Percolators are no longer seen because they have been replaced by coffee makers, French presses and espresso machines.
An electric coffee maker is an appliance designed to be used in the preparation of coffee. The percolator was actually the original device for making coffee, although it is not commonly seen today as it was replaced by drip coffee makers, French presses, and espresso machines. The flavor of percolator coffee is quite distinctive, and some people consider it an acquired taste; It also takes skill to learn how to use a percolator properly, as it’s easy to spoil coffee with a percolator.
If used incorrectly, a strainer can over-extract the coffee beans and cause the coffee to taste bitter.
The coffee pot contains several parts, contained within the pot itself, which is more like an urn. Working from top to bottom, the coffee pot has a spout that allows people to pour the coffee, along with a lid that is usually transparent so people can check how the coffee is coming out. Then there is a perforated chamber designed to hold coarse ground coffee. Connected to the chamber is a tube, which goes to the bottom of the strainer, making contact with a chamber that keeps the water close to a heat source.
To use an electric coffee maker, the pot is placed over a heat source, such as a stove or campfire. As the water in the lower chamber heats up, it is forced up the tube, where it gushes out onto the ground, producing a very distinctive sound. The hot water seeps or seeps into the coffee grounds and finally drips back into the lower chamber. When coffee is well filtered, the water never reaches the boiling point and the coffee can be quite strong.
The biggest danger to an electric coffee maker is that it’s easy to over-extract the grounds, creating a bitter coffee with an unpleasant taste and aroma. Over-extraction occurs due to using water that is too hot, or because the coffee is re-brewed, passing the hot coffee through the beans instead of the hot water, removing the volatile aromas from the coffee in the second pass. When an electric coffee maker is used correctly, both of these problems can be avoided.
Several companies make electric coffee makers with sophisticated controls, designed to extract the best possible coffee. However, if you use a strainer on the stove or fire, you’ll need to watch it carefully to make sure it ferments well. It may take some experimentation to create the perfect coffee with a percolator, so be patient and plan on giving it a few tries before you brew the coffee of your dreams.