Are perculators bad?

[tobiasknight]

Personally I've never used one, yet one day I saw a fancy looking "double bubble" style perculator that looked like an old alchemical device. It looks beautiful when it works but I've never actually had any. (Weird huh?)
My friend (who's not too wise with coffee despites his attempts) says it tastes horrible. I know it's just "boiled coffee" and that doesn't sound too appealing but I was wondering if anyone had an opinion on it? Can a perculator turn out a good cup of joe?

 

[angelic_one2002]

I have owned many drip coffeemakers, and NONE compare to the taste of coffee made in my new percolator. It makes the coffee very hot..much hotter than any dripmaker. The flavor is superb. :grin:

 

[NW JAVA]

:twisted:

I like to shower in dirty bathwater! I'm a perylatter!

 

[NW JAVA]

Actualluy I'm a Perkylater!

 

[Jacobean]

Hmmmm... what about a Cona vaccuum maker? In essence it's kind of a percolator. Obviously you have more control over how much contact the water has with the coffee.

 

[John Groce]

Personally I've never used one, yet one day I saw a fancy looking "double bubble" style perculator that looked like an old alchemical device. It looks beautiful when it works but I've never actually had any. (Weird huh?)
My friend (who's not too wise with coffee despites his attempts) says it tastes horrible. I know it's just "boiled coffee" and that doesn't sound too appealing but I was wondering if anyone had an opinion on it? Can a perculator turn out a good cup of joe?

The best cup I've ever had, hands down. I'm trying a Capresso 101 counter-top Chevy or Pinto or something and can't make a cup anywhere near what I can with my cheap-o stovetop machine I've had over 10 years. An ex-boss of mine from Naples Itialy gave me a perculator for Chrismas and I still love it but the beating of the sugar does wear out the forearm,my wife says its not worth the trouble but I know it is. If you get one of these little guys and need to know how to brew the perfect cup let me know.

 

[mrgnomer]

Personally I've never used one, yet one day I saw a fancy looking "double bubble" style perculator that looked like an old alchemical device. It looks beautiful when it works but I've never actually had any. (Weird huh?)
My friend (who's not too wise with coffee despites his attempts) says it tastes horrible. I know it's just "boiled coffee" and that doesn't sound too appealing but I was wondering if anyone had an opinion on it? Can a perculator turn out a good cup of joe?

Electric drip makers are relatively new as of the 70's from what I've read. Before drip makers there were percolators.

For full saturation, good water and steep times just about all drip makers are hopeless. Any other method that gives you control over extraction would make a better cup of coffee, percolators included. Not only will you get a good cup of coffee from a percolator but it will be better than any drip as far as I know.

 

[ArtieD2]

When you all say "perkolator", I wonder if its the same device I think of. I think of a perkolator as that type of pot my grandparents used to use. Like they had in the old Maxwell House ads with the coffee shooting up into the little glass "bead" at the top.

I wonder because we just did a comparison with one of those to our standard auto-drip Mr Coffee, and the auto-drip made a much better pot. I'm wondering if the grind should be different for the two types.

What grind do you perkolator users use? Coarse, fine, somewhere in between?

 

[rcc5k]

For cup quality at home nothing beats a french press.

 

[mrgnomer]

I've never used a perculator but from the info I found a coarse grind is recommended to keep from choking the filiter.

Perculators seem to be an either you love them or you're not keen on them. It seems they break a few extracting 'laws' like brewing with boiling water and recirculating the brew over the grounds over and over again.

This is a pretty good manual outlining perculator use.

http://www.westbend.com/westbend/suppor ... rc_ALL.pdf