How does the process of making liquid coffee out of the beans work in a coffee machine? How does it extract coffee/caffeine out of it?

Question

How does the process of making liquid coffee out of the beans work in a coffee machine? How does it extract coffee/caffeine out of it?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

You can make coffee by soaking ground up coffee beans in hot water for 5 minutes, and then pouring the mixture through a fine sieve (that’s how a French press works.) The hot water absorbs the flavour, oils, and caffeine from the beans.

Your Mr. Coffee or other coffee maker is just accelerating the process. Rather than infusing the beans with water, it is just pouring boiling water over the beans in a steady stream. The water then passes through a filter (either a paper filter or a mesh filter) on its way into the pot.