STEEPING METHOD
A cafetiere (or French press) is a tall, narrow glass cylinder with a plunger that includes a wire mesh filter composed of metal or nylon. The coffee and hot water are combined in the cylinder (normally for four minutes to seven) before the plunger, in the form of a metal foil, is depressed, leaving the coffee at the top ready to be poured. This style of "total immersion brewing" is considered by many coffee experts to be the ideal way to prepare fine coffee at home [citation needed]. Depending on the type of filter, it is important to pay attention to the grind of the coffee beans.
The Aeropress is a recently popularized device similar to the French Press. Hot water is poured into a ground coffee mixture, but the coffee is pressed out under moderate pressure a relatively short time later through a paper microfilter, without accumulating the considerable amounts of bitter sediment associated with a French Press.
Coffee bags (akin to tea bags) are much rarer than their tea equivalents, as they are much bulkier (more coffee is required in a coffee bag than tea in a tea bag). This method of brewing coffee is particularly useful for those on camping trips, when extra weight is an issue.
Malaysian coffee is often brewed using a "sock", which is really just a muslin bag shaped like a filter into which coffee is loaded then steeped into hot water. This method is especially suitable for use with local-brew coffees in Malaysia, primarily of the varieties Robusta and Liberica which are often much stronger in flavor, allowing the ground coffee in the sock to be reused.
A vacuum brewer consists of two chambers: a pot below, atop which is set a bowl or funnel with its siphon descending nearly to the bottom of the pot.
The bottom of the bowl is blocked by a filter of glass, cloth or plastic, and the bowl and pot are joined by a gasket that forms a tight seal. Water is placed in the pot, the coffee grounds are placed in the bowl, and the whole affair is set over a burner. As the water heats, it is forced by the increasing vapor pressure up the siphon and into the bowl where it mixes with the grounds. When all the water possible has been forced into the bowl the brewer is removed from the heat. As the water vapor in the pot cools, it contracts, forming a partial vacuum and drawing the coffee down through the filter.
