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A few weeks ago, I was talking to my parents about coffee percolators, which is what the Moka pot seems to be. My mom and dad have a bunch from the 1950s, whic
by ravenstine 3y ago
A few weeks ago, I was talking to my parents about coffee percolators, which is what the Moka pot seems to be. My mom and dad have a bunch from the 1950s, which they sometimes use.
The cool thing about these percolators is they have a little glass dome that lets you see the percolation in action.
If you're unfamiliar, you can see what that looks like in this old Maxwell House commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWEYjEQ75ZM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWEYjEQ75ZM
The reason I bring this up is that I asked my parents why percolators fell out of favor, and apparently drip coffee makers became popular because they are easier to clean and don't recirculate the liquid and, therefore, won't burn the coffee like a percolator might. I find this interesting because I then asked them whether their percolated coffee ever tasted bad or burnt, and they said no – and now Moka pots have become trendy.
One generation's discarded tech becomes a new generation's hipster product. (no insult intended!)
I actually don't like coffee, but I think it'd be cool if retro percolators could make a comeback.
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- teachrdan 3y agoA criticism I've heard is that percolated coffee tastes bad compared to coffee brewed with modern techniques, like drip coffee, French press, etc. I wonder if that's not something the older generation raised on it -- including my parents -- is conscious of, because there didn't used to be any other options. What I do know is that everyone from the percolator generation seems to have transitioned away from them despite the fact that those machines are indestructible. So I'm personally inclined to believe that, while they didn't necessarily think that percolators made bad coffee, they tried filter coffee (or whatever) once and then switched away from percolators and never looked back.
- epcoa 3y ago> Moka pot seems to be. No. The Moka pot is a water reservoir under a coffee filter basket atop which is screwed a collecting pot. (A home drip coffee maker also “percolates” so it isn’t useful to focus on how the water is moved) They don’t recirculate like a percolator and you answered the question why they fell out of favor. Unsurprisingly there are already percolator hipsters. You can make a hobby out of anything.
- ravenstine 3y agoAh, sorry, I looked at a diagram of the Moka bot and it seemed like the same thing.
- TremendousJudge 3y agoA percolator works differently from a moka pot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9avjD9ugXc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9avjD9ugXc a moka pot only has the water go through the grounds once, while the percolator has the coffee go through the grounds again and again
- mewse-hn 3y agoDrip coffee makers are just better than the old percolators. Technology Connections on youtube has a video about drip coffee makers which is very good (he demos an original mr. coffee machine which has some differences vs modern machines) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp9H0MO-qS8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp9H0MO-qS8 He also did a vid on percolators recently which I haven't watched but the thumbnail suggests its an extended rant about how they suck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9avjD9ugXc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9avjD9ugXc