A coffee percolator is an old-fashioned device used to make coffee, with a distinctive taste and sound. It requires skill to use properly and can easily produce bitter coffee. Electric coffee makers are now more common, but percolators can still be used with care and experimentation.
A coffee percolator is a device designed to be used in the preparation of coffee. The percolator was actually the original coffee brewing device, although they aren’t commonly seen these days, having been supplanted by drip coffee makers, French presses, and espresso machines. The flavor of percolator coffee is quite distinctive and some people consider it an acquired taste; it also takes skill to learn how to use a percolator properly, as it’s easy to mess up coffee when using a percolator.
There are different parts of a coffee pot, contained within the coffee pot itself, which looks rather like an urn. Working from the top down, the percolator has a spout that allows people to pour the coffee, along with a lid that’s typically clear so people can check on the coffee while it’s brewing. Next is a perforated chamber designed to hold coarsely ground coffee. Attached to the chamber is a tube, which runs along the bottom of the percolator, making contact with a chamber which holds the water near a heat source.
To use a coffee pot, the pot is placed over a heat source such as a stove or campfire. As the water in the lower chamber heats up, it is forced up the tube, where it splashes onto the ground, making a very distinctive sound. Hot water percolates or seeps through the coffee grounds, ending up back in the lower chamber. When the coffee is percolated well, the water never quite reaches the boiling point and the coffee can be quite strong.
The biggest danger to a percolator is that it’s easy to overexpose the beans, creating bitter coffee with an off-flavor and aroma. Overextraction occurs from using water that is too hot or because the coffee is regenerated, with hot coffee sent through the beans instead of hot water, removing volatile coffee flavors on the second pass. When using a coffee maker correctly, both of these problems can be avoided.
Several companies produce electric coffee makers with sophisticated controls designed to extract the best coffee possible. If you use a percolator on the stovetop or over a fire, however, you’ll need to look at it carefully to make sure it’s working properly. It may take some experimentation to create the perfect coffee with a percolator, so be patient and plan on making a few interrupted attempts before brewing the coffee of your dreams.
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