Coffee Makers
All coffee making devices more or less serve the same purpose and the brewing processes are similar. There is however, a big difference in coffee taste depending on the brewing process used.
Drip coffee maker: This is the most commonly used coffee making method in the world. The drip coffee maker drips hot water over the ground coffee. This method provides strong and fairly flavored coffee. The important variables are water temperature, size of the coffee grounds, and brewing time.
A medium-sized drip coffee maker can brew 4-6 cups of coffee, a large one 6-12 cups. These are especially useful if you have a large household, or lots of company. Some drip makers have a thermal pot. This will keep the coffee warmer longer without losing flavour, and you can easily take the pot out of the kitchen.
Drip coffee makers are less effective if you only want 1-2 cups of coffee. This is because the water does not reach the proper temperature before brewing starts, often making the coffee watery.
The first drip coffee maker for home use was Mr. Coffee, introduced in 1972. Today, drip coffee makers are the most popular method of brewing coffee at home.
Coffee percolators: These used to be the most popular way to make coffee until the advent of the drip coffee makers. Today they are used mostly outdoors, for camping.
Percolated coffee needs to be brewed carefully. The best results are when the water perks only once. It needs to be removed from the heat source after the first brewing cycle. Most times it is allowed to percolate more than once, causing the coffee to scald, giving a bitter taste, with less flavour.
Vacuum coffee maker: This coffee maker looks strange, but makes one of the best cups of coffee. It looks odd, having two connectable carafes with a filter in between. Course ground coffee is placed in the upper carafe, and water in the bottom. The maker is placed on the stove and when the water boils it moves up through a tube into the upper globe. When the maker is removed from the stove, the coffee filters itself back down the tube and into the bottom carafe. The coffee is now ready to drink.
Vacuum coffee makers can easily hold up to 8 cups of coffee.
Those who brew their coffee by this method believe it makes the best coffee, and would not use any other method.
