I remember the blub blub blub sound of the percolator which preceded a family breakfast around the table when relatives were staying with us, a birthday gathering for coffee and cake, a special event at home where family and friends gathered. I guess that's because my mom brought out her good coffee percolator when there was a crowd and on non festive days, we used the old tin drip pot that had been my dad's from the days before he was married. It was old and battered but made really good coffee!

SharonCb

I have a Corning percolator (with the blue cornflower design on it) that I still use on my woodstove when the power goes out.
It's exactly like the one my parents used every single day when I was growing up. Right up until my dad died in '93, he drank perked coffee!
I love the sound. It does bring back memories of the smell of coffee and bacon cooking on a weekend morning. There would be a fire in the wood stove (heat, not cooking, that was electric). Occasionally on a Sunday, Dad would scramble eggs, bacon or ham, onions, green peppers, dijon mustard together and serve us an "omelet". Yum!

Yep, brings back memories!

Deanna

Sharon , Deanna:
I forgot about the blub blub blub and the smell of the Coffee brewing.

If I remember right mine sounded like,
- blub - - blub blub - - blub blub blub

I think they made a tune out of the Coffee Perking.
Anyone remember that ?

Deanna:
You are a trouble maker, I went all the way down to the Basement to look for the,
Corning Ware Perculator. Think we gave it to someone needy.

Before that was the wide bottom Wearever Alluminum Pot.
Great for Camping.
Have to get a cup of Coffee , excuse me .
LOU

Yeppers, definitely remember the coffee percolating song.
Now I have to go get a cup of coffee!
None of the drip pots can make coffee near as good as good ol' perked coffee.
They don't sound as neat, either. Lots of memories tied up in an old aluminum stove top percolater.
Rusty

Rusty:
I was working on a friends Deck in a Trailer Park, up here in the Pocono's, when the owner,
of the Campground drove by. He hit his brakes and backed up.
Yelled over " are you making Perked Coffee "???

Lou- " Yes !!!!! We are "

" Pour me a cup !!! I haven't had any Perked for ages "
Lou- " Get outa here "

" I'm not kidding !!! I have to drink that stuff we make in the Restaurant."

Lou- " you will have to Knock off a Months Rent for Paul "

" OK, Only If I get 2 cups. "
Lou

Darn! ! Now I have to see if I can find a percolater. Do they even make them anymore?
Rusty

Rusty:
I saw some on Ebay real cheap.Amazon has them too.
Lou

"None of the drip pots can make coffee near as good as good ol' perked coffee."

You hit the nail right on the head there, Therustyone! That's why I have never been able to understand why so many people have drank the Kool-aid and bought into those automatic coffeemakers. Pretty much no one switched in our family, and those that did went back in short order.

Farberware still makes their stainless percolators and I think there may still be a Presto, but as Lou mentioned there's all manner of them on Ebay.

Deanna, that's exactly the percolator I have, white Corningware with blue cornflowers. I also use mine when the power goes out.

My mother gave it to me, when I said I needed a coffee pot that wasn't electric. Sigh. You can tell Mom doesn't camp or she wouldn't have given me a glass coffeepot, LOL, but it's come in handy here at the house a couple of times.

How long do you have to perk a pot of coffee, though? I perked a pot for about 20 minutes last time and still just got brown water, didn't taste like coffee AT ALL. I ended up adding instant espresso to it so I could drink it. Dad would've loved it.

Annie

My mom was blind the last 15 year of her life, but speaking of coffee, when we went out to her favorite country store the last time she was alive she bought a couple of christmas cards. I wrote them out for her and to one of her old friends from Germany I remember her having me write: "Dear Betty, I miss the old days of us sitting around the table and drinking coffee". I don't know if it was perculator or not, but that post brought back that memory. Some of the simple times of our lives bring us the most joy.

Duane

I had a huge 32 cup percolator that I brewed up every day on the gas stove. And I drank just about all of it every day by myself. Back in the mid 70s my doctor diagnosed me as borderline diabetic and said to cut out the regular coffee and go to only decaf. Don't know what ever happened to that big old pot that I loved. I do have a newer one in the 5th wheel to use on campfires and one for the house to use on the wood stove if the power goes off. Bought the one at Rural King for about $11 and don't remember where I got the other. They are both much smaller than my original one. By the way, I use to perc it until it smelled right and looked right. Wasn't a particular time. Oh yeah, I'm now full blown Type 2 Diabetic and drink 2 to 3 cups of regular coffee every day with no ill effects.

Oh, excellent memories. My mother wasn't much at making coffee, but her SIL, my Aunt Betty, was a wonder. Aunt Betty, who was Swedish, always made coffee when we went over. When she was younger she did her own baking. When she got older, we were treated to very good pastries from her local bakery.

Some of my happiest moments were spent at the table in her large, old-fashioned kitchen. Just the three of us, she, my mom, and I, listening to the percolator as we chatted away.

My current kitchen is too small to even hold a chair and we have a DeLonghi automatic. Not nearly as warm an experience!

Annie, as far as I can remember, you perk until it stops "perking". Eventually, it stops bubbling up and then you let it sit for a few minutes off the heat to let it all drip out of the grounds.
I don't drink coffee, but I remember my parents used to use a percolator.
Lisa

I remember waking up in my grandparent's house as little more than a baby to the blub blub and wonderful aroma of freshly perked coffee. It was a warm, cozy sound.

Later, my mother had an electric peculator for years, the arm of which she eventually had to mend with a chopstick and electrician's tape. I guess it finally gave out, because in later years she had a drip coffee maker.

When I was in my late teens, a friend mentioned that his grandma's roomate had broken her pyrex, stove top coffee maker and grandma was just heartbroken. I happened to be going to the flea market that weekend and searched around some. Sure enough, I found one, and you'd think she'd died and went to heaven. Dunno if the pot itself was what made her so happy or the fact that some teenager she had only met a couple of times would remember she wanted one. But even at that age, I knew how some things just worked better than others!

My husband uses a drip, and is happy with it. I don't drink much coffee, but when I do I generally make mine in one of those cones you pour the water in yourself, making only one or two cups. I grind the beans literally into powder so it takes a long time for the water to drain through, giving the grounds time to seep.

I think the reason drip coffee makers don't work as well is that the water runs too quickly over the coarsely ground coffee.

Loved your coffee making memories!

Let's see.....where do I start?

Mom's electric percolator - they do put off a good coffee aroma - she still uses one (no gourmet coffee beans for her though)

as a bride I used a glass Pyrex stovetop percolator, made pretty good coffee, but what did I know at 21?

Mr. Coffee in the house we built.....meh....Salton quick mill to grind beans (lasted longer than the marriage, I'm still using it) learned that fresh ground beans do make a difference

next, in the house I bought for myself and the boys, a better Krups automatic, working in a retail gourmet store, great coffee beans plus employee discount = good coffee all the time; this is when I went to the Melitta filter set on top of a pre-heated thermos; also tried a French press, but don't care for the sludge in the bottom if I grind the beans too fine - makes great coffee though! There may have been a Chemex used during this period also.

now, I still use the Melitta cone set over big mugs for 2 cups each morning; also use the French press travel mug from Lee; tried a little stove top espresso maker for a homemade cappuccino; just can't take hot coffee when the temps get over 90 F in the summer!

Teresa, it sounds to me like you knew how to make a pretty darn good cup of coffee when you were 21! ;-)

I am very impressed that you have gotten such life from your Salton grinder!

So, the percolator stops perking, eventually? I guess I'm too impatient, after 20 minutes I NEEDED THAT DARNED CUP OF COFFEE. (grin) It was still perking up, though, I might have to try again, just to see how long it takes to stop perking.

Annie

I thought I was the only one who remembered the Coffee Pot perking and
the smell of the Coffee going all thru the house.

Deanna:
The Bacon and eggs were probably cooking in a Cast Iron
Skillet or
in you Grandma's Steel " Egg Fryin " pan, used mostly for eggs.

Rusty :
If I still had my old pot I would send it to you.
The only old pot I have now is my belly.

I thought a lot more people would have some memories.
Lou

Annie:
I missed your thread.
It will keep perking long as there is water left in the pot.

If it goes that far.
You can dig it out of the bottom and chew your cup of
Fresh Perked Coffee.

It should only Perk for about 5 minutes.
It is neccessary to put in the right amount of Coffee.

If it perks too long it will get bitter.
Take the seeds out when it is done perking,
so the bitter Oils or whatever don't drip down.
Lou

Went to digging around in some rarely used kitchen cabinets, found an old Corning Ware electric percolater. Yes, the one with the blue flowers. When the first Corning Ware pot I had died, I had gone to a drip pot because I couldn't find a perk pot anywhere. By the way, I kept and used that pot long after they were recalled and no longer made. I darn near cried when it died. A couple of years ago, I found a similiar Corning Ware percolator in an estate sale, so I bought it. But now I can't find any coffee other than the fine grind for drip, and I have yet to learn how to make good perked coffee with a grind for drip. It took a long time for me to learn to like the drip coffee, but am now content as long as I use dark roast. I'm not about to grind whole beans.
As for memories, yes! Waking up on a cold winter morning with the wonderful smell and sound of coffee perking drifting up the stairs. Then in more recent years, on visits, the not so wonderful smell of instant Sanka, as the parents decided perking 'real' coffee was no longer necessary in their "Golden" years.
Does age ruin the senses of smell & taste? So far mine are still doing pretty good.

Rusty

I remember when "Sanka" was synonymous with decaf coffee, kind of like "Jell-O", "Kleenex", "Frigidaire" etc. I wonder if it is still made? I haven't looked in so long.

Rusty:
I'm glad you found a Percolator. Now I don't have to send you one.
Maybe there is some way to use a Filter; in your Percolator, for the Drip Coffee.

I use the my Blender to grind the Beans. It misses 3 or 4 Beans but thats OK.

Remember not to let it keep perking too long.
When it starts perking at high speed it is done.
Or else you will bring the Coffee Grounds up to Boiling Point temperatures. ( a No No !!!)

Don't Perk it longer to make it Stronger. Take the top off add another spoon of Coffee,
and pour 2 cups of the Weak coffee thru the Grounds.
Add more coffee next time. Note how much you used.

Remove the Grounds when done, before you pour.

Annie: Did you make another Pot ???

LOU

Now I must admit I am a automatic drip coffee raised girl, I do hold a great appreciation for the percolator. We used it quite a bit during the huge ice storm about 13 years ago. But what made me smile reading this post was a fun memory of canoeing on the Penobscot river here in Maine. We had to clear camp early one morning due to awful, awful black fly attacks. We are all coffee drinkers. So after quickly packing up, and heading down river, we tied the 3 canoes together and created a small floatilla. We then proceeded to balance our Coleman cookstove on top of our coolers and put together a pot of percolated coffee. We all anxiously waited for the coffee to begin to bubble. Just a few minutes after the coffee started perking, we began to hear rushing water ahead. We were coming up on a set of small rips. We had to quickly untie ourselves and seperate so we could get through without crashing. My sister later made me a scrapbook of our canoe trips and on one page she had written a poem, "Through glistening stream the rocks loom silent, so as not to disturb their lurking....hold on tight with all your might and keep the coffee perking." Needless to say we and the percolator made it through the rips and we got our coffee. Thanks for the memories!

Sanka, UGH! I remember when my grandmother had to drink that stuff. Thank goodness Taster's Choice came out with a decaf. Wasn't the next brand to do it?
Our family had the electric Corningware with the blue flowers. Before that I remember the pyrex perking on the stove.
DH and I have owned Mr.Coffee (meh!) Krups, Braun and then the french press. The only time I use a percolator is when I make the big 32 cup for a party. Otherwise, if I drink it at all, it's from a french press or an Americano decaf at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf!

indicanoe:
Now I know how you got your Handle.

Making Coffeeeee " in di canoe " wooooeeee !!! Whoooo !!!
Quick Sis , Make up a Poem !!!!!!!,
before we lose the Coffee.

Oh no !!! not the Rapids. Holy Carp !!!

Di Water is " in di canoe " and dem damn flies are steel Biiiiittttting. Ouch ! uuuhh .
Get me outta here, the h3ii mit da Coffee.
LOL, LOU
Lou

We, meaning my parents, had the old Revere Ware stove top percolator. I sure loved the smell of that coffee perking. Too bad I don't like coffee,.... except coffee ice cream. Smiles. Since it was stainless steel my parents used to take it on camping trips. One trip somebody lost the glass top. Boy was that trouble. Took a while but they found a replacement. Eventually someone lost the basket, oops.. that was a lot harder to replace. They went to an electric percolator after that but it wasn't quite the same. Our kitchen, like many, was the place everyone who visited stayed, gathered around the old agate top table drinking that perked coffee and eating Mom's black walnut pound cake.

Annie something is not sounding right. Lou is right, it should only perk for about 5-7 minutes. It is supposed to have a coarse ground for perk coffee and you use one tablespoon for each cup of coffee. Also, like Lou mentioned you don't let it boil. Put the heat up high then as soon as it starts to perk, lower it so it just keeps up a good perk. I don't know whether your problems were due to the ground or not enough coffee. You didn't use a filter in bottom of basket did ya?

indicanoe, you made me laugh out loud with your canoe coffee story, but more than that, you reminded me about how horrible black flies are...we don't have them here in CA. One thing I remember about Maine is that depending on the season (except the dead of Winter), there is always some buggy or other that wants your blood (or flesh). I remember the black flies, the no-see-ums, the flesh-eating green head flies(do they really eat flesh or are their bites just so itchy that one tears hunks of one's own out trying to scratch??) and of course, the ubiquitous mosquito.

On the other hand, Maine is a place of beauty. If I were independently wealthy, I would have a house in Maine for Spring and Fall and a house here in CA for Winter and Summer...and occasionally zip back and forth on off seasons! LOL!

Rachael:
" California Black Flies ". That's where they are from.
I told my Niece in Laguna Beach, Ca. that.
She said how did I know they were from CA.?
I said," I asked one of them, it answered, I'm from Ca."
so I smashed it with a hammer.
- - - - - - - - - - -

Here is an Article. I Googled " California Black Flies "

- - - - - - - - - - -

Black Flies
Vector Services & Information
Black flies are small, menacing, biting flies that are a nuisance to people and animals living, working, or playing near running rivers and streams.

These small flies are commonly called "buffalo gnats" because of their humped back appearance. They are typically dark in color and appear in a variety of neutral shades from light gray to black. They belong in the order Diptera (Flies) and in the family Simuliidae.

The Bite

The painfully itchy bite of the black fly is created when the female cuts a hole in the skin to suck blood from animals and people. Females will attack incessantly around the eyes, ears, scalp and occasionally on the arms and exposed legs. The pain and swelling of the bite are due to allergic reactions to foreign proteins and toxins that the female injects when feeding. Black flies transmit diseases in the tropics, such as River Blindness. Fortunately, they do not transmit any diseases to humans in California, but can cause extreme discomfort and irritation due to their biting habits and/or great numbers.

Black Fly Life Cycle

Black flies breed in flowing water from rivers and streams to irrigation ditches. After mating the female deposits the fertilized eggs on rocks or other substrate in swift flowing water. Larvae emerge from eggs and develop aquatically, feeding on algae and organic matter flowing by in the moving water. In 7-10 days they develop into pupae. Adults emerge from the pupal case through a slit and float to the surface on a bubble of air. Emerging adults live from 2-3 weeks. They are usually found from spring through fall, with the greatest numbers appearing in the late spring and summer. They are active during the day, with peak activity in the morning and early evening.

Personal Protection
Avoid areas where black flies are active during the day.
Wear (long pants and long sleeves) light colors, especially whites and tans. Wear a light colored hat.
Apply insect repellent when outside. If you are bitten, avoid scratching and apply topical products to reduce itching.
Black flies are sensitive to weather conditions. They are most active on cloudy, humid days with low wind.
GLACVCD's Black Fly Control Program

The District controls black flies along an 18-mile stretch of the Los Angeles River - from the Sepulveda Basin in the San Fernando Valley to the junction of the 5 and 110 freeways, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. The black fly control program began in 1994 as a result of a severe black fly infestation along the river corridor that affected horse owners, golfers, and even baseball players at Dodger Stadium. The black fly population that breeds in the river is composed primarily of Simulium vittatum.

In 1997, the District created a special benefit assessment zone to fund the black fly control program. An annual assessment of $0.15 was levied on all properties located within two miles of the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco, a small adjoining tributary. Smaller black fly sources within the District, such as creeks and streams are treated on an as-needed basis.

GLACVCD's black fly program includes:

Monitoring for black fly larval occurrence and abundance.
Applying Bti when larval numbers get above predetermined thresholds.
Monitoring the effectiveness of treatment.

Control Agents Used to Combat Black Flies
Black fly management is accomplished by applying a natural soil bacteria called Bti to water sources where black flies breed. Bti stands for Bacillus thurigiensis israeliensis. Bti is a special formulation of common soil bacteria that is highly effective in controlling Black flies and mosquitoes. Because it is extremely specific, Bti is considered one of the safest insect control agents ever developed. Other insects, birds, fish and mammals (including humans) do not have the stomach chemistry to be affected by Bti.

If you have a black fly problem, please contact the District at (562) 944-9656 and schedule a free inspection.
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Haha Lou! I thought you might like that story! The second part of my name is from my love of canoeing, but the first part is from my black lab named, Indi. She was sitting next to me when I made up the name.
Ah, yes we do have quite a few hungry buggies up here in Maine. Right now it is difficult to spend any time outside without the mosquitos swarming. I believe the flesh eating bugs you are referring to are the horse flies. They are just big and give you huge painful/itchy welts when they get you. I am just happy I live in So. Maine, my brother lives on the Maine/Canadian border and they have Moose Flies up there. Even with the bugs though, I do love our state with the oceans, rivers and mountains.

Indi:
Horse flies are Large and we had a hard time keeping them off the horses.
The Black Flies are tiny but pack a wallop.
I'm allergic to them. When I was building my home, I had 5 fires burning, to make smoke.
They are around here mostly in the spring and early summer.

I just sold my Canoe last year.

My daughter and her friend go Kayacking in the Ocean near Atlantic City ( Ventnor )
Last week her friend Mary went out alone, past the breakers,
to see if she could spot the Dauphins, that go by every day

She did !!!
They were following her, going upside down under the Kayack, jumping out of the water,
fliping in the air, etc.
This went on for about 5 minutes.

She said they seemed excited to see her.

Once in a lifetime experience !!!

Shame she couldn't get it on Video, something happened to her camera.
Lou

Thanks everyone:
I enjoyed your " Coffee Making Memories "

It's a shame there are only about a dozen members,
that have had these good momments to share.

I think there was a Song " Making Memories "

I'm still making memories.
LOU