brewer that was launched at this year's SCAA also focuses hugely on vacuums, so it's interesting to see another brew approach reconsidering vacuums as well. You can watch Carmichael extracting coffee with the Dragon in this short video:

The second main technology of the Dragon is the glass sleeve that surrounds the upper pour-over brewing chamber, which Carmichael says allows him to more precisely control brew temperature. The brewing approach is similar to “pour-over” in that hot water is poured directly on to the grounds in the top chamber, as opposed to the water bubbling up from the bottom in a standard syphon.

In most brewing approaches, there is a focus on maintaining a high, even temperature in the coffee slurry–the mixture of hot water and coffee where extraction happens–throughoutRobben Island is a prison island off Capetown, South Africa, best known as the jail where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for eighteen years. The island has a dubious history as a place of imprisonment and exile long before the rise of apartheid. Its first prison use is thought to be as early as the 17th century when opponents of Dutch colonies around the world were sent there, while British forces sentenced African leader Makanda Nxele to life imprisonment there early in the 19th century. For almost a century, starting in 1836, lepers were sent to male and female…