-chug-chug-chug” noise as it evacuates all (ok, most of) the evil oxygen from its precious cargo. Here we see it partway done:
Hell yeah. Coffee preservation achieved with just a couple of AA batteries!
“But Stingray,” I hear some smarty pants getting ready to pipe up in the back, “what about the natural off-gassing from the beans themselves? That’s why they had to come up with those little one-way valves for the coffee bags in the first place!”
Well to that I reply stop being a damn know-it-all in the middle of my post! You know and I know perfectly well that roasted coffee will continue to emit gas until it’s ground and used, you think folks obsessed enough to make a hand-held vacuum-pumping kitchen gizmo forgot about it? Nope, you’re covered there too. On the bottom is a little switch (which doesn’t photograph well, incidentally) to control how often the pump kicks on to take care of that little problem. Paranoid, or have fresh home-roasted coffee? Set that sucker to run every 12 hours. A little less paranoid? Go every 24, or even every 48. The first few days you have one of these, it won’t be a problem though. The sheer awesomeness of walking around with a little silver canister going “chug-chug-chug-chug-chug” in your hands will make sure the air is pumped out pretty often. Don’t ask how I know this!
And there you have it. For the price of a dinner and a couple of beers, you too can have a free-standing testament to just how awesome modern technology has become. What self-respecting coffee snob could possibly live without one?
March 22nd, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Looks like a good way to keep Jamaican Blue Mountain.
March 22nd, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Thanks! I needed to find something with a little gee-whiz power for husband’s b-day, and I think this will do quite nicely.
March 22nd, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Yeah, but if the coffee beans are off-gassing coffee gas, it’s still not air; it’s coffee gas. Don’t think coffee gas ruins the flavor of coffee.
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:11 am
What do you get for the man who has everything?
You’re in luck! Turns out he doesn’t yet have everything!
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:40 am
What OrangeNeck said. Only scenario I could see that’s a problem is with overpressure from outgassing somehow breaking the seal, and air entering the chamber following that. How likely is that, in what sort of use? Hmmm.
March 23rd, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Yawn …
Got a FoodSaver vacuum sealer. Used it for many years now. It vacuums and seals plastic containers that can be used for pecans and other such things that oughta be kept that way. It vacuums and seals plastic bags of whatever length you wanna cut ‘em off at that can be used for meat, cheeze, veggies, and all manner of good eats to be stored in the fridge or freezer.
I s’pose it could be used for coffee, but I dunno. I never touch the stuff.
But it’s hell on wheels for deer, elk, cheddar, jalapeños, …
It’s available at WalMart, too.
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Heck, I’m gonna get one and put some Weasel Puke coffee in it
http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/drinks/b439/
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Nortius, I’d imagine that the system has some sort of one-way valve such that any excess pressure inside the cylinder could be vented to the atmosphere, but that outside air couldn’t enter.
In fact, I’d posit that it’s an integral component of the vacuum pump itself.
/deals with big vacuum pumps in the lab
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:29 pm
I’m leaning towards excited about the vacuum coffee flask, but I’m positively giddy about the hand-crank burr grinder:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/accessories/afc6/?cpg=ab
Wonder what they’d say about that on the way through security….
March 26th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Why not just roast your own beans?
Fresher and evidently not all that hard or difficult.