Vacuum Coffee Pots - They are powered by Black Magic. (Some might call it physics)

Val here...

So we began to have trouble with our coffee pot.  Thomas got tired of it and got rid of it.

That left us with dunn dunn dunn.... the Vacuum Pot.  It looks innocent enough...for a stainless steel contraption that looks like it belongs on the bench of a Satanic Alchemist...

Thomas used it occasionally to make coffee when he wanted a GOOD cup of coffee.

It mystified me. Thomas would put water in one end and coffee in another - it would start bubbling like crazy and he would do that mad scientist laugh and cackle about taking over the world and then there was coffee.* 

Das Devil Pot.

Once he left me with it going, said to watch for the bubbling and turn it down, but I turned my back for a moment and then there was angry hissing and an ominous gurgling sound.  I turned around and there was black muck everywhere...

So yeah... we are back to the vacuum pot, or as I like to call it, the devil pot. 

Did I mention I am in grad school?  Grad students are coffee powered reading machines.  When deprived of coffee, we just kind of curl up and die...

Did I mention I am not at my best in the mornings?  Typical grad school exhaustion from late nights plus narcolepsy plus never been a morning person?  

I only had one way to get the fuel to survive... master the devil pot.  Not just succeed...I had to be able to master it in the zombie like state I am in when I drag myself out of bed.

Now Thomas has brought his daughter Goggles up steeped in the lore of the black magic devil pot.  She would cackle maniacally as she flaunted her evil coffee making skills. 

I would try and try ... either it exploded, or in fear of the explosion I took it off the heat too soon and it would just sit there and mock me - a murky muddy puddle of water and coffee grounds. Thomas or Goggles would roll their  eyes and work their evil charms on it and I would have coffee. 

Then one day, mumbling incantations under my breath (and figuring out that the stronger the change in temperature, the better the vacuum would work) and I had coffee. Score 1 for Val (We will ignore the unfairly high score the devil pot had - it was cheating)

Now I, too have become an expert in using the black magic of vacuum coffeemancy.  Sometimes, though I wish for the simplicity of pushing a button and getting coffee.

I fear for my mortal soul, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do to survive.


*This might be slightly exaggerated from what really happens.


Thomas Here...

Magic is just science you don't understand. Just sayin'. 8^)

BTW, The Black Magic Devil Pot is a vintage stainless steel vacuum pot.