drip coffee makers vs. percolators (restaurants, substance, freezer, healthier)

[-Lamb]

Ive always used this one to make coffee at home:

[lubby]

Originally Posted by -Lamb

Ive always used this one to make coffee at home:

I have this one too and have not used it yet, a friend found it for me at a garage sale and it was never used. My husband likes espresso. I love my Keurig but before that I had a drip coffee maker. When we were kids my mom had a percolator that perked coffee on the stove.

[-Lamb]

Originally Posted by lubby

I have this one too and have not used it yet, a friend found it for me at a garage sale and it was never used. My husband likes espresso. I love my Keurig but before that I had a drip coffee maker. When we were kids my mom had a percolator that perked coffee on the stove.

Ive never liked drip coffee, i dont know why exactly, it just makes me nauseous? Every morning i grind some beans, put them in the moka, heat some milk and make foam, and thats my morning cappuccino. Either that, or i get it at a bar with a proper espresso machine. But never drip coffee!

[Ohiogirl81]

I've never had a percolator; I bought a Chemex pot for a dollar when I was in college, and it's served me well ever since.

[Jukesgrrl]

Where are percolators still sold? Ten years ago I worked in the housewares department of a major (Macy's size) department store. We sold Mr. Coffee, Braun, Bunn, Cuisinart, Capresso, Keurig, DeLonghi, and Hamilton Beach automatic electric coffee brewers, as well as manual non-electric models such as Melitta, Chemex, Dripolators, stainless Napoletanos, and a variety of French presses and plastic filter-holders. But we didn't have one percolator of the type my grandmother used on the stove-top (hers was Pyrex) or some of the electric metal percolators I used to see years ago.

I've had quite a few coffee brewers in my life. The one I like best is the Cuisinart Grind & Brew Thermal. It drips coffee into a thermal pot. Because it the pot doesn't sit on a heating element, the coffee never tastes burned or too strong and stays hot for several hours. It comes with a built-in coffee grinder that one can use or not if you prefer already ground coffee.
Here it is: https://www.cuisinart.com/products/c...dgb-650bc.html
Yes, it's expensive (MSRP $129, lots of places sell it for $99). But I've had mine for more than ten years and it's still chugging along even though I use it every day.

[puginabug]

I've used a stovetop percolator for almost 40 years now. My mom had a drip coffee maker, and that's what I started with, but the hubby said the coffee was never hot enough.

So I switched to a perc, never to return. We have gone the French Press route, too, and like that too. But I always come back to my old school percolator. It feels like I can better control how the coffee comes out.

But then, i'm not a coffee perfectionist. I like mine strong and black.

ETA: Jukesgrrl, i think I got my current one at Macy's, god YEARS ago. Like maybe 20-25 years. It's come all the way cross country with me, and I use it daily. Might have been Penney's. I googled it, and they have a Farberware stovetop perc, exactly like mine.

[theatergypsy]

For 58 years, I drank instant coffee. Funny what you can get used to, isn't it?

I always enjoyed the taste of brewed coffee, but I only had a stove-top percolator and I never could get the hang of making a "good" cup of Joe.

For my 75th. birthday, someone gifted me with a Cuisinart drip maker with a timer. After several false tries, I finally have gotten the proportions right for me. I couldn't drink a cup of instant coffee now. If that's all there is, I'll opt for tea.

It's so nice to wake up and walk to the kitchen smelling the fresh brew and pour that first cup. It's a religious experience.

As for perked, it's rarely the same each time, depending on whether or not you get side-tracked and don't shut the burner off before the bitter happens.

The sweet person who gave me the Cuisinart, my dil, passed away last month. I remember her every morning, with love and reverence.

[Larry Caldwell]

There are a lot of different ways to make coffee. The traditional way is camp coffee. Boil water over a campfire, dump coarse ground coffee into it, let it sit for a few minutes, stir, add a little cold water to settle the grounds, and serve. It's surprisingly good coffee.

When I was growing up, restaurant coffee was made by Silex. That was a two tier coffee maker. The water in the lower tier boiled and forced the water into the upper tier (where the coffee was) by steam pressure. Then you took it off the heat, and the vacuum below pulled the coffee back down through a screen/filter. It was a good system, but generally lousy coffee. It was mostly robusta rather than arabica, and sort of disgusting. If you were lucky enough to find a restaurant that bought good coffee, it tasted great.

Percolators were an odd invention. My parents used one when I was a kid, but I have never owned one.

I have a couple of the traditional drip coffee makers. One is a simple filter cone that makes great coffee just by pouring hot water over the coffee. The other is a big aluminum double globe. When you fill the top with hot water it meters the drip rate through small holes. A small round paper filter over a grid of holes catches the grounds. It also makes great coffee, a gallon at a time. I had a 5 gallon drip coffee maker, but I donated it to my rod and gun club, since I couldn't imagine needing to make that much coffee at once. It used a filter basket like a Mr. Coffee paper filter, but you had to heat the water separately. It did have an electric warming coil.

I had an espresso machine once, but mostly I used it to make Kahlua. I think steam extraction overdoes a good thing, but the concentrate made a Kahlua that didn't get diluted too far by the alcohol and sugar to make a decent liqueur.

I have a friend who makes cold water extracted coffee concentrate. It's not to my taste, but she likes it.

BTW, if you are cooking with chocolate, like a chocolate cake, add a little instant coffee. It's an excellent condiment for chocolate, though not drinkable as a beverage. The only exception I have ever found is an instant that I found in Columbia called ColCafe. It was the only drinkable instant coffee I have ever tasted.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Jukesgrrl

Where are percolators still sold?

You can find them in the camping section of most stores. Personally, if I am making coffee with a suspect water supply, I want to boil the water and then filter it through a coffee filter.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by 124c41

I have had a "drip" coffeemaker for many years, after my percolator died on me, and so decided to try the percolator once again. I will never go back to "drip". The percolator makes the coffee taste so much better, and makes the house smell so good in the morning. To each their own, though.

I am with this poster. My last drip coffeemaker broke, so I first got a French press. The stupid thing fell apart after about a month, but I was not that impressed to begin with. The coffee was just barely hot. The only thing I could say is that I had coffee fast. I went out and bought an electric percolator. The coffee is HOT and the coffee tastes stronger and more flavorful. And yes, the house smells good!

Years ago I had one of those spatterware coffeepots with a hinged lid that I found at a garage sale. It had no inside parts, but I just measured the coffee and then put in cold water and then started it over a medium flame. When it almost came to a boil, I lowered the heat and let it cook for about ten minutes or until I could smell it. Then I turned it off, let it sit for five minutes, and poured it into the mug through a strainer. Low-tech, and not the prettiest coffee, but it was some of the best.