A few weeks ago, I was talking to my parents about coffee percolators, which is what the Moka pot seems to be. My mom and dad have a bunch from the 1950s, which they sometimes use.
The cool thing about these percolators is they have a little glass dome that lets you see the percolation in action.
If you're unfamiliar, you can see what that looks like in this old Maxwell House commercial:
The reason I bring this up is that I asked my parents why percolators fell out of favor, and apparently drip coffee makers became popular because they are easier to clean and don't recirculate the liquid and, therefore, won't burn the coffee like a percolator might. I find this interesting because I then asked them whether their percolated coffee ever tasted bad or burnt, and they said no – and now Moka pots have become trendy.
One generation's discarded tech becomes a new generation's hipster product. (no insult intended!)
I actually don't like coffee, but I think it'd be cool if retro percolators could make a comeback.
Drip coffee makers are just better than the old percolators. Technology Connections on youtube has a video about drip coffee makers which is very good (he demos an original mr. coffee machine which has some differences vs modern machines)
A criticism I've heard is that percolated coffee tastes bad compared to coffee brewed with modern techniques, like drip coffee, French press, etc. I wonder if that's not something the older generation raised on it -- including my parents -- is conscious of, because there didn't used to be any other options.
What I do know is that everyone from the percolator generation seems to have transitioned away from them despite the fact that those machines are indestructible. So I'm personally inclined to believe that, while they didn't necessarily think that percolators made bad coffee, they tried filter coffee (or whatever) once and then switched away from percolators and never looked back.
No. The Moka pot is a water reservoir under a coffee filter basket atop which is screwed a collecting pot. (A home drip coffee maker also “percolates” so it isn’t useful to focus on how the water is moved)
They don’t recirculate like a percolator and you answered the question why they fell out of favor.
Unsurprisingly there are already percolator hipsters. You can make a hobby out of anything.
The cool thing about these percolators is they have a little glass dome that lets you see the percolation in action.
If you're unfamiliar, you can see what that looks like in this old Maxwell House commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWEYjEQ75ZM
The reason I bring this up is that I asked my parents why percolators fell out of favor, and apparently drip coffee makers became popular because they are easier to clean and don't recirculate the liquid and, therefore, won't burn the coffee like a percolator might. I find this interesting because I then asked them whether their percolated coffee ever tasted bad or burnt, and they said no – and now Moka pots have become trendy.
One generation's discarded tech becomes a new generation's hipster product. (no insult intended!)
I actually don't like coffee, but I think it'd be cool if retro percolators could make a comeback.