The cup of coffee at Round K on New York’s Lower East Side doesn’t look like much. It’s a pour-over that takes a few minutes to steep and arrives in a nice mug. But this cup of coffee costs $50. Why so much? Owner Ockhyeon Byeon sends the beans that make Astronaut coffee to space. He wanted to check the effects of atmospheric pressure on coffee. The Korea native has a degree in electrical engineering from Konkuk University in Seoul, and Bloomberg writes he has a tattoo of the molecular structure of caffeine on his right forearm. To make the Astronaut coffee, Byeon put one pound of beans into a weather balloon and launched it into space from New Jersey. He thinks it went about 30 miles up, almost to the mesosphere. He got the package five hours later using GPS. He found the beans slightly frozen and coated with water, a result of air pressure. According to Bloomberg, the coffee isn’t worth $50, but you’re paying for the idea.
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