Patent ID: 8021520

Claim:
A method for preparing a liquid comprising volatile and soluble substances from a material that releases said volatile and soluble substances, wherein the method comprises: (a) heating said material in a sealed chamber with steam having a temperature sufficiently high to release the volatile and soluble substances from said material; (b) stopping delivery of the steam to the sealed chamber so as to allow the steam in the sealed chamber to cool down and condense to liquid water so that a negative air pressure differential is created in the sealed chamber with respect to outside of the sealed chamber; (c) pressing a liquid from a container into the sealed chamber due to the negative air pressure difference formed in (b); (d) dissolving the volatile and soluble substances released by (a) into the liquid pressed into the sealed chamber in (c); (e) supplying steam to the sealed chamber to recover the air pressure therein so as to force the liquid out of the sealed chamber through an outlet and into the container; and (f) repeating (b) through (e) at least one time; wherein a liquid comprising volatile and soluble substances from the material is recovered.