Archive for June 9th, 2010
Coffee makers have become so ingrained in American culture that it is often difficult to comprehend a time when the public wasn’t perpetually pumped full of caffeine. And while coffee drinking has been a popular pastime for centuries, it wasn’t until the late 19th and early 20th centuries that the art was perfected. Up until then, people would simply add ground coffee to boiling water and allow it to brew until it smelled right. This produced an extremely thick beverage that necessitated an excessive amount of sugar to counterbalance its acidity.
The drip coffee maker, which is the standard model in most homes, first emerged at the dawn of the 20th century. And despite its old age, the drip machine had changed very little since its inception. Although less common today, percolators came into vogue at about the same time. Instead of utilizing gravity like the drip machine, a percolator heats water, forcing it through a tube and into a brewing basket with coffee grounds.