A variant of the category of French drip coffee pots is the group of so-called Bohemian coffee pots, manual zero-bypass flat bottom coffee makers made out of porcelain only, including Karlsbad coffee makers (1878), Bayreuth coffee makers (2007), the Walküre cup filter (2010) and the Walküre aroma-pot (2015). In contrast to French drip coffee pots, they all use a special double-layered conically cross-slit strainer made from through-glazed porcelain as well as a water spreader with six (or, in the larger models, more) large round holes to ensure an even water distribution and reduce the agitation of the coffee bed, a method sometimes also called cake filtration. In particular before World War I, but still up to the advent of the Espresso machine in the 1950s, they were very popular in the Viennese coffee house culture. The special kind of drip coffee they produce is called a (). In Vienna, the (confusingly also called or ), a black coffee without milk or sugar, was often prepared in Karlsbad coffee makers as well, hence they were sometimes incorrectly also called Vienna coffee-making machines. Once manufactured by many porcelain manufacturers, demand gradually dropped and eventually production stopped when electrical coffee makers became more and more common, so that Karlsbad coffee makers were only available on the used market for a couple of decades. However, experiencing a renaissance since about the millennium as part of the so-called third-wave of coffee one manufacturer restarted production of them. They are also used in restaurants and by connoisseurs, coffee sommeliers, coffee roasters and in coffee tasting laboratories.

History As a product of the fin de siècle the original so-called () was invented by factory Thun'sche Porzellanfabrik of (now ) near (now ), which patented a special cross-slit filter sieve in 1878. Producing lithophanes, the company, which was founded in 1793/1794, already had experience manufacturing very thin and fragile porcelain for decades.

Karlsbad coffee makers were historically manufactured by many porcelain manufacturers including Porcelánka Thun (with porcelain mark "TK") (Karlsbad), Altrohlauer Porzellan-Fabriken AG vorm. ("M Z") (), ("EPIAG D. F.") (Dallwitz), & ("H. & C.") (Schlaggenwald), Carl Tielsch ("C. T.") (Altwasser), ("MCP") (Poschetzau), (Rodach, Germany), Hutschenreuther (Selb / Bavaria, Germany), Rosenthal & Co. ("R. C.") (Bavaria, Germany) / Rosenthal (Weiden/Kronach, Germany), (Weiden, Germany), ("MEISSEN") (Meißen, Germany), Villeroy & Boch ("V. B.") (Luxemburg), (France), (France), and Siegmund Paul Meyer ("SPM") / Walküre (Bayreuth, Germany) / Friesland ("FPM") (Varel, Germany).

Karlsbad coffee makers consist of four parts (a coffee pot, a coffee strainer/filter, a water spreader/distributor, and a lid) all made out of porcelain, and they exist in a number of different shapes of unknown origin. The original shape appears to have been a cylindrical filter with two squarish handles combined with a ball-shaped pot. Another early style featured a somewhat trapezoid shape known as ().

In 1910, SPM incorporated the slit Karlsbad filter into the design of a coffee maker with cylindrical filter (form 523). In 1913, SPM introduced the now classical somewhat pear-shaped rounded form (form 599). This design was copied by other porcelain manufacturers. Over the years it was available in various sizes ranging from 250 ml to 2.25 litre.

In 2007, the so-called Bayreuth coffee makers were created by designer Daniel Eltner for Walküre. A somewhat Bauhaus-reminiscing slick modernized style (form 699) following the same general four-piece porcelain construction principles as traditional Karlsbad coffee makers, the design received the "Good Design Award 2008" of the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the "Coffee Innovations Award 2008" in the category "coffee machines and mills" at the domotechnica fair in Cologne. However, due to its non-symmetrical design it may be difficult to handle for left-handers. It has been available in two sizes (350 ml and 700 ml) produced by Walküre up to 2019, and since 2020 by Friesland (400 ml and 700 ml).

, Friesland was the only remaining manufacturer of any of them; however, their Varel production site burnt down in a fire on 29 June 2023, pending its reconstruction.

Preparation To avoid clogging, coarsely ground coffee with about salt- or sugar-sized grains (about semolina-grade), evenly ground and without fines or added coffee surrogates, has to be used. Walküre recommended to use coffea arabica, and either 16 g for the first two cups and 6 g for each further cup, or 8–10 g per cup in general.

Similar coffee makers In the 1880s, Max Thürmer, a coffee roaster of Dresden, Germany, founded in 1879, advertised Karlsbad coffee and somewhat later also coffee makers (of unknown type) in various newspapers. In the early 1900s, he marketed his own invention of a manual coffee maker (the so-called ), which, from its outer appearance, looked quite similar to cylindrical Karlsbad coffee makers but featured an air-tight joint (through a lid with a thin film of water) between the permanent filter part and the coffee pot below, and it came with a manual valving mechanism (by closing the of the coffee pot) to combine steeping (full immersion) with drip-filtering (percolation). The devices were manufactured by Villeroy & Boch for him. While the permanent filter in early of his devices still featured round drilled holes like in French drip coffee makers, later units used a double-layered cross-slit filter construction similar to that found in Karlsbad coffee makers, but deliberately with a much coarser grid, with a large air gap between the layers, and using ceramics instead of porcelain.

Around 1900, the Staatliche Porzellanmanufaktur Meißen of Meißen, Germany, manufactured cup filters utilizing a double-layered radially slit porcelain filter construction much coarser than in Karlsbad coffee makers.

Since 1926, the idea to combine steeping with drip-filtering was also utilized by Berlin-based coffee roaster Carl Artur Büttner in his invention of a manual coffee maker. While his construction was considerably different, it also featured a valving mechanism (through a rotatable saucer), a through-glazed porcelain filter with triangularly-arranged slits and with an air space below. These so-called "System Büttner" coffee makers were available up into, at least, the 1940s as stand-alone devices for home use, but were also adopted by various other German coffee roasters as part of larger coffee machines produced by the porcelain manufacturer for heavy-duty batch use in restaurants and canteens.

Since c. 1952 (and up into the 1970s) the Neuerer Porzellanfabrik in Oberkotzau, Germany, the successor of Porzellanfabrik Greiner & Herda, manufactured coffee percolators named Aromator, which featured double-layered cross-slit porcelain filters similar to those used in Karlsbad coffee makers, and thus not requiring any paper filter rings.

Modern manual coffee makers sometimes associated with Karlsbad-style coffee makers include Coffee Consulate's intense extraction cup filter RS16 GlasFilter by Steffen Schwarz (2015) and the borosilicate carafe coffee maker "The Pure Over" by glass artist Etai Rahmil (2020). However, whilst they are zero-bypass flat-bottom French drip coffee pots with permanent filters, they too cannot be counted as Karlsbad-style coffee makers because they do not feature a cross-slit double-layered filter sieve and also because they are not made out of porcelain.

See also

Coffeemaker List of coffee drinks Porcelain museum of Klášterec nad Ohří

Notes

References (1+195+1 pages) (NB. The print run is limited to 1000 pieces. The corresponding patent appears to be D.R.P. 476417.) (12 pages) (3 pages) (262 pages)

(48 pages) (78 pages)

(21 pages) (Supplemental material)

(4 pages)

(47 pages) (439 pages) (NB. The was a German family magazine.) (441 pages) (NB. The was a German family magazine.) (2+6+2+2+2+2+5+1+2+824+2+4+1 pages)

(34 pages)

(NB. The Fliegende Blätter was a German humoristical magazine.) (4+xii+205 pages) (3 pages) (3 pages) (7 pages) Österreichisches Patent (Austrian patent) No. 48/1713 aka 481713 regarding the conical slit through-glazed porcelain sieve of coffee makers by Thun'sche Porzellanfabrik. (3 pages) (3 pages) (5 pages); (5 pages)

(775+1 pages) (NB. This is the ISBN of the second edition (2020), however, the ISBN of the first edition (2013) appears to be the same.) (251+3 pages) (4 pages) (3 pages) (3 pages) (3 pages) (3 pages) (NB. The Walküre-predecessor Siegmund Paul Meyer (SPM) was founded in 1899, but the company started to manufacture Karlsbad coffee makers not before 1910 - the pear-shaped variant (form 599), Meyer refers to, not even before 1913.)

(47+1 pages) (8 pages)

(76 pages)

(31 pages) (NB. Meyer's statement that the special filter was patented and could not be copied so far suggests that it was originally invented and patented by SPM/Walküre, but no such filter-related patent belonging to SPM/Walküre could be found so far. However, the special filter construction of Karlsbad coffee makers was actually patented by the Thun'sche Porzellanfabrik in 1878, long before SPM/Walküre was founded in 1899 and started manufacturing Karlsbad coffee makers in 1910. The description given in also matches this patent.)

(217 pages)

(2+296+2+9+1+4+4+2 pages)

(1 of c. 351 pages in total for both volumes)

(6 pages) (NB. The Walküre-predecessor Siegmund Paul Meyer (SPM) was founded in 1899, but the company started to manufacture Karlsbad coffee makers not before 1910 - the pear-shaped variant (form 599) referred to in this press release not even before 1913.)

(120 pages)

(2+xxix+1+796 pages) (NB. Ukers used only the inappropriate term Vienna coffee maker in the of this book.) (245 pages) (32+xiv+818 pages) (NB. Ukers also used the more appropriate terms Bohemian coffee pot and Carlsbad coffee maker in the of this book.) (524 pages)

(NB. The statement that SPM/Walküre would have listed Karlsbad coffee makers since their foundation in 1899 already is incorrect. They started manufacturing them since 1910 (and in form 599 since 1913).) (16 pages)

Further reading (2+2+vi+336+2 pages + 45 sheets including 5 color sheets + 2 sheets with porcelain marks) (NB. The front cover gives the title as "" (Bohemian porcelain and stoneware), the frontispiece as "".) (viii+319 pages) Vintage ! Die Karlsbader Kanne, 5 teilig, € 99,99 (3911 Arnreith) - willhaben (81 pages) (102 pages) (5 pages) Keramische Rundschau retro|bib - Seite aus Kochschule und Ratgeber für Familie & Haus: Unknown - Unknown

Sparkaffee und Franck-Aroma Carlsbader Kaffeegewürz - WELT Tag des Kaffees, Mein Sammlerportal, Kaffee, Berlin, alte Reklame auf sampor.de / MSP Tag des Kaffees, Mein Sammlerportal, Kaffee, Berlin, alte Reklame auf sampor.de / MSP

Handbuch der Ernährungslehre: Erster Band Allgemeine Diätetik (Nährstoffe und Nahrungsmittel Allgemeine Ernährungskuren) Die Neue Gartenlaube Geraer Koch-Buch Die Umschau Kaffee: Die ganze Welt in einer Tasse Karlsbader Kur-Katechismus: oder neueste Beschreibung alles Wissenswerthen dieses Weltbades für Aerzte und Laien Der Kaffee: Gemeinfaßliche Darstellung der Gewinnung, Verwertung und Beurteilung des Kaffees und seiner Ersatzstoffe Sensorisches Labor Wien: urbane Haptik- und Geruchsforschung Beihefte zum Gesundheits-Ingenieur Der Elektrische betrieb Karlsbader Kanne

External links Archived Walküre web-site walkuere.de (1998–2010) Archived Walküre web-site walkuere-porzellan.de (2010–2019) Porzellanfabrik Walküre Jahre 1890-1910 Home - English Karlsbader Kanne (in German)

cs:Karlovarský příbor de:Karlsbader Kaffeemaschine