QandAs: Food

What is a Percolator?

Answer:
Coffee drinking in one form or another has been around

for almost 1,000 years, but really came into vogue in Europe and America during the 1600s.

The drink’s popularity led eventually to the invention of the percolator in 1829, and the electric version created in the 1930s.

Percolators are coffee pots that work by sending boiling water through a central tube up to a perforated basket. Once at the top of the tube, water sprays on the coffee grounds in the basket, and filters back into the coffee pot to begin the cycle again until coffee has reached the desired strength.

My old favorite was a cheap West Bend percolator that made the best coffee I ever drank.

Stove-top percolators have a glass knob in the lid that allows a look at the coffee’s color to help determine the strength, as over perking can cause bitterness in coffee. Electric percolators cook the coffee the same as the stove-top versions, but after reaching desired strength, automatically reduce the temperature to a warming mode.

Electric percolators had their 15 minutes of fame in the ‘60s. My parents and I moved from stove-top percolators to electric ones, and all of us were humming along to the bubbly sounds of a percolator making music in a popular coffee commercial. The song ended up making it to the top of the pop music charts.


	more Q&A sessions like this
	What is a French Press? What is Heavy Roast Coffee? Where can I find Food and Drink Recipes? What is a Frappuccino? What is Kona Coffee? How Do You Make a Cappuccino? What is Cafe Con Leche? What is a Dark Roast Coffee? How do you roast Coffee Beans? What is a Mocha?