Posted: 1/31/2005 6:08:39 PM EDT
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Why is percolated coffee so much better than automatic drip? I've been drinking it lately, and it seems a lot richer. Another bonus is it doesn't seem to burn and go bad if it sits awhile in the pot, unlike drip coffee. |
Wait, you let it sit?  I usually just drink it right out of the pot. Saves trips. 
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Drip coffee became the rage in the mid to late 70's. Remember the old Mr Coffee comercials with Joe Dimaggio? I predict that some asshat on the Food channel will "re-discover" perc coffee and it will again be the "in thing" for the next 30 years or so. Then the cycle will continue. |
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When I got around to wanting a way to make coffee I looked around at some stores and basicaly decided I did not want anything else that needed to plug in to a kitchen outlet. The perking coffee pot I take camping now lives on the kitchen stove and works well. I know there are other methods, I just like the perking coffee pot for simplicity sake and I think they are a neat concept. |
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The problem with drip coffee is the paper filter. It absorbs oils and flavor. Supposedly the white bleached filters are better than the brown filters. The bleaching process takes out impurities which change the flavor of coffee. A reusable mesh filter helps. I drink coffee from a press, once in a while I do like coffee from a percolator. You get more flavor into the cup instead of trapped in a filter. |
+1 on the Philips Senseo. Warms in less than a minute and ready in less than 30 second with a rich coffee froth on the top every time. In the time it took me to just type this Id be holding a cup. Only coffee that tastes over a slice of apple or cherry pie. 
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Basket was still aluminum, though.
Yeah, the Philips is the one we went with. We looked at it first because of the brand of coffee it is associated with, realized that pods are a standard size so you can use any pod in any maker, then went for the Phillips anyway because the other models just seemed cheaply made. We also added an extra large water tank to ours that holds more than twice the water. |
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www.peets.com/learn/coffee_basics.asp Peet's knows coffee. I also know a guy that makes a living tasting coffee for the big roasters. That's all he has to do is taste coffee. The talent is rare enough it is a good job. |
They're cheap, easy to clean, and simple. The grounds basically sit in hot water for however long you want it to. Good for loose-leaf teas. |
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I don't care what you use to make coffee, it won't taste as good as ANY coffee you'll drink in Rio De Janeiro, Brasil. Brasillian coffee defies description. The cheap stuff they serve in corporate office buildings is superior to any coffee I've had in the states. The second best coffee I've ever had was in Lisbon, Portugal. The Third best was cuban coffee in Miami. |
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Odds are it's more an issue of the quality of the coffee. I remember when drip coffeemakers first came out all my buddies at work were thrilled they could get rid of the old percolator, which seemed to produce bitter, nasty coffee. I don't know if that was because the percolator boiled the coffee, or because it was so large, the coffee tended to sit there for several hours before a new batch was made. I do remember, all things being equal, the drip coffeemaker produced far better tasting coffee. |
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percolated and drip coffee makers both allow tannic acid to leach out of the beans , that acid destroys the subtle flavors in good coffee . Try this , and you will never go back : Pressure Brew |
My brother just told me this the other day but failed to mention where he got the large tank. Ive got to get one. Im refilling the smaller twice a day. |
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This talk of percolators made me remember a funny story from when I was in the Army. I was going through AIT and it was my squads turn to clean the Drill Sgt's office. Our Senior Drill Sgt. was a stickler for cleanliness and he used to say that the smell of pine oil made his dick hard. It was a Sunday and none of the drills had duty that weekend so they left us a key to get in (FYI, we were a small Army detachment in a joint service school. We only had 2 drills for about 20 students so they didn't work on Sundays). We cleaned the hell out of everything in the office because none of us wanted to let the Sr. Drill Sgt down... and endure the "smoking" that would entail. During the cleaning, somebody opened the coffee percolator to throw out the grounds and we decided that the inside of that pot was mighty dirty. None of us young pups drank coffee so we weren't real sure about how to clean the pot. One of the guys decided to go and get a sponge to clean out the pot. That pot was hell to clean. It took some elbow grease and plenty of the Sr. Drill Sgt's favorite cleaner...Pine Oil. Fast forward to 0530 on Monday Morning. Go down for PT formation and the Drills started tearing through us like a tornado in an Alabama trailer park. I did notice they were both a little... ok, very green around the gills. "Who was the fuckhead that cleaned out the coffee pot with pine oil!" Our suffering was legendary.
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Thanks for the tip! |