Anything Fun

Coffee lovers and caffeine addicts all over have argued for years and years over which type of coffee maker makes the best coffee. The question will never been answered satisfactorily since it’s merely a matter of personal choice. And there are many choices!

Once civilizations figured out that a liquid could be made from the coffee beans they had been popping like vitamin pills, future generations invented multiple ways to fix the perfect cup of coffee. Before that, coffee beans were chewed on to prevent fatigue as warriors headed to battle.

Many agree that there is nothing better than a pot of coffee percolated over an open camp fire. Cowboys and cattle rustlers drank their coffee like this for decades sans the luxuries of cream or sugar. For those who chose to stay closer to home, the stove top percolator did the trick just fine. However, one of the drawbacks of these percolators is that they tend to perk all over the place if not watched carefully.

These little mishaps led to the invention of the electric percolator. In the late 1950s every housewife raced to their local retailer to purchase one of these little modern marvels. These coffee makers were electronically timed, heat controlled, came with water level measures on the side, and – if you followed directions correctly – would produce a perfect cup of coffee without the dangers of boiling over.

Nothing much happened until the 1970s when the drip coffee maker came on the market. And once again, housewives flocked to the store to buy them up. Some actually came in selection of colors to match kitchen decors. The technology of these drip makers was almost reversed. Rather than boiling the water and forcing it up through coffee grounds, the water was heated separately and dripped down through the coffee grounds. One major difference in this methodology is that the only thing being dripped through the coffee grounds was pure water, not the coffee that had already been forced up beforehand as with a percolator.

No major improvement came about for another 15 years or so. In the late 1980s coffee lovers began to frequent gourmet coffee houses to enjoy richer blends – espresso, latte, cappuccino, etc. They loved these so much that manufactures started to make the same machines found in coffee houses for the average coffee drinker. They now started showing up in homes all over the place, usually sitting on the counter top next to their regular coffee maker.

American technology didn’t advance much further so we looked towards other cultures and borrowed from them. We became fascinated with the French press and what we call “the Cuban coffee maker”. Both of these coffee makers tend to produce a very rich, and very strong cup of coffee, not always appreciated by the average American coffee lover. These two machines make coffee in the typical “drip” method, however, the grounds are very fine thereby holding onto the water for a longer time, increasing the strength of the ultimate brew.

Whether you prefer your coffee strong, average, or even a variety, there’s a machine to suit your needs.