Food: Coffee: Brewing
Coffee Ground Centrifuge   (+1, -1)  [vote for, against]
Good to the last 0.1mm drop

When I throw out wet coffee grounds, I feel gypped out of the last half cup of coffee. Proposed is a small centrifuge for kitchen or desktop use to squeeze the last drop of coffee out of the used grounds.
-- kevinthenerd, Aug 23 2012

Centrifugal Coffee Maker http://www.google.com/patents/US4962693
Does this thing look a bit overcomplicated? I think I can do better. [DIYMatt, Aug 26 2012]

You need an espresso machine. The grounds are usually almost dry afterwards.
-- DIYMatt, Aug 23 2012


This would gain a bun if it were a steampunk brass and mahogany contraption powered by a reciprocating steam engine driven.
-- 8th of 7, Aug 23 2012


If you throw them out in a compost bin, you will gain another purpose for their use.
-- xandram, Aug 23 2012


Doesn't a french press do this to some extent already?

I suspect the key limitation would be filter cost, which would have to be more robust.
-- MechE, Aug 23 2012


No, it wouldn't.

If the centrifuge vessel is a narrow cone with the axis of the centrifuge normal to the wide end, then the liquid will be concentrated in the tip of the cone. When the valve is opened, the accumulated liquid will drain out under gravity into a filter.
-- 8th of 7, Aug 23 2012


Stuxnet....
-- not_morrison_rm, Aug 26 2012


Following on from DIYMatt's suggestion about the espresso concept - I've recently been using one of those early manually assembled versions where you fill the bottom chamber with water, put the coffee in a sort of perforated spout, and then screw the chamber on the top into which the coffee eventually emerges.

The other day, looking for a change, and a bit of an experiment, I ground up some loose-leaf green tea and packed the machine with a payload of that. I like green tea, it's gentle and subtle and it invigorates you in a refreshing and clean and pleasant way. Espresso-style is quite a different deal all together, if normal green tea is a wise old monk gently imparting motes of wisdom, then espresso green-tea is that same monk but morphed into a hi-octane fuelled drag-racing bulldozer roller death machine punching a series of caffeinated bullet-points directly into your skull.
-- zen_tom, Aug 26 2012


While shredding hot licks on an electric shakuhachi, [zt].
-- ytk, Aug 26 2012


You could package the still slightly usable grounds under the name of Has Beans.
-- xenzag, Aug 26 2012


//surely there's something to be said for adding a centrifuge to an espresso machine ?//

I've always thought the same thing, but I haven't posted it because it is at least half baked. Just now I found a patent for one which has, of course, never actually been produced. It is slightly different though. In fact I'm going to go post my idea now since it is very specific.

Edit: eh, nevermind.
-- DIYMatt, Aug 26 2012



random, halfbakery