Retro
 |
| Love that crazy Instagram! |
Yes, I’ve gone over to The Dark Side. After years (decades, really) of being disappointed by the lackluster brews of electric drip machines, tired of the fuss of single cup cone brewers, frustrated by the French press (the coffee is always lukewarm by the time I reach for my second cup) I’ve committed Coffee Snob Heresy and picked up a percolator.
During our rushed weekday mornings, I’m happy enough with my quick-and-tasty Nespresso lungo’s, but during the weekend I love to sit and relax with a cup or two before the boys get up.
Percolated coffee can easily go bitter, so remove the cup with the grounds once it’s done brewing, and don’t leave the coffee sitting with the heat on for too many hours, lest you wind up with something reminiscent of battery acid. It’s also important to grind the beans to the percolator setting, a bit more coarse than what you’d use for a drip machine.
Are you a coffee drinker? What’s your preferred method of preparation?
~
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States License.
Stay in touch
Sign up to be notified of new posts and updates from une femme d’un certain âge.
I love the smell of coffee rather than the taste.
For me, mornings are made of strong black tea, with a coffee break about 12,30.
My husband makes the coffee ( English style, very week) and I love the ritual.
English style? Most English homes do not own a coffee maker. The best coffee in England is found at hotels. Otherwise, it is jar coffee!
Coffee is the blood of life. In the morning I set the Keurig to heat up thirty minutes before I get up, that was the boiler is hot, hot, hot. I have certain cups for coffee only. I can walk dogs, pull weeds and even dress with a coffee cup in hand. I also have a Cuisinart grind and brew when more people are here and experiment constantly for the perfect bean, etc. My last percolator died a while ago, but I had the famous Presto and cherished its special taste. At this moment, as I sip on cup number two planning my day, it is heartwarming to know that I am not alone.
My family always made percolator coffee on the stove top so this is a lovely retro reminder. Now I use a french press, single cup size so that it’s nice and hot. I have a larger one that I use if I have company.
I have a camp stove that is a perkulator. A thermos keeps it nice for later. Sometimes I make it the night before so I can have something hot without waking the whole crowd.
Retro indeed (says the woman on her second cup of strong French Roast)…
I recall my mother’s old percolator on the stove back in the 60s – filled with Maxwell House from a blue can! There was always coffee going in the house, but those were very different days, and a different world, certainly for most women.
I actually didn’t drink coffee at all until my 20s. Didn’t like my mother’s, then had a great cup at a café in Paris one day, and was hooked! I actually use a simple drip coffee maker and tend to make small amounts but fresh each time (as I drink it black and strong), and I try to stop drinking at 3pm and to be moderate about how much I drink… though I admit to an espresso size cup after dinner now and then.
As I think about it, the best coffee I’ve ever had, and consistently, has been in Belgium. For a few decades I went back and forth regularly. Exceptional coffee.
I don’t drink coffee at all, but make plenty of it for my husband. We use a percolator and love it. I like its retro look and the fact that all parts are metal and easy to deal with. There are not many kinds (brands) of percolators available. We have three (two at our farm) and each one of them has its quirks. I can’t vouch for the quality of the coffee, but my husband says it is good. Good tip to remove the basket with the grounds after the coffee is made. I’ll start doing that.
We love our French press. As soon as we pour the first cup, the rest goes into our Pampered Chef insulated carafe. It stays piping hot for quite awhile but if we want some a few hours later, a quick zap in the microwave works fine. I’m actually more of a tea person and I’ve got the perfect system for that. I brew it in a Klean Kanteen (stainless steel, very well insulated) then pour a little at a time into a china cup. I prefer to drink out of a nice cup and saucer and I want it very hot. One could do the same with coffee from a French press. My Kanteen holds 16 oz.
Get someone else to make it!
Hooray for you, getting the right pot (coffee pot!) for your needs. We were recently gifted a Keurig and I’m in total love, experimenting with every flavor and combination. I still adore Seven-eleven coffee though, talk about anti-snobbery : >
I brew coffee daily in an old Krups drip machine with a thermos pot. I grind fresh (addicted to Starbucks Verona) and I make it really strong. A couple years ago I got a Nespresso electric milk frother for Mothers’ Day: heaven. It’s a pricey machine, but worth every penny… I use it daily. I also have a Nespresso espresso machine for quick fixes. The coffee in their pods is really delicious.
~Kathleen
I do not love our drip machine either and have recently ordered a Bodum French press which is in transit.
I used to call percolator coffee camp coffee because it was so strong…we never knew the trick about removing the basket so it wouldn’t go bitter,
Love your retro image with Instagram.
I don’t drink coffee..but my husband does…and he loves his old drip machine. I think your percolator is so pretty!
For the first 26 years of our marriage, all we used were percolators! The coffee was so good…but they kept quitting on us and became harder to find. Two years ago in our busy schedules we went over to the other dark side and joined the KEURIG crowd. Though more expensive per cup, we love the ease of it and the Starbucks French Roast! So good!
I am a coffee lover, and haven’t used a percolator for years. I get my morning coffee per drip and it suits me fine. My morning cup of coffee is one of the best moments of the day.
Ongoing debate in this house. I use a Nespresso machine, my husband uses a Breville drip (about our 15th drip machine) – and I’m still not totally happy. Coincidentally, I’m leaving this morning for NYC, to visit my MIL who has percolated coffee only and I was thinking about it and how much I’m looking forward to that coffee, before I read this post. Going to buy one for sure. Thanks!
Agree completely re: electric drip coffeemakers making poor coffee. So I bought a Pyrex glass percolator. After much experimenting, I could never get the strength right. I like a very strong but not bitter cup of coffee with a good deal of milk in it. Gave up a dug out my old French press. 6 minutes to boil water int the teakettle and 5 min to steep. Perfect. I solved the “2nd cup is cold” by wrapping a clean dish towel around the pot after I pour my first cup.
Anyone want to buy a Pyrex percolator? Come over for coffee and I will show it to you!
I love our Bodum all stainless Presso French press (no glass insert).There is no glass to break when washing and the coffee stays warm for much longer.
I have the same press – I even take it out camping so the morning coffee is delicious everywhere I go. It does not stay warm very long, but it never has to!
Wow…couldn’t let this one pass without a sentence or two…We used a Corningware percolator for years, then it broke–I remember choosing it because it was easier to wash than the old metal kind (which quickly gets a buildup that gets bitter) Some things go out of style because they get replaced by a more efficient, better item–for me, the old percolators fall into that category…messy grounds baskets, touchy innards (electrically) and the very likely possibility of getting burned coffee on the second cup. Although we have a Keurig and a Bodum french press (useful when the power goes out!), my go-to for years has been the faithful Cuisinart drip machine.
I have a Bodum single cup French press — boil the water in my beloved electric kettle (a liter at full boil in 45 seconds!) — and heat the milk to boiling in the microwave. I don’t have a second cup, since the first is so good.
When my next round of houseguests arrive, I’ll buy a bigger Bodum — my motto these days is don’t buy it until you need it!
(And the dishtowel around the French press works very well for keeping it hot. There is also such a thing as a coffee cozy. I think I’ve seen them on Etsy.)
What kind of electric kettle do you use? I don’t currently have one. My last one had nowhere near that kind of performance!
It’s a Phillips. Not as glam as the Russell Hobbs I left in storage in the States, but it makes up for it in speed.
I love the Nepresso for a quick cup in the morning. Also have an Aeropress which I love and use when I grind my own beans. On weekends I use my frother for the second cup – and it’s heaven.
My husband bought a Toddy cold brew system about 10 years ago and we’ve never looked back. The coffee is less acidic and tastes amazing!
That is a darling photo. We drink coffee here every morning. When we were last in Paris, our cute boutique hotel would bring a pot of coffee, two cups with saucers and warmed milk to our room on a little tray every morning. We loved it so much we continued to do it at home – it’s been almost two years now and the routine is still going strong: Pot of coffee, two bodum mugs, and a small pitcher of warmed organic cream on a tray.
We own a Capreso drip coffee machine. It’s great because the heating element shuts off after the coffee is brewed so the coffee doesn’t get burned and bitter. And the pot itself is made like a thermos so the coffee stays hot for a long time. It’s a very good machine. We have had it for about 6 or 7 years and it still works great.
We used to use a French press but now we are totally addicted to our expresso machine. It makes the best Americanos.
We just returned from Cape Cod where we used the percolator for our morning coffee. It was delicious! We would drink it so quickly that it never became stale. I had forgotten that my job as a child was to set up the percolator for the morning coffee. I must say that I enjoy our Keurig at home for flavored coffees. Jamaica Me Crazy is a delight as an after dinner dessert coffee.
So funny – I just bought this same coffeemaker last week. Love it!
I have a stovetop espresso maker that I use regularly (a Bialetti, they are super inexpensive and work well), a fancy Gaggia espresso maker that I rarely use and likely should not have purchased, a drip coffeemaker I hate that now lives in the basement pending rehoming to Goodwill, and a French press. I have a percolator that I keep at work and I love that too.
Now that i read this over, maybe I have a bit of a coffee problem.
Morning coffee is one of our favorite pleasures. We use a Techni Vorm Moccamaster, a drip system. Our favorite brew is called India Monsooned Malabar AA. I think the beans are from India, but it is roasted here. No sugar or cream. Nice to hear what others love as well. My grandparents used to make percolated coffee in the afternoon around 4 and I have fond memories of enjoying that ritual with them.
I do love my coffee but I prefer mine dripped. I love the sound of a percolator though I don’t care for the taste, perhaps because I’ve been served the “battery acid” you mention. I drink my coffee very strong and often add an extra scoop of grounds and then immediately turn off the drip warmer. If I want the coffee hot, I’ll put it in a carafe. If I want it cold, I’ll let it cool in the pot.
I’m a coffee geek so I do a variety of methods. I have an espresso maker (a real one with a pressurized portafilter)on a timer so that it is warm when we get up in the morning. I also use an aeropress, primarily for iced coffee, and I use a regular filter drip sometimes. But all of these are one cup at a time methods. I don’t think there’s a truly good method for making a pot of coffee where the second cup drunk 15+ minutes later really tastes as good as the first. So I start over every time.
I can’t believe this post either. I just bought the same machine myself.
We have a K-cup machine as well, which works when you just want one cup.
I fell in love with percolated coffee on St. Patrick’s Day. A friend used the percolated coffee to make Irish Coffee at a party we attended. I skipped the Irish, but loved the coffee.
The next week, I ordered the percolator from Amazon. My daughter in law loved it so much, I’m thinking of mailing them one as a wedding gift.
I am a coffee junkie! I like the flavor of frnch press but I take my coffee HOT so its never quite hot enough for me. I used to have a fancy expresso machine at home but it has broken, I’ve moved and now swill from a Mr. Coffee 4 cup. Will consider this perculator business- I like the pic too!
The percolator makes the coffee taste as good as the french press but keeps your coffee hot. Try it!
I have one of these and it’s the best: http://www.sweetmarias.com/sweetmarias/coffee-brewers/filtercones/clever-coffee-dripper-large.html
Basically, you boil water, then pour it over ground coffee in a filter. It sits for 4 minutes, then you put the contraption on top of a coffee cup and it drips through. Makes on perfect cuppa.
About 3 years ago, I purchased a used Saeco espresso machine for around $125. I use it almost everyday. Its like a “special treat” everyday. Recently, I started to buy a local coffee shop (Caribou coffee) espresso, rather than Starbucks, that along with the frothy milk, makes the most wonderful cappuccino. Truly, I look forward to mornings just because of this.
I bought a Farberware Superfast Percolator about six months ago and will never go back to the drip coffee machine. They make THE best coffee.
We have a drip machine that does fine – I think the key is the coffee you use. We buy whole bean coffee and grind it for each pot.
In Europe, our Venice apartment had a stove-top espresso maker, and we loved using that. Our Paris apartment had a weird gadget machine with little capsules of coffee – I don’t remember its name – and although I had my doubts, it turned out to be quite good.
When we lived in Oslo temporarily for 3 months, we used a French press. And everywhere we went in London and Paris this trip, we were served French press coffee – and it was so good my husband is looking for our old one to start using it again.
Bialetti stainless steel moka pot, ftw!