When I was growing up, coffee was made in an electric percolator. Unless you were camping. Then you’d use a percolator that goes on the stove. My grandparents drank percolated coffee. My parents drank percolated coffee. When I started drinking coffee, it came from a percolator. Dad used his percolator into the 1980s, until I bought him a drip coffee maker. There was one time in the '90s when dad, the neighbours and I went JetSkiing/camping. They all laughed when I put my moka pot (‘espresso’ pot) on my trusty Svea while they put their percolator on the Coleman. Only guess who was drinking coffee first that morning, and good coffee at that?
I’ve read and heard that percolating coffee is the worst way to make it. And yet it seems to have been the usual method, at least in the U.S., for decades. Is percolated coffee good? Perhaps not. But is it bad? I’ve never had any that made me want to wash my mouth out with puke.
I don’t use a percolator, but I’m pretty sure I have a stovetop one around here somewhere. You?
My sister still makes coffee in a percolator. It taste fine, but a little weak when she makes it. Once or twice I have made coffee in it and I add a little more coffee and it is pretty good coffee.
My wife makes better coffee, she uses a Braun 12-cup drip and a gold filter. She makes it nice and strong and is choosy about the coffees she will use.
ETA: We have an old stove top Percolator somewhere that I use to take camping. It made terrible coffee.
I used my BIL’s stovetop percolator during a recent visit because it was either that or instant. It was better than instant is the most I can say for it. The gear didn’t lend itself to ease of use the way a drip system does. It’s not a brewing method I’m going to further explore anytime soon.
I have a Revereware stovetop percolator that I bought at a yard sale. It works okay, although it needs filters and I don’t think they make a filter specifically for this style anymore. It probably doesn’t make the best coffee I’ve had; my first choice is a Bialetti stovetop espresso pot.
I have found aural memories of hearing the coffee pot perking in the kitchen when I was a kid, but I can’t say I’d switch from a French press just for that sound.
I’ve run across several percolators in the Navy. They’re usually big reservoir more-than-a-dozen-cups-at-once affairs. They’re very popular for making coffee-squared (Run it through once, replace the grounds, run it through again).
And then there’s that whole deal with just topping off the water and running a new pot whenever the coffee is half gone… no draining, no cleaning. Not that I can talk… I cold-brewed tea in my locker overnight.
Last year I was living in a studio apartment and didn’t have much counter space, so I invested in a percolator campfire pot that I use on the stove. For only being $20, it works very well. Good rich coffee and makes the apartment smell nice. It also only holds about 5 cups, which is good because otherwise I would drink way too much coffee. I can’t see myself switching in the near future.
My grandmother still uses the percolator my grandparents have had for 24 years at the bare minimum. It was the first coffee I ever had, so I’ve always thought it tasted fine.
I saw someone buying one a few weeks ago. I knew that they made coffee, but I stopped to think about it then…I have no idea what else they’re used for. Anything? But anyway, at least one elderly lady who shops in the same town as me uses one
I have drank coffee my entire life. OK, maybe not for the first 2 or 3 years, but seriously, as far back as I can remember, I’ve drank coffee. And I remember the absolutely best tasting coffee in the world coming from my great Aunt’s percolator. She lived in a cottage in northern Michigan and whenever we visited that was the smell, and then taste, that I woke up to. I would have bet anything that percolators made better coffee than drip coffee makers.
My parents had percolator coffee through the 70s, at least. First coffee I drank (age 11, half coffee/half milk, actually) was percolator coffee and it was good to me. I always remembered the sound of the coffee perking too, and the good coffee aroma.
My Dad recently started using a percolator again - I’m not sure exactly why, I guess he got fed up with the auto-drip. It’s not a stove-top one, though, it’s a stand-alone that plugs in. Good coffee too. I’m currently using a Mr. Coffee auto-drip; I grind beans (a mix that I blend, from the grocery store beans - and it’s a good blend!) and brew them fresh, only brew what I drink (about 2 mugs, which equals about 4 cups on the coffee pot :D).
Like others, I remember growing up hearing my mother or father say to the other, “turn on the percolator.” I can still see it, smell it, and hear it…right there in the old kitchen of the house that has long since been torn down.
However, once drip filter and other coffee machines started to become popular, my parents tossed that percolator so fast you could hear the machine crash in the dumpster. They loved coffee, and even though that is what they had used for decades, they weren’t fools and knew good coffee when they tasted it - and the percolator wasn’t and isn’t a good way to make coffee.
When the first coffee machine with a timer came out on the market, my mother thought that was the greatest invention since sliced bread - and perhaps even better than sliced bread. She would religiously prepare the machine at night so that when they woke up in the morning, the coffee was ready.
(For no particular reason I, the ex-coffee addict, stopped cold turkey one day and now very rarely drink coffee anymore - just give me my Diet Coke with ice in the morning and I am a happy camper.)
My sister has one. She and my BIL claim the coffee they make in it is “wonderful”. To me, it’s shite. It would probably be better if they used more coffee, but the end product is noticeably watery.
They can’t stand the coffee that me and hubby brew. I have to provide hot water to water it down. Blecch.
I would argue it’s at least possible for a good pot of percolator made coffee to beat out a bad pot of drip maker coffee.
Like, my parents drip maker. Dad was faithful about running the ram-rod deal up through the pipes periodically. But on a visit I noticed that even a half-bail of coffee made for a very weak brew - upon disassembling the machine it was found the water tank was roughly half-full of calcium sediment from “hard” water. Drip makers are wasteful, or can be.
I sold a 1970’s Waring electric percolator, slightly used still in box with instruction book on Ebay about 6 months ago for $78. I paid $5 and hoped to double that. I remember my mom having one like it back then.
I think that anyone can make bad coffee using any method, so to toss out any one method as horrible doesn’t necessarily account for other factors.
While this type took me a while to get used to (I married a percolator guy), I do find it makes richer coffee than my old drip coffee maker did. We grind our own beans and are careful about the amount, as well as the length of time we let it percolate, and weak coffee has never been an issue.
The last few drip coffee makers that I bought didn’t even last a year so this year I bought a percolator.
I add a little more coffee and it tastes fine to me. The only thing I don’t like is the finer coffee grounds go through the basket and into the coffee.
