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History · History

History of brewing

How coffee brewing moved from boiling in a pot to drip pots, percolators, vacuum brewers, paper filters and plunger pots, and which of the usual dates rest on patents and which only on later accounts.

Across the chain: History · Equipment

Source-checkedby Coffearium verification pass· Last source-checked 27 Oct 2026· Prepared with AI assistance· 14 sources (3 tier A)· 2 contested· Updated 27 Oct 2026· Literature last searched 27 Oct 2026
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Contents
  • The first coffee drink in Yemen was made by boiling dried coffee husks, according to a historian; Turkish coffee is still brewed slowly in a pot on a stove.1,2
  • An 1887 American household manual describes the biggin, or French filter coffee-pot, with strainers in an upper pot, and still debates boiling against filtering.4
  • Hanson Goodrich’s US patent of 1889 describes a stove-top percolator: heated water rises through a tube and circulates continuously through the coffee.7
  • Melitta Bentz registered a paper coffee filter as a utility model on 20 June 1908; Peter Schlumbohm’s filter flask, the Chemex, was patented in the USA in 1941.10,12
  • Filtering changes the cup: in a 2025 study boiled coffee held 939 mg/L cafestol, and paper-filtered home brews a median of 12 mg/L.14

Boiling: the oldest method#

The first coffee drinks were boiled. According to a historian, the drink of Sufi communities in Yemen was made by boiling water with dried husks of coffee cherries.1 Boiling coffee and water together in a pot is called decoction. Turkish coffee keeps the method alive: the beans are ground to a fine powder and brewed slowly in a pot on a stove.2 According to a coffee science textbook, the coffee may come to the boil several times before the grounds settle.3 How the cezve and Ottoman coffee developed is covered in Ottoman coffee and the cezve.

Boiling was still common in American homes in the late 19th century. An American household manual of 1887 shows the debate. One author writes that whether coffee should be boiled “will probably be always a question”.4 Several authors boil the coffee with a raw egg to clear the brew.4 Others pour it through scalded muslin or hang a small cloth bag in the pot.4

Drip pots and the biggin#

The first step away from boiling was to let hot water drip through the grounds. The same 1887 manual calls the biggin a “French filter coffee-pot”.4 It describes it as a double coffee pot with one or more strainers in the upper pot.4 The ground coffee sits on a strainer; a coarse strainer is laid over it; boiling water is poured in and drips slowly through.4 One author describes a tin cylinder with two movable strainers and one fixed strainer, set on a coffee pot.4

Museum objects show how elaborate such pots became. A drip coffee maker in the Smithsonian collection, made in England and dated about 1850–1875, has three parts.5 The top holds a removable, perforated basket for the grounds, the middle has a tap, and the base holds a spirit burner.5 No source consulted for this entry dates the first biggin or explains the name.

Percolators: water pumped by its own heat#

A percolator moves the water through the coffee without a pour. In James Nason’s US patent of 1865, water poured into an inner vessel runs into a small cup, flows over it, “and thence percolates through the ground coffee”.6 A perforated disc, held by springs, rests on the coffee.6

The familiar stove-top percolator appears in a patent by Hanson Goodrich of Illinois. He filed it on 12 January 1889, and it was granted on 13 August 1889.7 Water is heated in a space under a base plate and rises through a central tube.7 It then flows over coffee held in a perforated cup and percolates through it.7 The patent stresses that “a continuous circulation of the water is maintained”.7

Percolators shaped American coffee for decades. In the 1920s, according to a historian, housewives tried percolators, drip coffee and Silex machines in turn.1 He argues that percolators passing boiling water through the coffee again and again over-extracted it, which helped give American coffee its thin, weak style.1 Electric drip machines are covered in Filter coffee machines.

Vacuum brewers#

A vacuum brewer, also called a siphon brewer, uses steam pressure and suction. Water in a lower glass sphere is heated, for example by a spirit burner.8 Once it boils, the vapour pressure pushes the water up a tube into an upper vessel that holds the ground coffee.8 When the burner is removed, the sphere cools, and the falling pressure draws the coffee back down.8

Two museums date the first vacuum brewers to the first half of the 19th century, but they credit different people.8,9 One names a German physics professor and an early patent applicant; the other names a Scottish engineer (see Contested).8,9 A siphon coffeemaker in one of these collections was made in England in 1865–1875.9 How the vacuum brewer compares with other immersion methods is covered in Brew methods.

Paper filters, plunger pots and the moka pot#

The paper filter came from a home kitchen in Dresden. Before it, coffee was usually brewed by pouring hot water over the grounds, and the grounds left an unpleasant aftertaste.10 Melitta Bentz first tried a perforated brass cup lined with blotting paper.10 She registered her coffee filter as a utility model with the Imperial Patent Office on 20 June 1908.10 Her company was entered in the commercial register on 15 December 1908.10

The plunger pot, also called the French press or cafetière, has a documented Italian root. A US patent with Italian priority of 2 April 1928, granted on 24 March 1931, describes a vessel with a tight-fitting, sliding filter.11 The inventor was Ugo Paolini of Milan, and the patent was assigned to Attilio Calimani and Giulio Moneta.11 Pushed down a rod, the filter traps the grounds at the bottom of the vessel.11

Peter Schlumbohm filed a US patent for a “filtering device” on 13 April 1939, with German priority of 13 April 1938; it was granted on 6 May 1941.12 It joins a conical funnel and a flask in one piece, holds a paper filter, and has a groove that serves as both spout and air passage.12 A historian notes that third-wave cafés rediscovered this brewer, the Chemex.1

Alfonso Bialetti designed the moka pot in 1933.3,13 It uses steam pressure in a closed boiler to push water up through the coffee, as described in Moka pot. The espresso machine has its own history in History of the espresso machine, and cold brew is covered in its own entry.

Four ways to move water#

The history of brewing is a history of how water is brought to the coffee and how the grounds are kept out of the cup. The devices fall into four groups by how they move the water.

  • Decoction. Coffee and water are heated together. A textbook notes that at these high temperatures less water-soluble compounds are also extracted, giving intense, bitter and dark-chocolate flavours.3 The grounds stay in the pot and must settle before serving.3
  • Gravity drip. Water is poured on and passes once through a bed held on a strainer or filter, as in the biggin and the paper filter.4,10
  • Recirculation. In the pump percolator, heat drives the same water up a tube and back through the bed in continuous circulation.7 Nason’s earlier percolator relies on poured water flowing down through the coffee.6
  • Vapour pressure. In the vacuum brewer, steam pushes the water up to the coffee and cooling draws the brew back.8 The moka pot also uses steam pressure, but in one direction only (see Moka pot).

The filter matters for more than clarity. In a 2025 study, boiled coffee, poured off its grounds without any filter, held 939 mg/L cafestol.14 Poured through a fabric filter, the same brew held 28 mg/L.14 Paper-filtered home brews held a median of 12 mg/L.14 Cafestol and kahweol are coffee diterpenes; in the study, both cloth and paper held most of them back.14 The move from boiling to filtering therefore changed the composition of the cup, not only its look. The coffee oil entry covers these compounds.

Reference dates#

Year Device Record What the record shows Evidence Source
1823–1840 Vacuum brewer Two museum accounts First description, first patent application and invention credited to different people Contested 8,9
ca 1850–1875 Three-part drip pot Smithsonian object DL.075341, England Basket for the grounds, tap, spirit-burner base Museum catalogue 5
1865 Percolator US 51,741, J. H. Nason; granted 26 Dec 1865 Poured water flows over a cup and percolates through the coffee under a sprung, perforated disc Patent 6
1887 Biggin and boiled coffee Household manual, Springfield, Massachusetts Biggin with strainers in the upper pot; boiling, egg clearing and cloth bags still in use Primary text 4
1889 Stove-top percolator US 408,707, H. Goodrich; filed 12 Jan 1889, granted 13 Aug 1889 Heated water rises through a tube and circulates continuously through the coffee Patent 7
1908 Paper filter Utility model, Imperial Patent Office; 20 Jun 1908 Filter with a curved, recessed base and inclined flow holes Patent office 10
1928–1931 Plunger pot US 1,797,672, U. Paolini; Italian priority 2 Apr 1928, granted 24 Mar 1931 Sliding filter on a rod traps the grounds at the bottom Patent 11
1933 Moka pot Design by A. Bialetti Stove-top pot using steam pressure Two Tier B sources 3,13
1938–1941 Chemex US 2,241,368, P. Schlumbohm; German priority 13 Apr 1938, granted 6 May 1941 One-piece funnel and flask with a paper filter and an air groove Patent 12
182018401860188019001920194012345678910
  1. 1823. A science museum dates the first description of the vacuum brewer, by Johann Nörrenberg, to this year, although the journal reference it lists is dated 1827; one source only (hollow mark).8
  2. 1835. First patent application for a vacuum brewer, by Louis François Florimond Boulanger, according to the same museum; one source only (hollow mark).8
  3. 1840. Robert Napier credited with inventing the siphon coffeemaker, according to another museum; one source only (hollow mark).9
  4. 1865. James Nason’s percolator patent granted.6
  5. 1887. An American household manual describes the biggin and still debates boiling against filtering.4
  6. 1889. Hanson Goodrich’s stove-top percolator patent filed and granted.7
  7. 1908. Melitta Bentz registers her paper coffee filter.10
  8. 1928. Italian priority of the plunger-pot patent (US grant 1931).11
  9. 1933. Alfonso Bialetti designs the moka pot.3,13
  10. 1938. German priority of Peter Schlumbohm’s filter flask, the Chemex (US grant 1941).12
Dated milestones of home brewing, 1820–1945, at the year of the patent record or source; hollow marks are dates given by a single museum account without a primary record.4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13

What the patents and objects describe#

Patents and museum objects show how each device was built, not how well it brewed. The three historic brewers below are drawn from their written descriptions. The biggin follows the 1887 manual and the Smithsonian object, the percolator follows Goodrich’s patent, and the vacuum brewer follows a science museum’s description.4,5,7,8

A1234B567C891011
  1. Upper pot. Water is poured in here.4
  2. Spreading strainer. A coarse strainer laid over the grounds.4
  3. Coffee on a strainer. A perforated basket holds the grounds.4,5
  4. Lower pot. Collects the brew that drips through.4
  5. Water space under the base plate. Water is heated here.7
  6. Central tube. Heated water rises through it.7
  7. Perforated coffee cup. Water flows over the coffee and percolates through it, back into the pot.7
  8. Upper vessel. Holds the ground coffee; water rises into it.8
  9. Tube. Connects the two vessels.8
  10. Lower glass sphere. Steam pressure pushes the water up; on cooling, the coffee flows back.8
  11. Spirit burner. Heats the water.8
Three historic brewers in section: A, a drip pot (biggin); B, a stove-top percolator after Goodrich’s patent of 1889; C, a vacuum brewer. Dashed arrows show the water path; dashed lines without arrows are strainers. Schematic, not to scale.4,5,7,8

The drawings leave out what the sources do not describe. The 1887 manual gives no dimensions, Goodrich’s patent gives no temperatures or times, and the museum text on the vacuum brewer names no filter.4,7,8

Documented, claimed and retold#

Many popular dates for brewing devices could not be traced to a primary record. Coffearium sorts them as in Coffeehouses from Mecca to Europe. Documented means a patent, an official register or a dated text: the percolators of 1865 and 1889, the paper filter of 1908, the plunger pot of 1928–1931 and the Chemex of 1938–1941.6,7,10,11,12 Claimed means a date given by one secondary account, such as the museum dates for the vacuum brewer.8,9 Retold means stories repeated without any source consulted for this entry.

Several well-known firsts fall in the last group. Accounts of an early Paris percolator, of a 19th-century French plunger patent and of a later plunger redesign could not be checked against a patent record or a historian’s text consulted for this entry. They are therefore not dated here. The same applies to Count Rumford’s essay on coffee, whose text was not consulted for this entry. No source consulted explains who or what the biggin is named after.

Patents also show their limits. A patent date marks when an idea was registered, not when people first brewed that way. Nason’s patent of 1865 already calls itself a percolator, so the word and the method are older than Goodrich’s design.6,7 The Melitta filter of 1908 refined filtering through cloth and strainers, which the 1887 manual already describes.4,10

Open questions#

  • The first vacuum brewer. Two museums credit Nörrenberg (1823), Boulanger (patent application, 1835) or Napier (1840); no primary record was consulted.8,9
  • French percolators and drip pots. The early 19th-century French patents often cited for the drip pot and the percolator were not consulted.
  • Earlier plunger designs. The 1928 Italian priority is the earliest plunger patent consulted; French designs of the 19th century are claimed but were not checked.11
  • How percolators extracted. No measurement of extraction in a recirculating percolator was consulted; the over-extraction claim rests on a historian’s account.1
  • Spread of each method. No source consulted gives household figures for boiling, drip, percolator or vacuum brewing in any country before 1950.

Key studies#

Goodrich, 1889 – Coffee-pot (US 408,707). The patent for the stove-top percolator. Water heated under a base plate rises through a central tube, spreads over coffee in a perforated cup and percolates back down, in continuous circulation.

United States Patent Office, granted 13 Aug 1889 · US 408,707

Paolini, 1931 – Apparatus for preparing infusions (US 1,797,672). An Italian design for a plunger pot, assigned to Calimani and Moneta. A tight-fitting filter slides down a rod and traps the grounds at the bottom of the vessel.

United States Patent Office, Italian priority 2 Apr 1928, granted 24 Mar 1931 · US 1,797,672

Schlumbohm, 1941 – Filtering device (US 2,241,368). The patent for the Chemex. A one-piece funnel and flask holds a paper filter; a groove serves as spout and as an air passage for the air the brew displaces.

United States Patent Office, German priority 13 Apr 1938, granted 6 May 1941 · US 2,241,368

Orrje et al., 2025 – Cafestol and kahweol by brew method. Measures coffee diterpenes in workplace machine coffee and home brews in Sweden. Boiled coffee was highest; pouring it through a fabric filter removed most of the diterpenes, and paper-filtered coffee was low.

Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases 35, 103933 · doi:10.1016/j.numecd.2025.103933

Morris, 2017 – We consumers: tastes, rituals and waves. A historian follows coffee drinking from boiled husks in Yemen to American percolators and the third wave. He links percolators and low brew ratios to the thin American cup of the mid-20th century.

In: Folmer (ed.), The Craft and Science of Coffee, ch. 19 · doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-803520-7.00019-0

Contested
  • Who invented the vacuum brewer: a science museum names the German physics professor Johann Nörrenberg as the first to write about the technique, in 1823 (the journal reference the museum itself lists is dated 1827), and Louis François Florimond Boulanger as the first to apply for a patent, in 18358; another museum credits the Scottish marine engineer Robert Napier with inventing this type of coffeemaker in 1840.9 No patent record or historian’s text consulted for this entry settles the question.
  • How the percolator affected the cup: a historian holds that American percolators over-extracted coffee by passing boiling water through it repeatedly1; Goodrich’s patent presents continuous circulation as the way to extract the strength of the coffee.7 No measurement of percolator extraction was consulted for this entry.
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Change log

  • – The Chemex patent is no longer described as joining funnel and flask in “one glass piece”; it now says “in one piece”. Reason: Verification pass; US 2,241,368 describes funnel and flask formed integral with each other or joined as a single element but names no material.
  • – Vacuum brewer dates now note that the NEMO story's own journal reference for Nörrenberg is dated 1827, while its text gives 1823. Reason: Verification pass; the reference list of the NEMO story (Zeitschrift für Physik und Mathematik, vol. 3) is dated 1827.

Sources

  1. BMorris, J. (2017). We Consumers – Tastes, Rituals, and Waves. In: Folmer, B. (ed.), The Craft and Science of Coffee, Academic Press, ch. 19 (pp. 459–460, 466–468 and 485 cited). doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-803520-7.00019-0 · other copiesQuoted passage: a result cited from earlier work; Historian’s narrative of coffee consumption; the qishr passage cites Hattox (1985), the 1920s quotation cites Prendergast (2010)..
  2. AUNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (2013). Turkish coffee culture and tradition. UNESCO.Quoted passage: a description; Inscription text of the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (Türkiye, 2013)..
  3. BMestdagh, F.; Glabasnia, A.; Giuliano, P. (2017). The Brew – Extracting for Excellence. In: Folmer, B. (ed.), The Craft and Science of Coffee, Academic Press, ch. 15, pp. 355–380. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-803520-7.00015-3 · other copiesQuoted passage: a description; Textbook description of brew methods; no own measurements in the passages cited..
  4. BParloa, M.; Owen, C.; Harland, M.; Corson, J.; Campbell, H.; Lincoln, D. A.; Poole, H. M. (1887). Six Cups of Coffee: Prepared for the Public Palate by the Best Authorities on Coffee Making. Good Housekeeping Press, Clark W. Bryan & Co., Springfield, Massachusetts (Project Gutenberg ebook 46144).Quoted passage: a recommendation; Six American cookery writers give their own coffee recipes, United States, 1887..
  5. A/BSmithsonian National Museum of American History Coffee Biggin (ID DL.075341). Smithsonian Institution, collection record.Quoted passage: a description; Museum catalogue record of one object, England, dated ca 1850–1875..
  6. A/BNason, J. H. (1865). Coffee-percolator (US Patent 51,741). United States Patent Office; granted 26 December 1865.Quoted passage: a description; Patent specification, Franklin, Massachusetts, USA..
  7. A/BGoodrich, H. (1889). Coffee-pot (US Patent 408,707). United States Patent Office; filed 12 January 1889, granted 13 August 1889.Quoted passage: a description; Patent specification, Hamilton County, Illinois, USA (town printed as Moleansborough in the scanned text)..
  8. BNEMO Science Museum, Amsterdam (2020). Scientific brewing (Object of the Month, November 2020). Google Arts & Culture.Quoted passage: a description; Science museum object story on a vacuum coffee maker in its collection, Netherlands..
  9. BDAR Museum Strange Brew (featured object). Daughters of the American Revolution Museum, Washington, DC.Quoted passage: a description; Museum description of one siphon coffeemaker in its collection, made in England..
  10. APotthast, J. B. (Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt, DPMA) 75th anniversary of death of Melitta Bentz. German Patent and Trade Mark Office.Quoted passage: data; Patent office account of the registration of the first paper coffee filter (Dresden, Germany)..
  11. A/BPaolini, U. (assignor of one half each to Calimani, A. and Moneta, G.) (1931). Apparatus for preparing infusions, particularly for preparing coffee (US Patent 1,797,672). United States Patent Office; Italian priority 2 April 1928, filed 2 April 1929, granted 24 March 1931.Quoted passage: a description; Patent specification, Milan, Italy (US filing)..
  12. A/BSchlumbohm, P. (1941). Filtering device (US Patent 2,241,368). United States Patent Office; German priority 13 April 1938, filed 13 April 1939, granted 6 May 1941.Quoted passage: a description; Patent specification (US filing with German priority)..
  13. BThe Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (2008). Alfonso Bialetti. Moka Express (object number 431.2008). MoMA collection record, Department of Architecture and Design.Quoted passage: data; Museum collection record of one Moka Express..
  14. AOrrje, E.; Fristedt, R.; Rosqvist, F.; Landberg, R.; Iggman, D. (2025). Cafestol and kahweol concentrations in workplace machine coffee compared with conventional brewing methods. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases 35, 103933. doi:10.1016/j.numecd.2025.103933 · other copiesQuoted passage: the authors’ own result; Brews sampled in Sweden (workplace machines, n = 14; home brews of five coffees with two paper filter types); LC–MS measurement..

Tier A · authoritative · B · trade and expert · C · general. Supporting quotes for every source are in the data version of this entry. If a publisher’s site refuses access, try the doi link or “other copies”.

The literature for this entry was last searched on 27 Oct 2026. A statement that no source consulted for this entry shows something refers to the sources above; newer or missing work may exist.

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