First I got too close to the Great Yowling. This is never a good way to start your day.
I can be such a gentle, newfound peaceful soul. No, really. It comes with practice, and I have the yowling to thank for motivation. Sometimes it expands suddenly from beyond the mountains like the flash of an unholy bomb, telling me I have some seconds yet to duck before the shock wave hits—at other times, it’s only barking in the night. The metaphors will have to do for now, but just you wait.
And while you do, how about some coffee??
This, the other bookend to my day, is keeping me awake with stark biological efficiency. What happened was, just for the fun of it, I fired up the new stovetop percolator I bought last week in Solano. (You should go to Solano and ponder the immense mystery of those words…) In so doing, I have rediscovered coffee.
I knew how to set up the device, but as soon as it started to perc, I realized I didn’t know how long to let it go. A quick Google detour gave me information that I read wrong and applied, but all worked out well in the end. Apparently I could have brewed it longer, but the main thing is, coffee brewed this old-fashioned way gets you HIGH! I can’t believe how zinged I am three hours later, and I swear it wasn’t strong or bitter.
A little research revealed that there are something like 250 identifiable compounds in roasted coffee beans, and that most of these require an extended period at high temperature—though not boiling— to be released. This is absolutely covered by the five to seven minutes recommended for a perc, but the quick wash-through of drip coffee reportedly releases only six of these same compounds! Good Lord, how much coffee have I been wasting? And look: no filters! (No “Dammit, no #6s again!”) No filter cone! Easier to pack!
Whether any of this is true or not, I’m not the one to say. But damn, chilluns, the brew is good. Not too strong or harsh at all, just bloody powerful, and it tastes fabulous. Maybe piss-ant drip coffee is all that’s wrong with the world. What I had tonight makes me want to go thrash some pistons and drive real fast. That would fix a few things, right?
I may never sleep again, but I think it’s worth it.
No related posts.
I’m really very lucky. This stuff is gasoline in my tank.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Speaking of Solano, my friend, there’s a GREAT little festival there on September 18 (a Saturday, y’all…) with not only good music (Kim and the Caballeros… disclaimer: I’m a member… and Halden Wofford and the Hi-Beams) and two-steppin’ but tons of neat local New Mexico ranch culture, horseshoes, and a dutch-oven cook-off that’ll BLOW YOUR MIND… and unless I’m badly mistaken, it’s free. Solano-Fest! Really.
I’ll be coming through Solano on my way back from Austin (again!) on Sept. 14th. Don’t know if I’ll get back again on the 18th, but I do know about the festival, and folks, he’s right! Sounds like one helluva fine outing.
I am very tempted to drive the 150 miles just for the dutch oven peach cobbler I heard about…
Ha, just this morning I got up and the Mr. Coffee was broken, only brewed about 1/3 of the pot before it gave up the ghost. Maybe a percolator would be a good idea. Thanks John!
Check out the 340 or so comments on this post. Very informative, and I’m not kidding about how much better this coffee is.
Since “downsizing” my life to the Taos area, I have used nothing but a stove-top percolator (takes up much less of my 640 sq ft of living space) and will probably never buy or use a drip machine again. I keep the heat as low as possible and it always tastes awesome and provides more bang for the buck.
Jason, that’s exactly what I thought just 10 minutes after making coffee with this “camp percolator” I bought. I can’t believe how much better the coffee is. How did we all get bamboozled?
Maybe I’ll dig out my old reliable camp perc and dump the drip on craiglist…
Coffee is one of those things that I can’t seem to give up, so I have given up trying.
I’m catching up on your older posts now.
on the other end of the spectrum, you could brew your coffee this way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o803F4oXl6k
also… a buddy and i were actually discussing coffee yesterday, and he had come across an old method for COLD brewing (some kind of double glass ball forced-vacuum extraction thing) that, if you have the patience to let it sit overnight in the fridge, works very well also – apparently cold brewing does a better job of extracting the particular compounds you do want and leaving behind the ones you don’t. remember, not all of those 200 compounds are necessarily things you want to be drinking in your coffee.
and just a final personal footnote – i had to give up coffee last year because i got to a point where it was giving me NASTY migraines, though i’m sure part of that was due to the stress i’m under (i’ve told you all about that before, John), so now i’m down to the single mug of Earl Grey to wake me up when i get out of bed. someday i hope to be able to “rediscover” coffee as well – i do miss it!
heh… maybe you should add an option for a super jittery bug-eyed smiley emoticon!
Kudos to you, John, champion of the humble coffee-pot. That little streamlined scarlet baby in the photo takes me back to kitchens of yore. I look at it and smell the aromas of thousands of vanished mornings. But it’s really beautiful to boot – a masterpiece of understated elegant industrial design, functional to its core and pleasing in action (the merry dance and chuckle of almost boiling water). Strange how such a satisfying machine can almost disappear off the face of the earth, after ruling our stove tops for centuries.
Like everything else these days John….we bought into the Speed and Ease of using a Mr. Coffee or whatever variety we got….JUST so we could have our coffee Faster in the morning and God Forbid have to wait that extra few minutes for a TRUE Cup of Coffee…..Yep….that’s what’s wrong with the world today….well partially, we want everything right now…for very little effort or money….and that’s that!!
Perhaps we should just all slow down with an nice cup of freshly brewed coffee and resolve all the world’s problems…..Well – at least MY problems…and that’s good enough for right now……….Thanks for the idea!!
Hey Uncle Johnny! So I recently started cold brewing coffee and discovered it is by far the best way to make it. Although, come to think of it I’ve only used it to make iced drinks. Check it out on google sometime.
I really enjoy your blog. I feel like I really get to know more after so many years. Keep up the great writing.
Tina! Fantastic to hear from you, and thank you for the advice and the compliment. I’ll be in Austin the weekend of the 11-12th, maybe I’ll see ya. I dig being Uncle Johnny, BTW. Hah!
Hey John, I never left the old coffee pot but I toss the perc innards & do it by boiling water remove from heat & add coffee. The old “cowboy coffee”. Only gets bitter if you let it boil on reheating. I do use a French press at the workshop because I kept letting the pot boil dry & get nasty.