The interesting thing to me is how coffee is made in europe - I don’t think percolators nor drip coffee makers ever caught on. Espresso yes, but the average family doesn’t use a machine yet, I don’t think.
The really popular way is to use a Melitta, which is a filter-drip method, but not a “coffee maker” as such - no clocks or bells or timers. You can re-create the method closely by just pouring just-boiled water through the plastic bail and filter directly into the coffee pot. Drip makers work OK for a little while, but don’t heat the water sufficiently. If the water used isn’t nearly boiling for extraction it just wastes a hell of a lot of coffee, and still tastes weak.
A percolator doesn’t waste coffee, it must be said.
My first coffee pot of my own was like this; a glass urn with a plastic basket on top for putting the filter in. You’d boil water and pour it slowly through the grounds and filter. Made a good cuppa joe, and it was faster (if less convenient) than an automatic drip machine. I bought it at Gemco. Remember Gemco? I still have that pot, though I never use it.
I’ve been using a percolator since last November when my 20-year-old Braun coffee maker shit the bed. I’m no coffee connoisseur, but the Braun drip-o-matic made one helluva cuppa. The percolator is ok, but a pain in the ass to clean and brew. And it doesn’t heat evenly, so there’s a burn ring around half the bottom of the pot. I brew Starbucks, though, so I don’t really notice the pot is charring the coffee.
One of these days I’ll cough up $30 and buy a proper drip-o-matic to replace my beloved Braun.
We used on at the MIL’s at Christmas. I didn’t have any, but it was a big scientific discussion to figure out how to use it. No one’s used one in so long. My mom had a big honkin’ one (like 25 cups) that she used to drag out when she hosted Bingo night in the 'hood. Other than that, my parents drank instant (which should be against the law).
Prior to this thread, all I knew about percolators was a) they’re used to make coffee and b) there’s sometimes fish in them. This thread provoked me into looking them up. It’s actually quite interesting.
I’ve got one of these which I’ve had for years but very rarely use, because I packed it up when I had my kitchen refitted last year and never put it back again.
I find this to be a very interesting thread.
I had always assumed that percolated coffee tasted better but just took too long. Evidently the problem with percolated coffee is that its ruined when boiled. Coffee boiled, is coffee spoiled.
Here’s a pretty good link on how percolators work… Wikipedia to the rescue
On a side note, I started a thread (a couple of years ago?) about adding salt to a cup of coffee to improve its flavor. Not too much, and it really smooths out the taste.
My mom always used a glass one that looked like this.
She also had a double tall one - it looked something like this - bit it seems to me she also used it on the stove. But only when company came over.
My mormor (grandmother - mother’s side) who lived with us just threw grounds in a saucepan and added water and boiled it. Then she would strain it into a cup. That was some rough coffee…
This Presto Stainless Steel percolator is what I use. I’ve had it for maybe a dozen years. I think I bought it at a yard sale. I’ve used a percolator most of my life. It reminds me of the percolator which sat on the kitchen counter when I was a youth. My attachment is more sentimental than gustatory, although I have to say it sometimes brews a damn good cup of joe. It also moans like a woman in the throes of passion.
Oh, yes. We only use it when the power goes out (it’s a really old stove-top style that works well on the woodstove – or on the barbecue when the damn pelicans knock out the powerlines in the summer), and I will never give it up, even here in the city. It doesn’t taste very good, but it contains caffeine, which is all I ask from the first cup. I keep a little can of Folgers tucked away in the back of the cupboard for those occasions (my grinder is electric), which may account for the crappy taste.
Maybe I’m confused about how a percolator works, but I don’t see how this could be the case.
Don’t percolators and drip coffee makers basically do the same thing: boil water into steam, condense it into water, and then drip it through the coffee grounds?
I thought drip coffee makers replaced percolators because of ease of cleanup.
Edit: Oops. Didn’t see Enright3’s post, which addresses my question.
Not knowing the difference between a drip and a percolator, I decided to go to amazon and see what the latter looked like.
Weird, weird, weird.
The main page I opened to - i.e., without doing any searching at all - had your pot displayed lorene, plus another Farberware - an 8 cupper and still another, a Copco, whatever that is.
I still don’t know the difference, but I’ll die happily nevertheless.
What about those pyrex coffeemakers of not so long ago? Those mostly glass things, where the hot water in the lower compartment would bubble up to the upper compartment where the coffee grounds were, and then it’d all seep back down into the glass coffee pot from which it was poured in your cup. Was that a percolator. Sure as hell wasn’t drip.
My parents still use a percolator, and their coffee is godawful. This last Easter, my sister brought a “Box O’ Joe” from Dunkin Donuts to their house. Needless to say, everyone drank that instead of my parents.
An elderly Puerto Rican gentleman once showed me how to make fantastic coffee at home using a colador and steamed milk.
