Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Cuttin' the Cost o' Coffee.......

Cindy Made This Picture Of The Box Our New Percolator Came In
Cindy and I love our coffee in the morning.  It's pretty hard to fully awaken without its magical, soothing, creeping warmth in our innards.

So it has been with considerable concern that we have observed the steady escalation of its price over the past year.  Something had to be done---but we could not bear to imagine life without our mornin' joe.

We tried buying cheaper brands.  We didn't like them.  We tried mixing the coffee with inexpensive additives like chickory or espresso.  That was ok, but didn't really save us much.

Then Cindy had the idea of dropping our modern coffee maker in favor of a percolator.  With a percolator, she reasoned, we could cut down on the amount of coffee we use because the action of the percolator recycles the brewed coffee for a stronger taste.

Our "Modern" Coffee Maker Uses A Single-Pass Brewing System And Requires Twice As Much Coffee As Our New Percolator
Problem---we couldn't find a percolator we liked.  We found a lot of old ones in thrift stores, but they all had shortcomings.  We googled to see where we could get a new one, but there aren't many companies making them any more---at least, not ones we liked.

Finally, last week, Cindy's sister, Patti, found one in a hardware store that looked just right for us.  It brews 32 ounces of coffee and works on the stovetop eye of our range. 

The First Time We Brewed Coffee in Our New Percolator, We Made a Mess of the Stovetop.  Sigh.
It works great!  We have used it about six times now, and we have cut our coffee usage in half.  We use 32 ounces of water, three scoops of Folger's Dark Roast Blend and one scoop of Pilon espresso.  We have experimented and found that letting it perk about 15 minutes produces the taste and strength we like.

It does something else, too---it fills the house up with the richest aroma of coffee I ever smelled.  That's something you just don't get from a modern, single-pass coffee maker. 

We're saving money and enjoying our mornin' joe more than ever.

13 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh Clint - I amjust like you and Cindy. I love the first cup of coffee in the morning. We use Kurig right now but it is expensive. I am going to save the name of this. Doesn;t it smell like Heaven? sandie

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  2. I can just smell the coffee now! Thank you again, Patti! This is the first time I have found a new perculator with info that states it can be used safely on a cermanic cooktop. I love that Folger's Black Silk.

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  3. I have to admit I've never had coffee, but I do love the smell, and there are absolute coffee fanatics in my family, so I understand the need to have it just right. Glad you all found a good solution!

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  4. Haha....that's great! I never even thought about doing that....Cindy is brilliant:)
    Now who had to clean up the stovetop??

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  5. sometimes the older ways are the better ways. :)

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  6. Oh My! I give you guys lots of credit because if most people had a mess like that the first time they used it, it would have ended up in the trash. Good for you for sticking with it and now you have some really great coffee.

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  7. I won't laugh to much Clint. We have had stuff like that happen before. But I haven't had coffee brewed like that in years!

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  8. What a mess :-)))...but now you know how to handle it, so have a good morning coffee tomorrow and the days after.

    Greetings to you and take care ☺

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  9. So nice to enjoy a wonderful cup of steaming hot coffee....I agree. Glad you are enjoying your new pot.

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  10. I love my only cup of coffee of the day in the morning, When in Vegas last week there was no coffee machine, I was told the reason being it gets people downstairs to play on the machines......I was not amused.

    Yvonne.

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  11. So THAT'S why there isn't that great coffee smell anymore. Remember the old commercials where the smell of coffee would get them out of bed? lol at the mess on the stove : )

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  12. Wow that takes me back. Too bad it wouldn't work for just my 2 cups. Maybe they make small percolators. I'll check.

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  13. What an idea! My dad use to make the BEST coffee....he would boil it open pot...with the grinds starting on top.... It was sooo good! only he could make that kind of coffee good I think. (and I don't think he had to use alot of coffee) I still have hubby's moms percolator...just like yours.

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