All For The Love of Coffee

Probably, like most Boomers, I grew up to the smell of morning coffee. Back in the 40's and 50's most kitchens had a percolator coffee pot. My mother had a complete set of Faberware pots and pans. That included an electric 12 cup Faberware coffee pot that was on often all day. The sound of a percolator inspired a Maxwell Coffee jingle I still remember today!

The irony today is that after more than a few sets of pots and pans I'm back to using Faberware. It just does the job even on my induction stove. The big difference is that the frying pans now have a non-stick surface something we could only dream of back then.

I remember my dad was a cream and sugar man. Back then people used sugar cubes and he put two cubes with milk in every cup. My grandfather used just half & half a special treat that my grandmother let me use with my breakfast cereal.

Faberware perculator

I didn't really make my own morning coffee until after college and two years in the Peace Corps. Oddly we didn't often have coffee as we only had a two burner kerosene stove. Kerosene was precious and ANY water we used needed to be boiled for 15 minutes then filtered to be safe to drink. After a bout of amoebic dysentery I made sure that water was boiled. That same kerosene powered our refrigerator and any lantern light we needed at night.

When I came home in 1969 and started my own household I too bought Faberware and a 12 cup electric percolator. It was what I knew and what I brought to my marriage. We added more pots but the percolator finally wore out and we bought a Mr. Coffee drip coffee machine, all the rage in the 70's up to the 21st Century. The coffee never tasted as good though it did leave a nice aroma. 

Keurig

Drip coffee pots don't last long. Hard water clogs them up, the pot gets broken. Then came the Keurig with its little disposable pods that required that you kept the reservoir filled.  You inserted a small coffee pod, chose the amount of coffee for your cup, hit start and a few minutes later you had a cup of so so coffee.

However, it seemed to me each simplification removed the taste away from coffee. Realizing this, manufacturers made mini home style expresso machines that, to me at least, needed an engineering degree to use. Yes, the coffee had taste but was all the fuss worth it?

Breville Expresso 

About a month ago, as I was de-liming my drip coffee pot, I thought about percolator pots and never having to do this. I remembered the smell and taste and how good that coffee was. You didn't need an engineering degree to make good coffee either. A percolator pot has an heating element in its base.  There is a stem where the heated water rises and empties into a basket holding the coffee. Gradually the water heats up and for a certain amount of time the water washes over the grounds pulling every bit of flavor from the grounds not once but multiple times Actually it makes a pot of coffee in about the same time and entertains you with a burble of sound as it bubbles up the tube.

Newer style percolator

I was all set to buy a Faberware or Presto percolator when I saw a Chinese brand on Amazon that instead of the cord being plugged into the pot, plugged instead into a base the percolator sat on allowing you to remove the pot to pour coffee without unplugging a cord. I had a tea pot like that and it worked perfectly. So I ordered it and will never go back again. The coffee is smoother without bitterness and worth the little bit of effort required. NO pods to fill up disposal sites instead grounds good for garden mulch! In fact I have a small mulch pile that benefits from coffee grounds I'm sure.

If you've never tried it, as most generations born after the Boomers haven't, give it a try. It's a simple way to enjoy a good cup of coffee with a wide variety of beans or ground coffee to experiment with. And that goes for regular or for us diabetics decaf coffees!

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