Our grandmothers and mothers probably know the word "percolator". But the next generations who were born after 1980 have not heard this word, most likely, never in their lives.
What is a percolator?
Meet percolator.
Invented in 1819, with numerous modifications occurring until the 1950s. the word percolation literally means "impregnation", meaning the device is "impregnation".
This coffee brewing device ceased to be popular in the world in the 1970s. That is, about 25-30 years before the coffee culture appeared in Ukraine in principle (this is about when people stopped considering a drink brewed from Indian instant coffee powder, which was sold everywhere in brown iron cans, as "good coffee").
Technical device of the percolator:
How the percolator works
A percolator is a type of teapot. In its lower part, water is poured, putting it on a heat source. Water, heating up and turning into boiling water and steam, rises through the central tube up, under the lid itself. There, from the side openings or from the central opening at the top, hot water is poured over the ground coffee, which is located in its section below. Under the coffee is a filter through which the liquid seeps and drips down.
Why is the percolator no longer popular?
The percolator does not have separate sections for the extracted coffee and water used for extraction. Therefore, coffee is mixed with water, and this cycle is potentially infinite as long as there is a heat source (or until all the liquid has evaporated).
This has two drawbacks:
1) leads to a strong re-extraction of coffee if the cycle is not stopped in time (for info: automation was implemented in some electric models in the 2nd half of the 20th century).
2) reuse of water that already contains substances from ground coffee beans after extraction, again cyclically gets on the coffee beans when boiling. In addition to re-extraction, this also leads to the fact that some of the substances obtained from the grain can settle on them, passing through their thick again, which creates taste distortions towards bitterness and acidity. Imagine if you poured coffee brewed with a geyser coffee maker again instead of water and put it on the fire with the already used pulp. What would this coffee taste like? "Very bright", but not in a positive way.
Therefore, when the coffee culture developed and people for the most part began to learn about specialty coffee, its proper brewing and other attributes of what is now all the knowledge of the coffee market, during the 1960s and 1970s, the popularity of percolators fell, and after the 1980s, almost no one produced or used them. Now they are produced only by Melitta, which is a pioneer in various coffee inventions. Well, maybe some craftsmen make them for personal use or for a single sale.
And that is why the percolator is by no means suitable today for brewing high-end specialty coffee. Therefore, if you hear somewhere that your specialty coffee was brewed using a percolator, you have a choice not to drink it.
Geyser coffee maker on the contrary
While reading this article, have you already noticed how similar the principle of operation of a percolator is to a geyser coffee maker? Only in the latter, ground coffee is located between water and the finished drink. And the drink can't go back into the water. They are also similar due to the presence of a central rod for water that rises during the boiling process, and the principle that water seeps through the coffee, giving the drink. Only the percolator also uses the principle of a drip coffee maker, in which heated water seeps through the coffee compartment and collects in the compartment for the finished drink.
However, drip and Geyser coffee makers have a significant advantage, as well as other options for making coffee (except for the French press and brewing in a cup): the brewed coffee is physically separated from the pulp and from the water. Modern methods rely on this type of brewing, which separates the coffee pulp from the drink and the water from the drink. Therefore, in our opinion, the classic percolator (without automatic control) will never become popular again.
Why was it popular in principle, you may ask? Its main reason for its popularity was the ability to quickly prepare a large amount of drink and keep it warm. Now it has been replaced by multiple alternatives: multi-cup coffee machines, instant coffee, ready-made coffee in tin cans, etc.However, as a teapot for tea, it is still a good alternative in many countries.
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