Percolated coffee is the default for our camping trips. Everyone loves my percolated coffee. But that’s because our “camping trips” are actually “drinking insane amounts of alcohol and abusing drugs in the woods, then passing out in a tent” trips.
Though percolated coffee is considered inferior to other methods of making coffee, one time I like it is when camping-- I have a camping coffee pot that percolates, which I’ve used on camping trips over the years, the outside blackened from many many campfires. The coffee it produces is like mud when poured into a cup, and you get a mouthful of grounds if you drink the last coffee in the cup. But it’s a great eye-opener on a chilly north Michigan morning.
EDIT: Nice ninja by kayaker
^Yes! Camper high five
Another round of campin’ coffees!
Percolator coffee tastes different from coffee made by other methods. The other methods taste different from each other. If you don’t like percolator coffee, then that is matter simply of personal taste. I prefer it over drip coffee which has an insipid, mildly acidic flavor. Then again, I had my first cup of coffee at age four and it was from a percolator. I never had drip coffee until I was in my teens and I didn’t care for it. Army coffee was lovely and strong and made in great huge percolator urns.
What is missing from this discussion is IMHO the key to a good cup of coffee (next to grind size), regardless of the method: the proportion of grounds to water.
I got one of those clear glass stovetop percolators like my mother had at a garage sale, and I’d like some guidance on measurements. I also have a plug-in percolator. I like coffee to be very strong, too, but don’t like the burnt taste of dark roast.
For those of you successfully using percolators, what’s your ratio of grounds to water-- and what size “cup” (or do you just go by the markings on the pot, which might be either a 5- or 6-ounce cup)?
You are doing it wrong, but don’t worry, making percolated coffee is a skill. My mother and grandmother could both make delicious percolated coffee that was better than any drip coffee in the world.
Thing is, on a scale of 1 to 10, the best percolated coffee is a ten, while “duh,” drip coffee made by anybody who can buy a filter and grinds is about a 7, and bad percolated coffee is a 2.5, while a 1 is generic instant, badly measured, made with hot tap water instead of boiled water (like I had in the Army a few times).
So, since drip coffee makers were invented, it became not really worth the trouble to learn to make percolated coffee.
But all those commercials where women were freaking out because they couldn’t make coffee, and they weren’t able to satisfy their husbands, were about not being able to use a percolator (if you were born after 1975, you are scratching your head, and that’s OK). Those ads were usually for a brand of coffee that was magic, and would allow anyone to make good percolated coffee. I don’t know if that’s true-- that grinds or the brand or anything could make much of a difference if you don’t know how to use the percolator correctly-- but I think some of them were less oily-- coffee grinds used to be really oily.
Anyway, I have no idea what the trick is to using a percolator correctly, but there is one, and if you get it right, you will have some damn fine coffee.
If I’m camping and don’t want to put up with instant I either use a coffee sock (popular in Latin America) or make cowboy coffee by just throwing the grounds in hot water.
Now that’s camping coffee: coffee you can chew.
Bastard! I was certain that the last line of your post would reveal the magical secret…
Made pot #3 this morning; it sucked even worse than the Wednesday and Thursday morning pots. The perked coffee is certainly STRONG enough; it just tastes flat and unpleasant.
Have you tried stirring it to put more oxygen into the boiled water?
The main secret is learning to regulate the heat. Also, make sure you don’t overfill with water. The water should not be in contact with the bottom of the grounds basket. Start with the percolator over no more than a medium flame. When you see the first bubble of coffee in the little glass dome, reduce to low heat. Start with letting things perk over low heat for about 5 minutes. You’ll need to adjust time based on how strong you like your coffee and the particular brand/roast you use. Back in the days when percolators were the rule, people had pretty strong brand preferences partially (I suspect) because they had learned how to make a particular brand just the way they liked. One of my grandmothers always bought Hills Brothers. The other always bought 8 O’Clock. Both made good coffee. Remember that making good percolator coffee is a skill you learn through trial and error. Once you hit on a combination of brand/roast/time that gives you good coffee, stick with it. You can, of course, learn to make good coffee with lots of brands and roasts, you just have to remember how you do each individual one. When you have the boss over for dinner probably isn’t the time to try perking a new brand for the first time.
Have you been…watching me? That’s exactly how I’ve done it over the past three days, varying the perk time between 5 and 7 minutes.
Maybe I should throw out my fancy goor-may fresh ground coffee and buy a can from th’ supermarket. Or try China Guy’s eggshell suggestion; that’s not the first time I’ve heard that.
Hell, toss a rasher of bacon and some toast in there too and have my whole breakfast in a cup.
What about the ratio of ground coffee to water??
You have to futz with the ratio, too. I use a generously rounded tablespoon of coffee to each 6 ounces of water with my preferred brand of percolator coffee. I like my coffee strong, though. Percolator coffee is not an exact science, my friends. As noted upthread by RivkkahChaya, it is a skill that not everybody mastered even when percolators were in common use.
Well, I’d suggest purchasing some inexpensive coffee to try, at least. But my first guess is that your percolating temp may be too high. If it bubbles to beat the band, it’s getting hotter than my auto perk does, which is a gentle bubble at it’s hottest.
I use the cup marks on the side of the carafe, and put 1 heaping tbs. of coffee in per cup, then usually put another heaping tbs. on top of that.
Same here. Four grossly heaping tablespoons for four cups (as I mentioned, more brewed coffee than I can drink).
And no to the temp being too high; as I also mentioned, heat turned down to low once perking begins.
If you are getting sludge, as in particulate matter, in any quantity in your cup, then the coffee is ground too fine. You may be using too much of this particular brand/roast per cup. Try a coarser grind and using less.
I am sorry to inform you that even with the coffee at a simmer, if it’s pushing liquid up the tube and into the drip basket, it is boiling. Boiled coffee = bad coffee, with the exception of camping, apparently. Also, you’re repeatedly running boiled coffee through used grounds, and… well you’re the one drinking it, so I don’t have to tell you what it tastes like.
Well, what am I going to believe? Your theory or my lying taste buds?
You can like your drip or vacuum or french press or whatever. Other people like perk. Your having a theory to back up your preference doesn’t make it more convincing. If someone came up with a theory to back up why they liked ketchup on corn dogs, it still wouldn’t make me think it’s a tasty condiment for them.