The Coffee Pot by Any Other Name is Still a Coffee Pot

When you say "coffee pot," just what does that word mean to you? I'm betting that most people have their own preconceived notion about what a coffee pot is and that my notion is probably not the same as yours.

That being said, there are four different types of coffee pots used for making, or cooking, coffee. They are:

**Percolator
**Electric coffee maker
**Drip coffee maker
**Plunge

Now let's become better acquainted with the elder statesman of coffee pots, the percolator which has been around for just about 200 years.

The Traditional Coffee Pot

Originally known as a campfire or cowboy coffee pot, the percolator, adapted well to use on a stove top and the gas burners, and it soon became as much of a staple of the kitchen as it had been to the American pioneers. They were usually made of stainless steel or aluminum, had few parts, and were relatively inexpensive.

The mechanics of the coffee percolator is rather simple. The pot itself generally resembles a carafe and serves as a reservoir for the water. Attached to a hollow stem, which fits into the base of the pot, and sitting at the top end of the stem, is a basket. Ground coffee is placed directly into the basket and the coffee and basket sit above the water level inside the coffee pot. Placed on the stove burner directly, the water in the coffee pot is heated to nearly boiling. As the water gets hotter, it bubbles up through the hollow stem and then drips down into the coffee in the  basket. After passing through the coffee, the water drips through the holes in the basket, back into the pot.

Most percolators have a glass knob of sorts, on the lid of the pot. As  the water in the pot turns into coffee, the heat continues to force the coffee up through the stem, where it will bubble against the glass knob before it filters back through the basket. When the water / coffee that shows in the glass knob is brown, then the coffee percolation is done. Then the basket of coffee is removed to avoid the coffee grounds from settling in the coffee.

This coffee pot, usually uses less coffee then say, a drip coffee pot. So, the coffee does not have an overly strong taste. Flavor is also preserved by removing the coffee pot from the heat when the coffee is done, so that it doesn't burn. I have always found it easy to keep the coffee warm as well as maintain it's flavor by pouring the coffee into a thermos or airtight carafe.

Some of the new stove top coffee pots use the boiling water and steam from an espresso attachment, to percolate the coffee. And there are other new stove top coffee pots that function almost like a "French Press." When the coffee is done percolating, instead of removing the coffee grounds, they are compressed down to the bottom of the pot. This creates a nice dark and much richer cup of coffee.

So when someone tell you that they are looking for a coffee pot, ask them just what they mean exactly. Because if all that we have already discussed wasn't enough, sometimes when someone wants a new coffee pot, all they really want is the glass pot for a drip coffee maker.

Bookmark This Page

BlinkListDiggFurlGoogle BookmarksSpurlStumbleuponYahoo My Web