Make Good Coffee at Home with an Italian Percolator or French Press
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Making a Perfect Cup of Coffee at Home
There are few disappointments greater than that of being offered a cup of coffee after a delicious meal, and upon taking your first sip you feel transported back to a lukewarm cafeteria on a ferry or a train. The word “weak” doesn’t even begin to describe the injustice poured into your cup.
While you cannot control how terrible other people’s coffee is, you can certainly make sure that what you drink and serve at your home not only satisfies your own fine palate, but also leaves your guests with plenty of delight and anticipation for the next invitation to your home.I believe it is wise to look to the Europeans, who have long-mastered the art of drinking coffee, as mentors. Before the North American “bigger is better” philosophy of bowl-sized mugs, a well-brewed cup of espresso was the perfect satisfaction. Therefore, the two coffee makers I will discuss are the Italian stovetop percolator and the French press.There are only two things you need to make a delicious cup of coffee: a good coffee maker and professionally-roasted, fresh-ground beans. By a “good” coffee maker, I mean one which uses boiling water. Just as tea leaves only release their full flavour into boiling water, coffee beans likewise require boiling water to perform to their fullest capacity.
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Here I am in the UK reading your article and wishing I could share a cup of coffee with you.I am about to go into my kitchen and throw out my 'drip' coffee maker. Thank you for the tip. Great reading.
That is a great article about my first love. I know what you mean about bigger and better style and I much prefer the stove top style. You made me feel like I was in my home have a great coffee right now.
Glad I could celebrate coffee with you all! I hope we can have a cup together soon.
Okay, you are a writer ... and a photographer. Love the article. I used to use the French press, but put it away years ago. I wonder if I still have it ... Yes! I do! I am bringing it out and guess what, coffee by French press. I'll have it with my friend, Carol.
Oh, I know Carol. She loves her French press. In fact, she travels with her own beans and her own French press because drinking a good cup of coffee is an essential part of her day.
I don't have italian perculator or french Press
may be I just want a tea :-D
Like you said, nothing like a good tasting cup of coffee! And when you grind, fill, boil and do all the waiting, after that its a cup well earned.
It's good to read the thoughts about coffee from someone who is obviously passionate about the coffee culture. As a fellow coffee lover, I found the article very educational and eye opening. Thanks!
Do you think modern-day coffeed makers are what cause to have a bitter, burnt taste to them? I Just may have to get me an old fashioned perculator!(sp?)
I found this article very informative and now I will be sure to take the time to notice how I am making my coffee, as clearly it DOES make a difference!!!
i have a bialetti 4-cup percolator that someone gave me when i was living in the woods. in my opinion, there is nothing truely finer than a cup of coffee brewed with this on the embers of a handmade fire on a cool brisk northwestern morning. that is very much what i will hold dear for the rest of my life... that coffee :D
today bodum makes some fine stainless steel french presses, which insulate quite well!
We have a percolator similar to the one above stainless in front of the kettle. Not sure what we are doing wrong but just cant seem to get it to work properly. Wont send the coffee to the top container. Have tried high and low gas to get it to work but only get 1 out of 5 times to work. Waste heaps of coffee which is not cheap to buy. Any ideas?
Hmmm, not sure what the problem is, but I suggest doing a control test: find out whether the issue is the coffee maker itself, or something that you are doing . Do you have any friends with a percolator you could borrow? See how theirs behaves. Maybe the percolator you have is "special" somehow. You could also try using your percolator at someone else's house, or have someone else make coffee in your percolator....and identify where the problem actually lies. Good old scientific method!
Choosing a Coffee Maker
Before I mention the coffee makers to use, here is a quick note about the coffee maker you should definitely avoid: the electric drip coffee maker.
The flaw of the average drip coffee maker - which inhabits staff rooms and small offices and people’s homes everywhere - is the low water temperature. The water starts off only moderately hot, and by the time the coffee pot is full the temperature of the “fresh” coffee is already down to merely warm. Adding milk to this bathwater makes the cup fit for only a toddler to safely drink. Moreover, in this responsible age of “green” living where we are all conscious of recycling products and reducing waste, using one paper filter (even if it is brown paper) every time you make a cup of coffee is an unnecessary waste.
Two Coffee Makers Guaranteed to Brew Fine Flavour:
1. A Stovetop Percolator
An Italian-style percolator, if used with the right beans, always brews a robust pot of coffee. I recommend this coffee maker for your personal morning or afternoon cup, or whenever you like to drink your coffee, because it is smaller than the typical North American electric coffee maker. It is intended to pour espresso-sized cups, so a “6-cup” percolator makes 1½ cups of coffee in an average sized mug. Or, if you are planning to serve guests, it will fill 4-5 espresso cups.
Stovetop percolators range in size from 2-cup to 8-cup makers. A “cup” is about 2 oz/ 59 ml. They are inexpensive, ranging in price – depending on size and brand – from $19.99 to $79.99. The best-known and most-used brand is Bialetti. The percolator I have, which you see in the photos is the Bialetti Venus 6-cup.
Don’t be afraid of the word espresso. The coffee doesn’t have to be powerfully strong, if that is not what you like. You are controlling the amount of ground beans, after all. For a slightly milder cup. simply fill the grounds holder ¾ full, rather than filling it completely to the top. It is not necessary to tamp down the grounds. Just level them off and screw the top canister on to the bottom one. Place the percolator on a high burner and wait for it to brew. It takes 7-12 minutes. When you hear the triumphant gurgly shout, turn the heat off right away. Over-boiling tends to make the coffee bitter.
Browse these sites to see a selection of percolators
To be perfectly honest, I believe a stovetop percolator makes the finest cup of coffee. But if you want to be able to serve a few more people out of your coffee pot, then the next best coffee maker to use is a French press.
2. A French Press
Again, as with the stovetop percolator, the key to full flavour is in the way the coffee grounds come into direct contact with boiling water. For a French press, you will need to boil water in a kettle first, and then pour the just-boiled water into the glass pot over the coffee grinds you have measured in.Because this maker is made of glass, rather than stainless steel (like the percolator), the coffee does cool down a little while waiting the requisite 4-5 minutes for it to brew. A great way to keep the temperature high is to use the extra boiled water in the kettle to fill up and “warm” the coffee cups. Porcelain or glass mugs will heat up nicely to match the temperature of the coffee, and very little heat is lost. (My mother taught me to do this - she also taught me to do the same when serving tea in teacups)French press makers have a range in size, but the standard size is the 1 litre (8 cup) pot. This serves 3-4 mugs of coffee. The most popular brand of French press is Bodum, and these range in price from $19.99 to $69.99, depending on the style. The French press I have, which you see in the photos, is a Bodum Shin Bistro.
Browse these sites to see a selection of French presses
Choosing Coffee Beans
First and foremost, buy whole beans. Grinding your beans fresh every time you make a pot of coffee not only guarantees fresh flavour, but also fills your kitchen with a delightful aroma. Coffee grinders are relatively inexpensive, and you can pick them up in the small appliances section of any large drugstore, department store, or supermarket.
While I do have my favourite brands, any good-quality beans will taste delicious in your cup. How do you know when a bag of beans is good quality? First, look for beans in either a specialty food shop or from cafes themselves. Some companies are famous for being coffee roasters, and a number of smaller cafes will use these roasters, beans. Ask around. Additionally, try local roasters. Because I am from Vancouver, BC, I typically buy coffee beans that are roasted in BC. Beans seem to be roasted in smaller market communities, like those on Vancouver island or on some of the smaller islands off the Northwest Coast. Some roasters also operate out of Vancouver city itself. Wherever you live, it is worth it to seek out the professionalism of a smaller company and avoid the compromised quality of mass-production.Another sign that the beans you are buying have been roasted with skill is the amount of descriptive detail on the bag. Besides just “medium” and “dark”, look for descriptions that tell of the beans’ acidity or “smoothness”, or subtle flavour highlights within the beans, like “chocolate” or “walnut”. Some roasters will even go so far as to tell you what type of coffee maker works the best with the bean you buy, like “perfect for stovetop percolators” or “great for a French press.”
Enjoy
One of the reasons why drinking coffee is so pleasurable is because of the ritual it involves: grinding, filling, boiling pouring, waiting – these domestic rituals give shape to our day and give us something special to look forward to. And I believe that the steps involved in making a cup of coffee not only make the cup taste so much better, but also work to bring a significance and comfort to the act of drinking a hot beverage, whether alone or with company.
Lundy 3 years ago
Great article. I feel like having a good cup of coffee right now. Coffee never sounded so good.