Coffee lovers and caffeine addicts all over have argued for years and years over which type of coffee maker makes the best coffee. The question will never been answered satisfactorily since it’s merely a matter of personal choice. And there are many choices!
Originally, coffee beans were chewed like vitamins or even candy. The effects were well known by ancient civilizations as they fed them to warriors before battles. Their descendants, however, figured out a more pleasurable way to enjoy coffee beans, and thus was invented real brewed coffee.
Even cowboys came to love their coffee as they herded cattle and led wagon trains out West. Many still believe that the only true perfect cup of coffee can be achieved using a percolator over an open fire. Cowboys didn’t care about sugar and milk, they drank their coffee black – and sometimes thick. The same percolators were used at home, over the open fire of a stove. And anyone who ever percolated a pot of coffee will tell you the same thing – percolators boil over and can cause quite the mess!
Fast forward to the late 1950s. A leading houseware manufacturer invented the electric percolator and women scooped them up by the thousands. These worked on the same principle – water boiling up through the coffee grounds – but they had built it controls and monitoring devices to virtually prevent any messy mishaps. Just follow the simple directions and within minutes you’ll have very good cup of java.
In the early 1970s an even newer coffee maker – the “drip” model – was brought to market and, once again, housewives couldn’t buy them fast enough. The results were the same but the technology differed a bit. Instead of the water boiling up through a holder where the coffee grounds were placed and turning into coffee as they flowed back down again, the water was boiled separately and dripped little by little from the top, through the grounds. The difference was that water only hit the coffee grounds once, as opposed to the percolator method where the coffee would keep recycling through the wet grounds.
Nothing much changed until the late 1980s when gourmet coffees became a hit and machinery to brew these new coffees was made available to residential homes, not just restaurants and coffee houses. Machines that made cappuccino and espresso and latte became the rage. Much more expensive than the regular coffee makers everyone used for their morning caffeine hits, these machines were big, bulky, expensive – and selling like hot cakes. Coffee lovers proudly displayed their new espresso machines right next to their regular coffee makers.
As other cultures continued to influence American cuisine, we became familiar with the French press and what is affectionately known as “the Cuban coffee maker” – two coffee makers that produce very strong brews, tastes that need to be acquired by the average American. The French press is similar to a drip coffee maker since the water in effect still drips through the coffee grounds. However, the water drips very slowly because the grounds are very fine. When they get wet they turn into a sort of clay, forcing the water to take its time going through, and building up strength as they do so.
Whether you prefer your coffee strong, average, or even a variety, there’s a machine to suit your needs.