Coffee Talk

 During the 1960s, if you wanted coffee at home, you probably either heated some water in a kettle and poured it into a cup with a spoonful of freeze dried coffee, or you used ground coffee in a percolator.

Freeze dried coffee, coffee that had been dehydrated after brewing using a vacuum freezing method, was quick and easy to use. But, the taste suffered from the process.

A percolator works by forcing hot water to flow up a central pipe, using the steam produced by heating the water. Then, the hot water spills onto the coffee grounds held by a porous basin attached to the top of the pipe. The vapors would bubble up, into an inverted glass cup that showed you it was working. The unfortunate effect of letting this process continue too long was to 'burn' the coffee, either by making the coffee too strong, or boiling off too much water.

If you wanted slow drip coffee, there were fancy glass pots that allowed you to pour the hot water directly over the grounds. These were early versions of the Melitta pour over system, and were usually held in reserve for formal dinners. If you were a European immigrant, you might've had a simple Espresso percolator, or a French Press.

Some folks probably settled on the 'cowboy coffee' method: pour the ground coffee directly into a kettle of hot water, then tap the sides to get the grounds to settle. Then decant the coffee...

 With Greek coffee, you left the grounds in the coffee, and let them settle in the cup.

You probably bought brands like Hills Bros., Maxwell House, Folgers, Chock Full O'Nuts. Or, if you shopped at the A&P,  you might have ground your own Eight O'Clock coffee beans at the store, or at home using a hand cranked grinder.

In the diners and restaurants, coffee was often made in large urns, which were usually just large scale percolators. Or, a Bunn automatic drip coffeemaker
was used to make a pot at a time. The Drip method was often thought the best, but Bunn was only available commercially at the time..

 In 1972, Mr. Coffee, the first automatic drip coffee maker retailed for home use, hit the market. And immediately caused a change in coffee culture. For one thing, coffee brands had to tweak their grinds to accommodate the new method of brewing. For another, people began to become more discerning in their coffee palette..

 A small coffee house in San Francisco opened in 1971. It sought to bring the European experience of coffee to Americans. It also provided a template for many others to follow suit. In the 1980s, this market blew wide open. Soon, people were learning about espressos, cappuccinos, lattes... Talking about the difference in  quality of Kenya AAs, Jamaican Blue, Arabica vs Robusta.. Americans were growing more sophisticated in their coffee selections.

  And the equipment to make sophisticated coffees were finding their way into the homes. Braun, Krupp, & DeLonghi all started exporting coffee makers and bean grinders to an eager America. You might not have been a true barista, but you probably could make a good cup of Joe if you had to...

Folgers tried to create a new way of making an instant cup of coffee by imitating the tried and true methods of brewing tea... The single serve coffee bag.

The new millennium brought a new idea to coffee: Instead of having a pot of coffee sitting there, deprecating in taste over time, why not brew a single cup of perfect coffee? What was needed was a coffee maker with a small capacity filter chamber, a sealed packet of coffee of just the right measure, and a quicker means to force hot water through the grounds. Keurig co. created the "K" cup method, which quickly dominated the market in commercial use, and found it's way onto the home kitchen counter.

Meanwhile, new methods of evaporating coffee have begun to create new interest in 'instant' coffee in single serve packs....

The discerning coffee drinker no longer has to settle for a simple cup o' mud, but has a variety of caffeine experiences easily available...