Percolator Coffeemakers

Known today simply as percolators, the percolator coffee pot has been around since the early 19th century. A man by the name of Benjamin Thompson, later known as Count Rumsford, is credited with inventing the percolator in America in 1819. Decades later, James Mason applied for the first patent in America for the percolator coffee pot, and thereafter, a farmer by the name of Hanson Goodrich received a patent for a stove-top version of the percolator.
From its humble beginnings, the percolator coffeemaker became the premiere way of brewing coffee in the United States through most of the 20th century, up until the 1970’s, when the drip-brew coffee maker made its way into the market. To this day, there are people who prefer percolator coffeemakers over any other brewing method on the market today.

The controversy over percolated coffee vs. drip-brewed or espresso coffee revolves around the way that percolated coffee is brewed. A percolator coffeemaker consists of the main carafe or pot, a hollow stem that runs vertically inside up to the top of the pot, with a strainer basket and lid resting on the top of the stem. With an electric percolator, there is also a heat coil at the bottom of the pot which heats the water in the pot chamber and forces it to rise up the stem and out over the strainer pot into which ground coffee has been placed. The water rises over and over again forcing the liquid through the coffee grounds until the desired strength of coffee is attained.

There are percolators that rest on the stovetop or on the campfire that are non-electric, but the same principal applies that when the water reaches the boiling point, it rises up to the top of the pot and flows over the basket of grounds and thereby brews the coffee.

There are two main reasons that a person today would purchase a percolator to brew their coffee; the first is taste. Most coffee aficionados will tell you that boiling the water and therefore boiling the coffee is a terrible way to brew coffee as it makes a very strong and bitter cup of joe, but that is how some people love their coffee.

This leads us to the second reason a person today prefers the percolator coffeemaker, and that is nostalgia. Some folks say there is nothing like getting up in the morning to the sound of a percolator coffeemaker going plop, plop and brewing some of the strongest coffee you’ll find.