Coffee. Fuel for writers, poets, artists and every other worker from construction to journalism. To drink a little coffee or to drink a lot of coffee, that is the question.
Another question: Which coffee pot do I like the best?
A family member has been using a camp-style percolator on her stove. When visiting, I loved the taste of her coffee. It was stronger and tasted better.
So I set forth on a long journey of searching... a journey of many twists, turns and forks in the road... a journey of mind-numbing dimensions (OK... I'm getting a little carried away here.) I thought I'd find a decent coffee percolator quickly. Turns out I was wrong. It took me the entire summer scouring the vintage scene to find this fascinating coffee pot.
I love it! It's Made in U.S.A., in Clinton, Illinois, to be exact. Copper clad, stainless steel. What's really cool is the bottom has a logo profile sketch of none other than Paul Revere. The brand is actually "Revere Ware." So I've named him (the coffee pot who "talks" to me with his percolating language) "Paul Revere."
On my gas stove, Paul Revere stands tall, lean and mean (as in it makes a "mean" cup or six of coffee). He has an art deco kind of style to his glass top, which is fun to watch when coffee's bubbling up.
I've consumed coffee out of just about everything over the years. For a long time, my old roommate and I drank massive quantities out of the typical plastic body/glass pot electric coffee makers that are everywhere.
But over time, I've become more thoughtful about which chemicals may be leaching out of plastic materials (particularly plastics which get hot). There's research out there about this (that I won't go into all of it here, but here's a take on it from PBS.)
I like this stainless steel pot because it gets water much hotter using the stove. The hotter water gets more taste out of the grounds. Plus no worries about chemicals leaching.
This pot is so much easier to clean than a plastic coffee maker. You can reach into it easily, take it apart easily and clean everything (in contrast to a plastic electric coffee maker which is hard to get to everything that needs cleaned).
I plan to keep Paul Revere around for a long time. We've already become good friends, but I do realize Mr. Revere is a free and independent coffee pot that must ultimately follow his own path.
Still, Paul Revere and I are preparing battle plans for ever "meaner" cups of Joe, and we're excited to have friends over to partake in the revolution.
