And that last sentence is precisely what Michael Ruhlman failed to recognize. It’s as if Mr. Ruhlman were lamenting the prized, old-fashioned use of conventional radiant (aka “thermal”) ovens for baking pastries or browning meats. As if today’s near-universal recommendation of convection ovens for these tasks were some devious modernist plot, denying us of our mealy-pie-crust and dried-out-Thanksgiving-turkey heritage.

I had perked coffee when I was young but have never owned a percolator until recently. I have owned many cheap drip machines and have always been discussed with the results. You just should not have to microwave your coffee you just made but I have never owned a drip machine that makes coffee hot enough. The results I get from drip machines is why I quit buying expensive beans and grinding them. For all my trouble if I go to the right establishment I can still buy a better cup of coffee so why bother.

Maybe I’m wrong but you cannot buy a drip machine under $100 that will brew coffee at the optimal temperatures of 195 to 210 degrees.

An earlier post stated that with a percolator you are running coffee over spent grounds but that does not make since. Those grounds are not spent with the first burst of water they are not even all wet yet. A french press steeps the brew for several minutes with continual contact with the water before it is done.

Paper filters do effect the flavor profile.

I bought a percolator because I wanted to make coffee when while camping assuming it would be inferior. That said my percolator is not electric so I have to stay on my game when I use it.

The water does not have to be boiling to perk, I have an infra red thermometer and can verify that. As soon as the water starts to perk I turn the heat to between low and med low which is not hot enough to boil but enough to perk. I let it perk for 8 minutes but it is perking slow, electric percolators perk faster so it must be the temp. I use almost half as much coffee as I do in my drip machine and it comes out stronger and without bitterness. I do not like bitter coffee. I do like it strong and bold.

That said IMOP the percolator makes a much better cup of coffee than a cheap drip machine I realize Kruips makes some $200 plus machines that probably do a much better job of temperature control but I have not tasted the product so I cannot comment.

As far as I am concerned the percolator make a notably better cup of coffee but I am going to more trouble. The quality improvement has caused me to question the auto mindless process of making coffee and I do intent to purchase a french press to see if it is all it is cracked up to be. It looks easy enough.

I’m not a snob I just like coffee the way I like it but my drip machine ain’t gettin the job done. I prefer my perk coffee. Coffee ain’t cheap anymore so it is worth the trouble. I also want to try the AroPress thingy, anybody want to weigh in on that.

From my experience science aside a percolator is an improvement over Mr. Coffee.

But one major difference between Greek and Turkish coffee from percolator coffee is the evenness of the boil — as facilitated by the brewing vessel.

If you found a percolator that maintains an even 200-degrees F, you have to be more than lucky. It’s almost impossible to get a decent filter-drip coffee maker made in the 1990s or 2000s that can even pull that off. Which isn’t to say it isn’t possible. Just that with most 1950s percolator technology, the odds are heavily stacked against you.

We went through a period of playing with 50s and 60s percolators the way that coffee industry snobs these days play with different funnel shapes of pour-over brewing cones, with vacuum brewing bulbs, with Chemex pots, etc. We never could get it to work neither consistently nor very right. And here we enjoy the so-out-of-favor flavor profile of an earthy, second-crack roasted Sulawesi coffee (for example).

We’ve always advocated the right tool for the job. Our Cona vacuum pot is amazing on a delicate Kona, but it is wasted on some wilder, dry-processed Ethiopian beans — or even a darker-roasted Esmeralda Geisha — for example. And a great Bolivian CoE coffee in a V60 pour-over tastes lame in a French press. Whereas some body-heavy Sulawesi in a French press shines. I would expect a good operating percolator to best excel with the coffee profiles you favor. But that said, good luck finding one to do the job right.

Many people believe that this washes all the flavor out of the coffee, and causes all the bitter oils to end up in the brew. Well, then why is letting the grinds steep right in the water for 4 minutes, as they do in a French press, any better, yet French Press is all the rage right now?

Percolator coffee is about as subtle as a chainsaw and about as precise as grinding your beans with a claw hammer. Some kinds of coffee work better than others in a percolator — particularly darker roasts and beans with a greater tolerance for variation. And as always, it depends on the flavor profile(s) you individually appreciate more.

Of course my parents still don’t own an answering machine and have rotary phones hardwired to the walls (no jacks), but that’s another story…

But you’re probably right.