Tell me more about the variety of heat sources used for vacpots?
When vac pots were first invented, a simple wick burner (like an old style Bunsen burner) was used as the heat source. To this day, you can buy vacuum brewers that use the same method of heating. But today, as well as during the 20th century, vac pots use (have used) a wide range of methods to heat the water, and extract the coffee from the grinds. The Starbucks Utopia model is computer controlled for precise temperature and brewing controls, and can even be set on a timer basis for true hands off brewing. It uses an internal coil heating element driven by electricity. The venerable Cona model from Britain still uses a cloth wick, as do many of the Hario and Tayli lines of vac pots. Some Hario models use a copper wick that provides two “jets” of flame to heat the bottom vessel. Sunbeam and Cory models used internal heating elements tied in with heat sensitive coils for knowing when to reduce or shut off the electricity for their automated functions. Earlier Sunbeam models used a flat h
